At Pula, we are radically restructuring agricultural insurance, using technology to insure the previously unbanked, uninsured, untapped market of 1.5 billion smallholders worldwide. We work in over 17 countries across Africa and Asia, and by 2021, we have facilitated crop insurance cover to over 5.3 million farmers across Kenya, India, Rwanda, Uganda, Nigeria, Mali, Senegal, Zambia, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Tanzania, and Malawi. Since raising our Series A, our operations have expanded globally including now Asia and Latin America.
Pula is a fast-paced space, constantly adapting to new opportunities and challenges and we are made up of a high-performance, multi-cultural team. We expect our team to value performance, results and professionalism.
We are recruiting to fill the position below:
Job Title: Manager / Senior Manager / Director - Commercial Sales (B2B & B2G)
Location: Abuja
What you will be Doing
Sales & Business Development:
- Commercial Objective Key Results: Defining Commercial Objective Key Results in your region and ownership of the results.
- Sales Plan Execution: Research, prepare, and execute a sales plan focused on delivering new and recurring revenues through partnerships with agro-input companies and the public sector.
- Pipeline Development: Develop pipeline and continuously mature & and qualify opportunities in order to increase Pula’s market share and to enable achievement of sales target.
- Lead Generation: Generating and qualifying new leads and using different approaches to penetrate prospective clients in your region.
- Sales Process Management: Progress prospects through a defined sales process to eventual contracting and implementation.
- Revenue Targets: Take ownership of the company's revenue targets and formulate strategies to achieve and exceed them. This includes setting clear sales goals, creating sales plans, and monitoring progress regularly.
Expanding your networks, influencing and Pula’s positioning in the region:
- Relationship Building (B2B & B2G): Constantly building deeply entrenched relationships(B2B & B2G) that will enable one to understand client needs, gather market intelligence, and build a credible pipeline of opportunities.
- Value Proposition Communication: Effectively communicate value propositions through presentations and proposal
- Spokesperson: Act as the Pula spokesperson in the region.
- Identify Pula’s USP: Using knowledge of the market and competitors in the regions, identify and develop the company’s unique selling propositions and differentiators.
Customer Relationship Management:
- Client Relationship Management: Manage and nurture existing client relationships across a wide range of stakeholders including commodity associations, farmers’ aggregators, insurers, and government and private companies.
- Customer Handover: Manage the handover of new customers to the operations team for the implementation of the solution.
For Success
Technical Must-Haves:
- A proven track record of high value sales: A minimum of 8 - 12 years of core selling experience as a hunter with extraordinary capability across B2B & B2G clients across the region.
- Minimum of 5 years selling to the public sector: You must have a proven track record of at least 4 - 5 years in sales to the public sector (B2G).
- Robust list of networks and relationships with key decision-makers and champions in the public sector: You should possess an extensive and influential network of relationships with key decision-makers and champions in the public sector.
- Experience motivating a government budget: You should have experience in influencing and motivating government budgets to support your initiatives.
- A driven go-getter who never gives up: We are seeking a highly motivated individual who relentlessly pursues opportunities and is not deterred by challenges. You must be willing to knock on any door to achieve your objectives.
- Series of successes closing high-value government deals: You should have a track record of successfully closing high-value government deals.
Nice-to-Haves:
- Experience selling a new solution: It would be advantageous if you have experience in selling innovative solutions.
- Someone who has tried to start their own business venture: Having entrepreneurial experience and understanding the challenges of starting a business venture is a plus.
Behavioral Must-Haves:
- Gravitas: Charming. Has a confident, comfortable presence. Can sit across from a PS or minister and hold his own and pitch without assistance.
- Street Smart: Can understand and map the stakeholders, identify and test champions, structure the deal, problem solve, and find another way when the deal gets stuck
- Communication: Can confidently convert information internally and externally adjusting quickly between written and verbal communication as situations call for it. Follows through on action points from conversations and can succinctly summarize the progress required to progress a sale.
- Persistence & Intensity: Hungry to close deals, has a point to prove and looks to prove that point at Pula. Builds their profile and therefore reputation around Pula and the Pula products. They do not want to fail therefore will do whatever it takes for Pula to succeed.
- Ownership: Capability to own and deliver sales targets end-end as an individual contributor.