Business Development Manager: Wholesale, Retail & Franchise - Johannesburg at Absa Group Limited (Absa)

Job Summary

• Responsible for supporting the Head of Wholesale, Retail and Franchise to position Absa as the preferred financial services provider in South Africa through thought leadership and interaction with relevant industry stakeholders and providing sector specific solutions by engaging with Coverage, Product, Credit and other SBUs within Absa. Further also to assist internal stakeholders to optimise client engagements and revenue growth as well as informing risk mitigation activities.

Job Description

Accountability:  Industry Excellence

• Investigate and stay abreast of all financial related products and solutions on offer to clients within the assigned industry.
• Identify and analyse opportunities and risks through interaction with strategic role players and stakeholders within the assigned industry/sector and provide ideas for new solutions and offerings to unlock the opportunity or fill the gaps.
• Identify Sector specific Products and/or Solutions that need to be developed, enhanced or bundled. This is done by conducting a Sectoral Client Needs Analysis, a Product/Solutions Gap Analysis for existing Products and a Solutions and Product Options Analysis.
• Assist Regional Relationship Executives with sector specific industry knowledge and expertise in preparation or during client engagement.
• Share best practice, trends and key learnings with peer group and management team within Centre of Excellence Franchise & Retail Sector Africa
• Identify opportunities within the sectoral industry value chain for growth opportunities, cross-selling and new innovation or solutioning opportunities.
• Identify strategic sub-sectors/brands within the sector in order to identify growth opportunities and risks.

Accountability:  Develop new Sector Specific Product and Potential Product or Solution Enhancements (Best Practises)

• Identify Sector specific Products and/or Solutions that need to be developed, enhanced or bundled. This is done by conducting a Sectoral Client Needs Analysis, a Product/Solutions Gap Analysis for existing Products and a Solutions and Product Options Analysis.
• Assist with the facilitation of interaction with impacted stakeholders to obtain all of the necessary information conduct the feasibility studies.
• Provide input to Product to compile and submit business cases for approval by the relevant New Product Approval committee.
• Engage with Product Specialists and Subject Matter Experts to ensure appropriate support during Sector specific product roll-out and execution of any marketing and communications campaigns.  

Accountability:  Lead Generation and Cross Selling

• Obtain lists of potential clients through interactions with various key industry stakeholders.
• Support the development and roll out of new business acquisition campaigns.
• Compile and submit a list of leads to Business Bank.
• Support the development and roll out of Cross Sell and Retention campaigns.
• Identify Sector/Brand specific Cross Selling opportunities by conducting a Gap Analysis of current Products used by Sectoral clients against typical Sector specific Products.
• Compile and submit a report detailing all of the possible Sector Cross Selling opportunities to Business Bank.
• Obtain regular feedback from regional managers on the successes or failures of the Cross Selling opportunities previously identified.

 Accountability:  Financial Performance (Book Analysis)

• Monitor and provide insights into the financial performance of the assigned Industry and Brands
• Assist in setting and monitoring industry specific financial targets
• Provide guidance and input with respect to poor performing clients/accounts with the goal of assisting to nurture them back to acceptable levels.
• Analyse industry/brand specific impairments and identify early warning signs for disastrous situations before they actually occur. Provide support, guidance and advice during the disaster situations to minimise the impact on Absa.

Accountability:  Networking & Relationship Building

• Build and maintain productive relationships with industry role players and other key stakeholders (both internally and externally)
• Develop comprehensive client relationship management plans for all key industry stakeholders.
• Develop and maintain database of all relevant external and internal stakeholders
• Identify opportunities to share information with external stakeholders (thought leadership)
• Provide regular updates to the Business Bank on the solutioning and business enablement activities as well as performance.

Accountability:  Support of Industry Affiliated Regional Managers & Relationship Executives

• Operationalise the engagement strategy across all coverage/acquisition models
• Up-skill and train frontline sales force in respect of the Industry/brand CVP
• Provide industry knowledge and insights to industry Affiliated Regional Managers & Relationship Executives.
• Assist with the integration of Regional Managers into industry networks. This will also include strategic stakeholder and industry body management.
• Assist the Regional Relationship Executives in with client retention activities.
• Assist Regional Relationship Executives in ensuring that clients are optimally solutioned.

In colaboration with the Regional Relationship Executives:

• assist/work with Credit to mitigate sector risk,
• assist with matrix management of dynamics between Sector, Product and Coverage,
• monitor affiliated sectors/brand profitability and growth,
• assist with regional industry specific growth, cross-sell and retention campaigns
• assist in the development delivery of clients specific Pitches.

Education

• Bachelor`s Degrees and Advanced Diplomas: Business, Commerce and Management Studies (Required)