General Manager Commercial at BSI

Responsibilities & Accountabilities

• Lead the South Africa Assurance Sales Team, creating an inclusive, collaborative, and high-performance culture.
• A member of the IMETA Commercial Leadership team collaborating and contributing to the leadership of the business and delivery of it’s strategy 
• Understand the full products and services portfolio (testing, assessment & certification, training and software tools) offered by the business, contributing to its ongoing development
• Identify and target key prospect organisations within chosen markets, to create relationships and secure new business
• Manage relationships with major clients, including international collaboration, to retain/renew existing business and add incremental business
• Work closely with the Head of Marketing to co-ordinate to ensure sales and marketing strategies are aligned. Ensure marketing activity is optimised, including sales leads delivered for Assurance products and services, ensuring transparency of lead source to determine future activity and investment.
• Manage the sales pipeline of leads from Marketing/Business Development and other sources across the business, qualifying and pursuing opportunities that are both attractive and can be won, together with retaining existing business and maximising upsell opportunities across out client portfolio.
• Oversee the bids & tenders’ activity, reviewing client feedback and market intelligence to drive improvements in process and increased conversion rates
• Oversee the development and maintenance of a sales talent pipeline within the external employment market to minimise impact to the business when vacancies arise
• Leadership, development, and retention of the South Africa Sales Leadership Team (Training Sales Manager). Ensuring continuous talent and succession planning, career paths and growth opportunities for Sales colleagues in South Africa.
• Develop a high performing sales team by selecting the best talent, setting high expectations and coaching employees to achieve greatness
• Identify market opportunities by identifying client requirements; competitor's share, and competitor's strengths and weaknesses; forecasting projected business growth; establishing targeted market share
• Lead the daily sales operations to ensure compliance to governance procedures, ensuring appropriate transparency, consistency, timeliness, and compliance to all policies and procedures,
• Develop and agree baseline performance targets (Budget, F1, F2 and F3) together with the IMETA CD, South Africa FD and Business stream directors in line with agreed business strategy and wider BSI performance expectations.
• Develop and agree accurate financial trading forecasts together with CD and all functional areas, taking responsibility for meeting expectations of forecast accuracy
• Manage the accurate creation and timely reporting and analysis of business sales performance. Ensure accurate up to date usage of SFDC team to optimise activity and develop the pipeline reporting for improved forecast accuracy.      
• Maintain a balanced sales portfolio including supporting the successful launch of new products and services  
• Develop and leverage relationships with the wider Sales organisation within BSI including the Assurance stream (regional teams) and the Commercial team to optimise Sales activity and share best practice.    
• Contribute to the development and implementation of the business strategy and multi-year plan, providing commercial thought leadership.

Travel requirements: 

• Regular travel to Client Sites and Industry events

To be successful in the role, you will have: 

• Experience of running a large commercial sales team and business unit, including P&L responsibility and commercial financial acumen
• Commercial understanding and experience of working closely with the marketing function, including an appreciation of campaign planning and execution through multiple channels, including digital
• Communication and networking skills
• Relationship building skills
• Influencing and negotiating skills
• Strategic thinking
• Leadership & engagement skills
• Demonstratable influencing and management skills
• Effective verbal and written communication skills and an eye for detail
• Self-motivated, flexible, and have excellent time management/planning skills
• Able to work under pressure
• Willing to travel on business
• An enthusiastic and committed team player
• Strategic and long term thought leadership, combined with an active, hands-on, and organized approach
• Proven leadership ability to influence, develop, and empower employees to achieve objectives with a team approach
• A willingness to embrace and lead change in an exciting innovative business