Internal Sales Executive - Durban at Pacific International Line(PIL)

• We’re seeking a a proactive Internal Sales Executive to manage inbound and outbound sales, develop qualified leads, prepare quotations, and support customer retention and portfolio growth. You’ll collaborate closely with external sales, pricing, and trade teams to drive a strong pipeline, accurate rate submissions, and a balanced customer mix aligned with our commercial strategy.

Key Responsibilities:

Sales Support, Lead Development & Prospecting

• Manage a defined sales portfolio covering both import and export customers to ensure balanced growth across trades.
• Own the sales process from initial customer engagement through quotation and RFA submission under agreed commercial guidelines.
• Respond to and qualify inbound enquiries while maintaining a structured outbound telesales and prospecting plan to support new business generation and portfolio diversification.
• Promote and sell PIL’s core ocean products together with value-added services including intermodal transport solutions, cross-border TBL and container protection offerings.
• Ensure all sales activity, opportunities, quotations and customer engagement are accurately captured within the CRM system to support pipeline visibility, forecasting accuracy and performance monitoring.

Booking, Allocation & Space Management Support

• Support customers with the placement of bookings in line with available capacity.
• Monitor booking performance against agreed allocations and proactively highlight shortfalls, upside opportunities or risks for follow-up with relevant stakeholders.
• Take responsibility for daily monitoring of booked tonnage on all services to maximise space utilisation. Where capacity constraints occur, coordinate additional space requests with other branches. Where available space exceeds bookings, escalate to the National Sales Manager and ensure the capacity is promoted nationally across all three branches.
• Assist with coordination of approvals for special cargo including hazardous and out-of-gauge when required through the appropriate internal channels.
• Support internal reporting on space utilisation, allocation performance and booking trends to assist commercial decision-making.

Pipeline Management & CRM Discipline

• Ensure disciplined CRM usage and high standards of data quality to support business intelligence and decision-making.
• Maintain regular structured engagement with assigned portfolio accounts to support loyalty and business continuity.
• Actively develop new accounts to increase the number of active customers managed within the portfolio.
• Manage allocated sales leads within agreed timelines, tracking conversion activity and outcome status through CRM.

Commercial Coordination & Market Intelligence

• Engage with Trade and Pricing teams on rate requests, approvals and commercial opportunities to support competitive and profitable quotations.
• Share timely market intelligence including rate trends, demand developments and competitor activity to support informed decision-making.
• Contribute towards the delivery of branch and national commercial performance targets through revenue, volume and portfolio growth.

Operational & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with the Customer Service department to ensure that customer feedback, concerns and requirements are actioned promptly and effectively, and that insights are shared both ways to continuously improve service delivery.
• Collaborate proactively with the Equipment department to ensure availability of containers to support confirmed and forecasted bookings, and to identify and resolve any potential equipment supply risks in advance.
• Maintain effective working relationships with internal departments to ensure that customer commitments are fully understood and supported operationally.

Governance, Data & Compliance

• Ensure all customer onboarding documentation is obtained and processed in accordance with company requirements and approval procedures.
• Maintain accurate and current customer records across all applicable systems and platforms.
• Ensure high standards of data integrity, compliance and confidentiality are maintained at all times.

Core Knowledge, Skills & Experience

• Relevant experience in shipping, liner agency, or logistics is preferred.
• Proven capability in inside sales, telesales or sales support roles.
• Strong commercial awareness and relationship-building capability.
• High level of proficiency in CRM platforms and Microsoft Office tools.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with strong attention to detail and process discipline.

Personal Attributes

• Customer-focused and commercially driven with a strong sense of ownership.
• Disciplined, organised and able to manage multiple priorities in a dynamic environment.
• Collaborative team player with strong interpersonal and influencing skills.
• Analytical mindset with the ability to interpret data and support decision-making.
• High levels of integrity, professionalism and accountability.