New Business Development Manager at Vector Logistics

Job Purpose

• To develop and implement a strategy for growing our client's profitability through the expansion of new channels.

Key Responsibilities

New Business Development Strategy Formulation and Implementation:

• Formulate short- and long-term (3-year) strategies to deliver sustainable, profitable growth within a new customer base.
• Prioritise products and initiatives by new business opportunity on the basis of demand.
• Ensure alignment across other channels and with the supply side of the business.
• Participate in the S&OP product forecast process to drive improved forecast accuracy.
• Determine the tone and direction the new business development team takes in its approach to working with possible and newly established key customers.
• Drive the achievement of targeted sales growth.
• Evaluate and monitor competitors and their activities and formulate proactive responses when required.
• Perform rigorous product/channel analysis and allocate budget accordingly.
• Work collaboratively across cross-functional teams to align demand and supply across the Company.
• Drive the achievement of SIA targets.
• Participate in the commercial planning process through the development of an annual new customer business plan that supports brand and channel plans.
• Seek out and pursue line extensions, new channels and new business.
• Manage and penetrate new business channels at all levels, develop relationships that enable the achievement of customer plans and objectives and lead all cross-functional team activities related to such accounts.
• Evaluate and expand export opportunities, leveraging SA retailers, wholesalers and distributors in foreign countries.
• Assess and convert expansion opportunities as well as new BOP distribution models.

Market Research:

• Conduct ongoing research and market assessments regarding the economic conditions across all possible new channels within the broad sector including future industry and consumer trends and competition.
• Conduct regular reviews of new business performance and promotion strategies.
• Analyse and track new market, customer and channel trends and in-market measures at the customer and channel level, such as distribution, share, price, and merchandising performance.
• Identify likely sales points.
• Develop and maintain product knowledge across new channels and products to ensure ongoing alignment.

New Business Operationalisation:

• Make presentations to and negotiate with prospective new business.
• Estimate market values and conditions to determine appropriate time, place, type of launch.
• Develop the preliminary business case to support investment, including pricing strategy and new business model requirements.
• Obtain commercial input for all new initiatives and future rollouts.
• Obtain Capex motivations to support sustainable investment.
• Report and provide recommendations regarding new product/customer/ market profitability.
• Develop business propositions and budgets for Board approval.
• Develop proposals, negotiate terms and conditions, and implement contractual agreements for new accounts with accountability for delivering strong financial results.
• Drive reporting and post implementation reviews to the business.

Account Management:

• Ensure that all new business accounts are profitably serviced in order for the Company to achieve sales and revenue goals.
• Analyse sales statistics to determine new business growth potential.
• Plot the annual and long-term objectives for new accounts and ensure all volume, distribution and profit targets are met.
• Collaborate with the marketing team to develop and implement campaigns to suit the new channels.
• Coordinate multi-disciplinary teams to ensure smooth and efficient operations and delivery of all services to new customers. This includes product development, demand plotting, production plotting and delivering products.

New Product Development:

• Drive the collaboration with the R&D and marketing teams to identify a robust pipeline of new products where required for new customers and channels.
• Work closely with the balance of the business to develop the appropriate ranges to satisfy the new channels.

Reporting:

• Provide monthly feedback to the Board indicating profitability of new channels and business.

Client Relationship Management:

• Manage all aspects of new business profiles, including short term performance and forecasts.
• Develop and maintain strong work relationships with key opinion leaders in the existing and new markets to inform future planning and sales focus.
• Drive the awareness and understanding of new customers’ budgets, goals, strategies, needs and the impact.
• Drive the nature and extent of all communications with new customers.
• Manage client utilisation and product adoption rates through new business opportunities.
• Drive multi-disciplinary teams to provide new customers with market intelligence and other value-added services.

Channel Planning and Execution:

• Lead an annual planning process to create customer-specific promotional plans that support annual brand plans.
• Participate in determining annual marketing and channel objectives and strategies and advertising and promotion spend.
• Lead channel performance reviews.
• Estimate ROI for key channel initiatives and evaluate plans post-execution.

Pricing Management:

• Participate in setting new product pricing to extract maximum value for new customers.
• Track brand and competitive price across customers within existing and new channels.
• Recommend pricing corrections and adjustments where required to sustain new business development.
• Understand how customer spending is allocated.
• Recommend ongoing improvements and pricing innovation to create greater value across new customers and channels.

Financial Management:

• Recommend base and stretch financial goals for the new business development team.
• Manage and control the new business sales budget.
• Understand key drivers of profit and loss and actively support the achievement of financial targets including driving profitable product mix across new channels or at a customer level, maximising profitability, and identifying further business opportunities.
• Identify business risks to achieving sales targets within new channels and business.

Staff Management:

• Lead and develop staff within the context of the Labour Relations Act, Employment Equity Act, Basic Conditions of Employment Act and the Skills Development Act.
• Monitor staff performance and provide regular feedback.
• Manage staff activities, ensuring service levels are met and protocols are adhered to.
• Coach and support staff where necessary to achieve objectives.
• Manage staff leave and general time management issues in line with organisational deliverables and standards.
• Manage and deliver on succession plans to enable the development of a future generation of leaders and specialists and ensure optimal turnover and retention levels are maintained.
• Champion staff training and development through the utilisation of available training opportunities or contributing to the development of new training solutions in collaboration with national training specialists.
• Conduct regular performance appraisals with subordinates.
• Establish sound staff and labour organising and communication structures and systems.
• Lead the team towards meeting the strategy and targets through regular communication and utilisation of the full organisational talent management tool set.
• Drive employment equity within the team to ensure that diversity is achieved at all levels and that statutory targets and requirements are met.
• Develop and manage high performance multidisciplinary teams in order to solve problems within the Food Services market.
• Conduct regular meetings and ensure that records are kept and shared across the team and that action plans agreed to within team meetings are delivered upon.

Key Relationships

Internal:

• R&D.
• Broader customer and marketing teams.
• Food Solutions.
• Sales Commercial.
• S&OP participants.
• Marketing.
• Vector.
• Board.

External:

• Potential customers, entrepreneurs and markets.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience Required for the Job

Qualifications and Experience

• Degree in management, business administration and/or marketing.
• Valid Code EB driver's licence.
• 8 to 10 years' experience in opening revenue channels and closing sales.
• Previous track record in the delivery of new channel or business opportunities.

Skills and Competencies

• Planning and organisation.
• Negotiation and deal closure.
• Relationship building.
• Project management.
• Computer literacy (MS Office and SAP).
• Verbal and written communication.
• Report writing.
• Interpersonal.
• Logical thinking.
• Innovative thinking.
• Problem solving.
• Critical thinking.
• Decision-making.
• Analytical and evaluative thinking.
• Achieving sales, profitability, and budget goals.
• Implementation of sales and marketing strategies.