Sales Manager

The Sales Manager:
East and West Africa is accountable for delivering profitable, sustainable growth across the company's African markets. This is a highly visible, hands‑on commercial leadership role for an individual who is energised by travel, new-market development and building business across diverse African territories. The role combines leadership of the east and West Africa sales team with direct personal ownership of market expansion, strategic customer development and the opening of new countries, channels and accounts.

Travel is fundamental to the role: the incumbent is expected to spend a minimum of two weeks out of every month travelling and working in the African territory, with additional travel where business opportunities require it.

• Take overall accountability for sales, gross profit, market share and customer growth across the Africa region.
• Build and lead a high-performing sales team while remaining personally active in the market and with customers.
• Personally identify, enter and develop new African markets, taking opportunities from market assessment through to first customer wins and sustainable commercial growth.
• Expand Company's footprint by developing new customers, distributors, strategic partners and routes to market across priority African countries.
• Retain and grow strategic customers by acting as a trusted commercial and technical partner and identifying opportunities for deeper collaboration.
• Provide market, competitor and customer insight that supports Company's product, pricing and growth strategies.
• Develop and execute the Africa sales and market-development strategy in line with Company's overall growth objectives, with clear priorities by country, segment, channel and customer.
• Personally own the identification and opening of new African markets. Assess market attractiveness, customer potential, competitive dynamics, route-to-market options, regulatory or operational barriers, and the commercial case for entry.
• Create practical country-entry plans and convert them into action through in-market prospecting, customer visits, distributor/partner engagement, trials, commercial proposals and first sales.
• Build Company's presence in underdeveloped territory rather than relying only on the existing customer base or sales team pipeline.
• Maintain a disciplined pipeline of new-country, new-customer and strategic growth opportunities, with defined actions, owners, values and timelines.
• Recommend where Company should invest time and resources based on commercial potential and the probability of building a sustainable position.

• Act as a senior business developer in the field and personally pursue high-value prospects, strategic accounts and new-market opportunities.
• Generate opportunities proactively through market mapping, referrals, industry networks, trade events, targeted visits, distributor relationships and direct prospecting.
• Lead senior-level customer engagements, uncover customer needs and position Company's products and technical capabilities as commercially compelling solutions.
• Own opportunities from initial contact through qualification, technical engagement, trial, quotation, negotiation, commercial close and early-stage account development.
• Use value-selling principles to demonstrate measurable customer benefit rather than competing primarily on price.
• Take overall accountability for achievement of regional sales, gross profit and customer-growth targets, ensuring that individual team plans support the regional plan.
• Lead, coach, motivate, develop and retain the Africa Technical Sales Advisors, setting clear standards for activity, pipeline quality, customer coverage and commercial…