Commercial Director at Engie Africa

Reporting Line: Managing Director

Job Overview

• The Commercial Director will play a critical role in ENGIE Energy Access Nigeria (EEAN). As Commercial Director, you are responsible for developing and implementing Sales, Marketing & Business Development (Partnerships) strategies to accelerate growth with our current and new, while maintaining strong customer repayments.
• You are also expected to identify new commercial opportunities, manage marketing efforts and coordinate the execution of market research and analysis to create business plans based on commercial opportunities.

Key Responsibilities

• Set and manage the overarching strategic direction, priorities and focus areas for sales commercial (sales, marketing and business development), cascading and ensuring alignment throughout EEAN
• Manage consolidated country P&L commercial performance (primarily revenue and gross profit), with a secondary focus on driving overall EBITDA (given sales team core responsibilities for credit, product, operations, and CX outcomes)
• Where the country is underperforming on sales and commercial targets, manage turnaround efforts to remediate performance
• Establish a best-in-class commercial operating model, with a high-impact and right-sized organizational structure, tools, reports, standards and systems
• Lead our go-to-market strategy through understanding our customers, the market and competitive landscape then determining competitive positioning with regards to products, prices, channels and locations
• Develop and lead a team a commercial team (including State Managers) on a local, regional and national level, with full responsibility for the team’s workplan, coaching and professional development
• Lead and oversee strategic projects to improve commercial performance

Detailed Responsibilities
Strategy, Planning & Budgeting (10%):

• Set and manage the overarching strategic direction, priorities and focus areas for commercial across EEAN over the short, medium and long-term
• Develop the commercial strategy to drive efficient customer acquisition and revenuegrowth throughout EEAN, including directly owning key inputs with our go-to-market strategy (locations, distribution channels, marketing, partnerships etc.) and collaborating cross-functionally to determine other key strategic inputs (e.g. product, pricing, CX, etc.)
• Ensure regions have localised strategies in line with the country strategy and have robust plans to deliver the country targets, including allocating sufficient investment and resources to reliably execute
• As part of the management team, provide thought partnership for cross-functional leads, provide input into strategies, act as a key stakeholder on cross-functional decisions and ensure that core commercial and enabling functions align with the sales strategy
• Develop the sales, marketing and business development team budgets, and track departmental expenditures, financial goals and budgets
• Where required, both lead and oversee strategic commercial projects to drive sales growth across EEAN

Governance, Reporting, Analytics & Performance Management (40%):

• Continuously manage country P&L performance, including:
• Primary focus on revenue (though sales volumes, kit mix and price), gross profit (through maximizing sales of higher margin withs with a lower COGS) and cost of sale
• Secondary focus on EBITDA, given sales team core responsibilities for credit, product, operations, and CX outcomes
• Set the overarching sales target setting process, approve regional sales targets
• Oversee the development of reports, analysis and insights for financial performance and other operational KPIs for sales (per sales manager / agent, active agents) and marketing (brand health, marketing spend, referrals, etc.)
• Establish the overarching governance framework to track performance against commercial goals, lead national ] governance forums and hold State Managers and other departments accountable for results and plans
• Where there is underperformance, provide hands-on support to turnaround and make key decisions to remediate performance
• Continuously monitor performance of other key functions that drive sales, including
• product, pricing, sales, distribution, portfolio health, customer experience, software, and service with potential partners, working with them to take remediation action to address underperformance

Commercial Operations (30%):

• Lead and manage development of a robust sales operating model, including:
• Develop procedures and policies for core sales operations functions (lead and opportunity management; recruitment and training, tools of trade, incentives, size and structure, government reporting and performance management etc.)
• Implement procedures and policies throughout the sales function, monitor and ensure compliance, continually test and improve
• Lead and manage marketing operations, including:
• Lead market research, including the market and competitive landscape to identify analyze threats and opportunities
• Segment EEA Nigeria’s customers and develop tailored strategies to target
• Identify trends in customer behavior closely following sales, product usage, customer retention, upgrades and competitors, leveraging this data to enhance our commercial strategy
• Supervise all marketing channels and methods to ensure appropriate information is effectively communicated to external audiences (including leading campaigns)
• Establish and manage external partnerships, including negotiating ongoing contracts with suppliers and customers; managing and reviewing contracts and making recommendations regarding commerciality.

Leadership, Management & Culture (20%):

• Develop and lead a team of sales and commercial managers and analysts, including full responsibility for coaching and their professional development
• Manage the team’s work plan and workload to ensure delivery of agreed goals
• Help recruit, collaborate with, coordinate and train diverse teams such as Marketing and especially field sales and credit teams.
• Provide strong leadership, management and coaching for regional sales teams, including with support to other members of the Management Team

Required Skills & Experience

• Minimum of 12 years’ experience in progressive business leadership experience, with 3+ years leading a Commercial function (particularly FMCGs, MNOs & financial institutions)
• Strong commercial capability across sales and marketing (particularly in B2C), with a demonstrated history of leading and delivering strong commercial results
• Outstanding leadership, having led large field-based sales teams and the ability to create a performance culture with strong governance, accountability and results
• Strong understanding of the Nigeria commercial environment, ideally with time spent in various regions throughout Nigeria
• General strategic, analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to set and communicate the strategic vision for commercial throughout the organization
• Ability to lead high-impact cross-functional strategic commercial projects end to end (including planning, analysis, conclusions and implementation) to achieve results
• Exceptional judgement and decision-making skills, with the ability to independently assess and take action to achieve results
• Outstanding stakeholder engagement and communication skills, with the ability to develop relationships with key functional leads (especially Customer Finance, Customer Experience and Operations) but also with external strategic commercial partners
• Demonstrated passion for our mission, values and customers!

Manager Expectations:

• At EEA, we have high expectations for our managers. Each manager plays a key role in creating an exceptional experience not only for our customers but for every person on our team. Our managers help EEA realize our ambitious goals while developing their own leadership skills and facilitating growth for their direct reports.

We believe that great managers:

• Get things done, and are highly productive and results-oriented
• Empower their team members to own their work and challenge them to achieve more than they thought possible
• Communicate and collaborate effectively both within and across teams, listening and sharing information
• Know and care about their team members, help them to use their strengths at work, invest in their professional development, and prioritize feedback
• Live by the company values and mission, lead others to do the same, and create an inclusive and equitable environment
• Make the vision and strategy clear, and translate them into clear plans and expectations for the team and team members operate transparently and with accountability, and hold others accountable