SOLAR LIGHTING & POWER EXECUTIVE REMUNERATION NEG. JOB

Our client, a well established international solar lighting & power company, is looking for an extremely experience VP to build an African sales team and create distribution partners throughout Africa.  Their customers are typically based in deep rural areas and you will create innovative marketing that generates product pull and creates a new and powerful brand.  This position will report directly into the CEO, and work closely with other executives to continuously launch affordable solar consumer products.

This position presents the opportunity to impact upon the lives of millions of families.  Our client’s mission is to enable households without reliable electricity to attain the same quality of life as those with electricity.  They aim to become the market leader in delivering safe and affordable solar lighting and power solutions to over 1 billion Africans who currently do not have access to electricity.

You are an extremely competent and motivated sales orientated executive who is eager to work in a fast paced and energetic, non-corporate environment.  You look forward to a long-term challenge building an Africa-wide enterprise.  You are confident in attaining results, have a track record of achievements, and will build a hands-on, results orientated culture.  You have managed the rapid distribution build-out and sales of consumer products across multiple countries in Africa.  You have participated in innovative and aggressive marketing campaigns with a limited budget.  You have delivered strong sales growth particularly in rural areas in Africa and have successfully contributed to building new brands in Africa by launching new consumer products in new product categories.



You are known for successfully closing sales, and have a minimum of 10 – 15 years experience executing sales and marketing initiatives in rural and semi-urban Africa.  You are extremely entrepreneurial in acquiring distribution partners and leveraging resources.  You are driven to succeed and willing to travel extensively and work long hours.  You are strongly motivated to improve the lives of millions of families with high hopes but little income.  You must be comfortable selling and marketing through various distribution channels simultaneously, including commercial distributors, corporate, NGOs, governments and microfinance organisations.  You will be expected to oversee a sales and marketing strategy that will lay the foundation for a pan-African brand.  Finally, you are a team builder, ready to build increasingly sophisticated multi-cultural sales teams and a leader who inspires others and acts at all times with the utmost honesty and integrity.

This position will be based in a key African city and will have the following responsibilities:
·         Create a comprehensive execution orientated 5 year sales and marketing strategy for Africa
·         Grow top-line sales and bottom line profitability for all products as per budget
·         Achieve mutually agreed and aggressive sales targets for new and existing product lines in countries with existing distributors, and create new national distributions in additional countries
·         Increase market share by expanding distribution networks and fill distribution gaps in both existing and new countries
·         Create and build scalable alternative sales channels that support distributor sales
·         Manage the launch, product life cycle, pricing, channel and promotional strategies for all products in Africa in alignment with global objectives
·         Develop a high functioning sales and marketing organisation
·         Deliver key financial metrics and manage a resource constrained budget
·         Oversee the development of the brand strategy and achieve brand awareness targets


If this sounds like the challenge for you, please email m.nicolay@alexanderhughes.com with a detailed CV and your contact details.