Business Development Manager – Africa Diversification

Location: Johannesburg / Gauteng, with travel across Africa as required
Department: Sales / New Business Development
Reports to: Regional Director – Africa
Employment Type: Permanent
Salary: Up to R65,000 CTC per month, depending on experience and fit

About the Role

An established international services organisation is seeking an experienced and entrepreneurial Business Development Manager – Africa Diversification to identify, develop and convert new revenue opportunities across African markets.

This is not a traditional account management or straightforward sales position. The successful candidate will be responsible for identifying new markets, customer segments, partnerships and revenue streams, developing commercially viable propositions and converting opportunities into sustainable business.

The role requires someone who can recognise opportunities within existing assets, operational capabilities and customer relationships and develop these into new commercial propositions. This may include opportunities involving property utilisation, business hubs, secure workspace, storage, logistics support, relocation services, records management, infrastructure and other value-added B2B services.

The successful candidate will work across countries, functions and service lines and will engage extensively with senior internal stakeholders, customers, entrepreneurs, SMEs, corporates, business communities and strategic partners.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Business Development & Market Creation

• Identify priority African markets, customer segments, commercial opportunities and strategic partnerships that support diversification and sustainable revenue growth.
• Research and assess emerging market opportunities and identify areas where existing capabilities can be commercialised in new ways.
• Develop and execute targeted market-entry and prospecting strategies.
• Build a strong, qualified pipeline of new business and diversification opportunities.
• Proactively engage entrepreneurs, SMEs, corporates, business communities, channel partners and other potential customers.
• Identify new customer needs and translate these into commercially viable solutions.
• Develop opportunities from initial market discovery and prospecting through to proposal, negotiation and conversion.
• Establish long-term commercial relationships that create recurring revenue opportunities.
• Represent the organisation professionally at customer meetings, networking forums, industry events and relevant business communities.

Diversification & New Revenue Streams

• Identify opportunities to utilise existing property, infrastructure, operational capabilities and customer relationships to create additional revenue streams.
• Support the development and expansion of business-hub and ecosystem-based commercial opportunities across selected African markets.
• Develop customer propositions incorporating services such as:
  • Secure business or operational space
  • Storage solutions
  • Logistics support
  • Relocation services
  • Records and information management
  • Meeting and workspace facilities
  • Infrastructure support
  • Other complementary value-added services
• Identify opportunities to bundle services into integrated customer solutions.
• Develop propositions that encourage customers and business partners to utilise multiple services as their businesses grow.
• Identify opportunities for cross-selling and longer-term customer development.
• Evaluate pilot initiatives and recommend improvements that can support repeatable and scalable commercial models.

Commercial Development

• Prepare compelling customer proposals, presentations and commercial recommendations.
• Develop business cases for new opportunities and diversification initiatives.
• Contribute to pricing strategies and commercial modelling.
• Assess the financial and operational viability of potential opportunities.
• Work with finance, operations, property and leadership teams to determine feasibility, customer demand, service requirements and expected commercial returns.
• Support agreed revenue, margin and activity targets.
• Ensure opportunities are appropriately assessed for commercial and operational risk.
• Progress opportunities in accordance with internal approval and governance requirements.
• Monitor market response, customer feedback and conversion rates to guide future investment and proposition development.

Pipeline Management & CRM

• Maintain an accurate and well-qualified sales and opportunity pipeline.
• Record prospecting activity, opportunities, progress, next actions and conversion status accurately within the CRM system.
• Use sales and pipeline data to prioritise activities and forecast potential revenue.
• Maintain strong follow-up discipline throughout the business development cycle.
• Provide regular reporting on:
  • Pipeline health
  • Revenue opportunities
  • Conversion progress
  • Commercial risks
  • Competitor activity
  • Market intelligence
  • Recommended next steps
• Maintain high standards of CRM data quality and commercial documentation.

Stakeholder & Partnership Management

• Develop trusted relationships with senior stakeholders across multiple African markets.
• Work collaboratively with country leadership, operational teams, sales, finance, property and other internal stakeholders.
• Build strong external relationships with corporates, SMEs, entrepreneurs, business communities, local networks and strategic partners.
• Collaborate across different service lines to develop integrated solutions that address customer requirements.
• Work with marketing and communications teams to develop targeted campaigns, customer messaging and local market engagement initiatives.
• Influence stakeholders across different functions, cultures and geographical regions.
• Act as a strong ambassador for the organisation's Africa growth and diversification strategy.

Candidate Profile

We are looking for a commercially astute, entrepreneurial business developer who is comfortable creating opportunities where an established sales model may not yet exist.

The successful candidate should be able to move comfortably between strategic market development and hands-on business development, from identifying an opportunity and developing the commercial proposition through to prospecting, presenting, negotiating and closing.

This position will particularly suit someone who enjoys developing new markets, new customer segments, partnerships and alternative revenue streams rather than simply managing an existing customer portfolio.

Essential Experience

Candidates should demonstrate:

• Proven experience in business development, strategic new business development, consultative sales, commercial partnerships or market development.
• A strong track record of personally creating pipeline and converting opportunities into revenue.
• Demonstrated experience identifying and developing new markets, customer segments, propositions or diversified revenue streams.
• Strong commercial acumen and the ability to assess whether opportunities are commercially viable.
• Experience developing customer proposals, presentations and business cases.
• Experience engaging and influencing senior decision-makers and commercial stakeholders.
• Strong negotiation capability.
• Ability to manage opportunities through the full business development lifecycle.
• Experience working collaboratively across operational, financial and commercial functions.
• Strong CRM and pipeline-management discipline.
• Confidence using sales information and commercial data to prioritise activities and forecast opportunities.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong presentation and influencing capability.

Preferred Industry Background

Candidates from the following sectors will be particularly relevant:

• Logistics
• Relocation / mobility services
• Storage and warehousing
• Records or information management
• Property services
• Serviced offices / flexible workspace
• Facilities management
• Business services
• Outsourced services
• Supply chain-related services
• Broader B2B service environments

Candidates from adjacent industries may also be considered where they can demonstrate strong experience in strategic market development, solution-based B2B selling and the creation of new commercial revenue streams.

Africa / Cross-Border Exposure

Experience operating across African or other emerging markets is highly advantageous.

The successful candidate should be comfortable:

• Working across different countries and cultures.
• Building relationships with geographically dispersed stakeholders.
• Understanding differing local market conditions.
• Identifying commercial opportunities in developing or evolving markets.
• Working effectively across regional and country leadership structures.
• Travelling when required to develop opportunities and stakeholder relationships.

Key Competencies

• Strategic business development
• New market development
• Commercial awareness
• Opportunity identification
• Consultative and solution selling
• Pipeline development
• Commercial negotiation
• Partnership development
• Stakeholder management
• Business case development
• Proposal development
• Market analysis
• Planning and organisation
• CRM discipline
• Presentation and influencing skills
• Cross-functional collaboration

Personal Attributes

The successful candidate should be:

• Entrepreneurial – able to identify commercial potential where others may not immediately see it.
• Commercially minded – able to balance customer opportunity with revenue, margin and operational viability.
• Curious and opportunity-driven – interested in understanding markets, customers and emerging business needs.
• Strategic yet hands-on – comfortable developing a strategy and then personally driving the activity required to deliver it.
• Resilient and determined – able to manage rejection and lengthy business development cycles while maintaining momentum.
• Confident – comfortable engaging senior executives and decision-makers.
• Analytical – capable of evaluating opportunities and making commercially sound recommendations.
• Collaborative – able to work effectively with multiple internal functions and stakeholders.
• Culturally sensitive – able to build relationships across different African markets and business environments.
• Solution-oriented – focused on developing practical and commercially viable solutions.
• Highly organised – able to manage multiple markets, prospects and opportunities simultaneously.
• Professional and discreet – demonstrating high levels of integrity, confidentiality and sound judgement.

What Will Define a Strong Candidate?

The strongest candidates will be able to demonstrate that they have previously:

• Opened or developed new markets.
• Created new revenue streams rather than only inherited existing accounts.
• Identified new customer segments or commercial opportunities.
• Built qualified pipelines from the ground up.
• Developed commercially viable new propositions or solutions.
• Established strategic partnerships.
• Personally progressed opportunities through to negotiation and closure.
• Worked with senior stakeholders and decision-makers.
• Operated across multiple regions, countries or African markets.
• Sold complex B2B services or integrated solutions rather than purely transactional products.
• Created sustainable, recurring customer relationships and revenue.

Important

This appointment is focused on quality rather than volume. We are seeking highly aligned candidates with genuine strategic business development capability and evidence of successfully creating and converting new commercial opportunities.

Candidates whose experience is predominantly account management, relationship maintenance or transactional sales without demonstrated new-market or new-revenue development experience are unlikely to be suitable.

Salary: Up to R65,000 CTC per month, dependent on experience and overall fit.