Inactive

Sun King

Off-grid solar home systems provider

Regional Business Manager

Field SalesPosted on Sep 16

Full-timeAddis Ababa, EthiopiaNo salary listedIn-person

About the Job

Requirements

A degree in a business-related field or equivalent, and at least 6 years of hands-on sales experience.
Comprehensive computer knowledge, including Excel and PowerPoint.
Fluency in English, Amharic, and local languages.
Ability to motivate a high-performing sales team and ensure performance.
Innovative thinking and cost-consciousness.
Planning, organizing, prioritizing, maximizing value, and maintaining a big-picture perspective.
Ability to develop and build internal and external relationships.
Operational excellence, including keeping promises, attention to detail, seeking information, and delivering excellent customer satisfaction.

Responsibilities

Guide sales, collections, and business operations for the assigned region's direct distribution network for Pay-As-You-Go solar products.
Hire, retain, and motivate the regional team, typically comprising Area Business Managers, store executives, and Energy Officers.
Train Area Business Managers on sales, collections, products, technical matters, inventory, and logistics.
Ensure the regional team is aligned, professionally managed, and demonstrates integrity and professionalism with customers.
Clarify daily tasks, sales and collection plans, routes, targets, product demonstrations, and customer-query resolution processes for Area Business Managers, Regional Mentors, and store executives.
Maintain weekly touchpoints with every Area Business Manager and the top 10 Energy Officers in each area; resolve issues and report them to the manager.
Accompany Area Business Managers and Energy Officers on fieldwork, including the first ten sales by each Area Business Manager, and provide sales and collection training.
Conduct night and market activations and visit local communities, savings and credit cooperatives, self-help groups, retail centers, and markets to generate group sales.
Meet or exceed monthly sales and collection targets agreed with sales supervisors.
Provide daily and weekly updates on sales, Energy Officer recruitment, customer issues and resolutions, and preparations for new-area launches.
Review sales and collection progress with Area Business Managers daily and train them to improve collections through customer and area profiling, timely follow-ups, issue resolution, and system repossession as a last resort for defaults.
Monitor competitors and take measures to protect and grow the business in the region.
Work with management to strengthen the brand's position in solar products in the area.
Resolve customer issues involving product delivery, product-use and payment training, installation, and after-sales warranty matters.
Establish expectations and processes with Energy Officers to resolve customer issues within 24 hours.
Provide marketing support and necessary equipment, such as smartphones, to areas, and maximize return on investment for marketing, supply chain, store maintenance, and smartphone issuance.
Ensure Area Business Managers hold periodic review meetings with their Energy Officers and conduct surprise visits to assess sales processes and standards.
Recognize outstanding performers and maintain regional team motivation.

Job Location: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

About The Role:

The Regional Business Manager will guide sales, collections and entire business operations in the region they are assigned to for the direct distribution of Sun King Solar products sold on a Pay-As-You-Go basis (also called and recognized as the "EasyBuy" Business unit). This is done through an extensive network of agents called “Energy Officers” who visit door-to-door and sell. EasyBuy technology and services allow customers to purchase units by paying for their Solar products in small instalments, thus ensuring they are highly affordable for off-grid or rural customers.

The Regional Business Manager is ultimately accountable for generating sales, ensuring collections are timely and accurate and keeping the entire direct distribution network growing rapidly in a sustainable manner, with the help of his
team that typically consists of Area Business Managers, Sun King Store Executives, and Energy Officers of the region.

Hire, retain and motivate the entire regional team for the best performance:

The Regional Business Manager’s team typically consists of Area Business Managers, Sun King Executives, and Energy Officers (there may be some variations based on the region).
The Regional Business Manager is expected to ensure they create a world-class winning team in their regions that is disciplined, process-oriented, and devoted to delivering the best customer experience.

Training:

Provide training to the Area Business Managers on several aspects of the business such as sales, collections, product, technical, inventory and logistics related.
Ensure they are fully aligned and managed professionally, demonstrating the highest integrity, ethics, and professionalism while dealing with Sun King customers.
Provide role clarity to Area Business Managers, Regional Mentors, and Sun King Store Executives:
Provide complete clarity to the regional team related to their day-to-day tasks, sales & collections plans, routes and targets. This includes ensuring that your sales team has a pre-settled sales route/area to sell in, they acknowledge how to demonstrate and sell Sun King products, they have the confidence to be able to present and resolve basic customer queries on the spot, and they have access to Regional Business Manager at all times in case of questions and concerns.

Field visits:

Have a weekly touchpoint with every Area Business Manager and Top 10 Energy Officers in each area – either through in-person meetings, making a joint sale or having a call. Every week, resolve all possible issues faced by the Energy Officers and report them to your Regional Business Manager.
Ensure that the first ten sales of each Area Business Manager are done along with the Regional Business Manager in the area and some Energy Officers to ensure that each Area Business Manager fully acknowledges the core sales and collection process.
Conduct Joint Fieldwork with Area Business Managers:
Conduct joint fieldwork with Energy Officers to provide weekly sales and collection training and drive Field Service Executives' engagement. This includes doing night activations, market activations, visiting local communities and gatherings such as SACCOs, Self Help groups, retail centers and markets to make group sales.

Exceed your sales & collections targets:

Meet or exceed sales and collection targets established and consented upon on the 2nd of every month with your sales supervisors.
Provide daily, and weekly updates on sales, Energy Officer recruitments, customer issues and resolutions, and New Area Launch preparations as expected and aligned with your Manager.
Drive robust field sales processes:
Review sales and collection progress with your Area Business Managers daily and provide adequate training to drive better collections in your areas. This includes customer and area profiling, ensuring regular and timely collection follow-ups, resolving customer issues to ensure they make payments, and repossessing the systems as a last recourse if the customer defaults.

Remain externally focused:

Keep an eye on the market within your region and ensure you take adequate measures to protect and grow our business from rival pressures.
Engage the management team and take measures to ensure Sun King remains a paramount brand name in solar products for your area.
Resolve customer issues: Provide world-class assistance to your customers regarding product delivery, training on how to use and make payments, installation, and after-sales warranty issues.
Ensure that you work with your Energy Officers to establish clear expectations and processes to resolve all customer issues within 24 hours.
Control Marketing and Other spend: Provide adequate marketing assistance and equipment (such as smartphones) necessary to all your Areas. Ensure we get maximum return on investment for all the costs we incur in areas of marketing, supply chain, store maintenance and smartphone issuance.

Review meetings with Areas:

Ensure that Area Business Managers conduct periodic table meetings and reviews with all Energy Officers under their purview.
Conduct surprise visits to field meetings and areas to ensure that the sales processes and standards observed are of the highest quality.
Recognize outstanding performers from time to time and ensure the motivation of the entire regional team is maintained at an all-time high.

A degree in a Business-related field OR equivalent and at least 6 years of hands-on experience in Sales.
Excellent Computer knowledge with comprehensive knowledge of Excel and PowerPoint
Fluency in English and Amharic including local languages is mandatory
The ability to motivate a high-performing sales team and ensure performance
High innovative skills, thinking out of the box, cost-conscious
Excellent skills in Planning, Organizing, Prioritizing, maximizing value and see the big picture.
The ability to develop and skillfully build relations, works on internal & external relationships.
Operation Excellence (Keeps promise, is detail-oriented, seeks to be informed and gives excellent Customer Satisfaction).

About the Company

Sun King

Off-grid solar home systems provider

Sun King designs, manufactures, distributes, and finances solar home energy products for off-grid communities in Africa and Asia. Its range includes solar lanterns and solar home systems with inverters and storage that can power lights, radios, phones, and household appliances, all financed through a pay-as-you-go model with small mobile money installments after a low upfront payment. The company differentiates itself with an end-to-end approach—handling product design, manufacturing, distribution, and financing—supported by a large field-agent network and strategic acquisitions like PayGo Energy to expand into clean cooking. Its goal is to increase energy access by helping households leapfrog kerosene and unreliable grids, aiming to reach millions of homes and businesses, including over 2 million in Ethiopia by 2030.

Company size: 1,001-5,000
Company stage: Debt Financing
Total funding: $864.9M
Headquarters: Chicago, IL
Founded: 2008

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