Sales and Marketing Account Executive

AGOVA JOB DESCRIPTION:

SALES AND MARKETING ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE

Agova (formerly Business Development Services Africa)

Location: Lusaka, Zambia

Contract Length: 2 years

Remuneration: ZMW 5,999 per month gross (incl. gratuity)

Background:

Agova is a consultancy service and its mission is to make shared value the new way of doing business. Shared value refers to ‘a management strategy in which companies find business opportunities in social, environmental, or economic problems’. Since 2011, Agova has been delivering management and technical advice to actors in the private sector in Zambia to further the expansion of business models and norms that increase economic, social and environmental prosperity. Our mandate is to leverage capital, data and innovative ideas to develop a sustainable form of poverty reduction; we focus on creating win-win business models within our client organizations such that commercial and competitive mandates can be met while improving the livelihoods of an organization’s customer and supplier segments, who are generally the urban and rural poor and emergent agropreneurs.

This role will act as a supportive function to the Director of Business Development in all or most BD activities for Agova, with the intention to see you advance and grow into increased responsibilities over time. Such increased responsibilities may include taking on more potential client meetings with more high profile potential clients, representing Agova at numerous networking events and conferences, expanding Agova’s communications and marketing efforts and maintaining relationships with some of Agova’s current and past clients.

Job Description:

This role will be reporting to the Director of Business Development.

Tasks could include (but are not limited to):

• Conduct client recruitment lead generation activities for corporate, NGO and SME clients including potential client research, client outreach via marketing emails and cold calls, setting up and coordination of meetings, maintaining client database, supporting potential client follow ups and attending some events;
• Writing project proposals and tenders for potential client opportunities;
• Attending, co-leading and taking minutes in some informational meetings and presentations/pitches with potential clients; lead meetings with smaller potential clients (when ready);
• Support with client retention activities such as communication with consultants on current projects to gather relevant information to encourage retention, support with consultant trainings to promote retention, etc.
• Carry out regular communications activities to market Agova’s corporate consulting and training courses, SME consulting services and SME co-working space to corporate companies, NGOs, SMEs and funders in Zambia and internationally. Activities include website and social media content updates and development, developing new communications materials and concepts to further promote Agova and its services, managing inventory of current communications materials, managing relationships with any sub-contractors, any other duties as required, etc.
• As deemed necessary, additional duties may involve business development process improvement, supporting the Agova team with grant proposal writing for its SME services, and supporting with the coordination, customer service and monitoring of Agova’s pilot products and services such as grant writing, client courses, specialist services, etc.

Required Skills:

• A relevant four-year Bachelor’s degree (ideally a Master’s Degree);
• One to three years of relevant work experience, in business development, marketing and/or sales;
• Interest in Shared Value (businesses solving social/environmental challenges by reshaping their business strategy);
• Experience in identifying and understanding customers/clients’ challenges and needs in the market and a determination to find market-based solutions;
• Thrives working within strict timelines and in ‘high-pressure’ environments and demonstrates excellent time management skills;
• Strong communication skills (both oral and written) required;
• Ability to take initiative and leadership;
• Driven, ambitious and eager to learn;
• Demonstrates a positive and resilient attitude towards challenges;
• Experience in client-facing roles, interacting with senior & executive levels of staff;
• Enjoys engaging with a host of different people and strong potential to develop business relationships and generate new client opportunities;
• Ability to work independently and ability to work as a team player; and
• High-level of computer literacy with a solid command of Microsoft Office suite.

Agova Offers:

• A manager to support the person in their day to day work;
• A coach to support long-term career path and professional development support;
• A competitive salary;
• Communication and transport support;
• Health Insurance; and
• A comprehensive training program.

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