Sales & Business Development Manager II

H.B. Fuller; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 600 000 - 800 000; Full time

Job summary

A leading global adhesives company seeks a Business Development Manager in Johannesburg, South Africa. You will be responsible for profitably growing market share, engaging with customers to understand their needs, and providing solutions that align with strategic goals. This role requires strong technical sales experience, a Master’s degree, and excellent communication skills. The position involves significant regional travel, working closely with internal stakeholders to drive business growth and launch new products.

Qualifications

• Proven track record of successful market development with a minimum of 5 years technical sales experience.
• Ability to manage important business relationships.
• Fluent in English; proficiency in Afrikaans is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Grow market share profitably in strategic markets.
• Maintain business relationships with key decision-makers.
• Evaluate new business opportunities and support new product launches.

Skills

Results-driven

Strong communication skills

Market development experience

Analytical capabilities

Multicultural team collaboration

Education

Master’s degree in Business, Marketing or Technical

Job description

Job Title : Business Development Manager

Location : Johannesburg, South Africa

POSITION OVERVIEW

The Business Development Manager is responsible for growing market share profitably in defined strategic markets and accounts. The role focuses on all H.B. Fuller business segments in the SADC region, excluding Beverage Labeling, including End‑of‑line applications, flexible packaging, paper converting, graphic arts, and packaging makers among others.

This role involves engaging the customer to understand and anticipate their needs and providing solutions that meet customers’ requirements. The role will provide a competitive advantage to H.B. Fuller by developing and executing plans in alignment with stakeholders. The BDM will be experienced at navigating complex decision‑making processes inside large global accounts.

As BDM you will be a key contributor to the Hygiene, Health and Consumable GBU. About 50% of your time will be spent in the field visiting customers to maintain and improve operations within existing accounts and to convert or win new accounts.

The BDM will evaluate new business opportunities and promote the H.B. Fuller value proposition of technologies, products, and services in line with strategy and marketing initiatives. The BDM will drive and support the launch of new products and solutions across Southern Africa in collaboration with segment leads and the Business Manager.

The BDM will act as the expert of the segment(s) when it comes to product performance and value delivered to customers.

The Business Development Manager will often be required to make presentations on products and services that meet or help develop the clients’ future needs.

He or she will act as a consultant to all stakeholders to develop an understanding of industry trends, market forces affecting the business, and product needs. The BDM will achieve the above following the HB Fuller Sales Process and Value Selling methodology.

PRIMARY DUTIES

• Profitably grow market share through acquiring new business at new customers and new applications at existing accounts.
• Meet annual budget growth objectives by closing qualified new business opportunities.
• Maintain a healthy new business pipeline of opportunities in line with annual growth plans.
• Skillfully utilize the H.B. Fuller sales process to find, qualify, and close new business.
• Sells at optimum value and margin to meet agreed profit targets.

MAINTAIN BUSINESS IN EXISTING ACCOUNTS

• Develop trusting and productive relationships with key decision makers in the account; develop relationship maps and maintain them in SFDC.
• Understand market trends and offer solutions to customers ensuring expectations are met.
• Collaborate with customers to review business performance during formal business review meetings.
• Gather business intelligence to understand possible threats and mitigate them.
• Collaborate with global teams to grow and maintain the business segment(s).
• Manage activities related to identifying new business opportunities.
• Maintain technical independence and competence to manage demonstrations and produce reports.
• Focus time on blue‑chip opportunities.
• "Open the door" to potential customers, develop and explain the H.B. Fuller value proposition.
• Help customers select appropriate products for various applications and ensure they understand the value delivered.
• Establish relationships with potential partners such as application equipment providers, OEMs, and industry associations to achieve deeper market penetration.
• Evaluate customer requirements in the overall market context.
• Support regular business opportunities and ensure successful closure.

DEVELOP AND IMPROVE VALUE OFFERING

• Capture customer requirements (VOC) and translate them into value propositions.
• Collect data supporting value propositions and monitor/document offered values in ongoing business.
• Ensure customer projects are on time and on budget.
• Work on the Product Portfolio: manage the product program in the segment and define the GOTO product portfolio.
• Translate detailed customer requirements into business requirements and CTQs for R&D/Technical Service.
• Capture industry trends and translate them into new product or service developments and innovative offerings.
• Propose and lead suggested price positioning in the segment in cooperation with the business manager; support product complexity reduction led by Marketing.

INTERACTION AND COMMUNICATION WITH INTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS

• Seek input from SAMs, Business colleagues, and sales to develop segment strategy.
• Partner with stakeholders to establish priorities, service levels, and expected deliverables.
• Provide, summarize, analyze, and process relevant customer and market information using SFDC and other sources.

COACHES AND INFLUENCES SENIOR SALES COLLEAGUES

• Partner with Marketing, Technical Department, and R&D to ensure voice of the customer is acknowledged in the HBF R&D pipeline and related internal support.
• Provide supporting resources and intelligence to sales teams to respond to customer requests.
• Communicate across the business on all internal and external activities in line with the strategic plan; provide regular updates to all stakeholders.

IS AWARE OF THE FORECASTING

• Partner with an expert colleague from the Technical Department on specific issues.

BUDGETARY / FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY

The Business Development Manager is responsible to grow business in selected strategic accounts according to set budgets on defined markets.

KEY METRICS

• Sales budget.
• Profitability measured as percent contribution margin.
• Guard existing accounts and grow new accounts.
• Create a solid pipeline for business continuity and growth.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

• Master’s degree in Business, Marketing or Technical with postgraduate marketing (or equivalent through experience).
• Proven track record of successful market development with a minimum of 5 years technical sales experience.
• Strong driver for results and success; shows passion for the role.
• Expert in the value selling process with good understanding of B‑2‑B selling process.
• Ability to harness and manage important business relationships.
• Outstanding commercial and communication skills at all levels of contact: executive, middle management, production floor.
• Understanding of basic financial metrics such as operating profit, margins, and working capital.
• Strong oral, presentation and written communication skills.
• Excellent analytical capabilities linked to good strategic thinking skills.
• Significant industry standing; considered an expert in technical adhesives.
• Excellent listening skills.
• Excellent computer literacy.
• Fluent in English; other additional European languages a plus.
• Ability to work in a team with different cultures and nationalities.
• Ability to lead, influence, and motivate the internal cross‑functional team to achieve business goals.
• Intimate knowledge of support functions.
• Ability to work in a fast and changing environment.
• Disciplined work approach with good reporting skills.
• Ability to travel with the region – between 50‑60% of time.
• Ability to acquire knowledge of adhesive performance and applications of product range within 6 months.
• Ability to work from a home office.
• High ethical standards – must meet HBF minimum.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Selling / marketing or technical experience with industrial multinationals.
• Ability to lead and influence internal stakeholders in any function.
• Willingness to move to different countries to work.
• Experience in more than one market / application / geography.
• Experience in selling adhesives to multinational companies.
• Fluency in English and Afrikaans; Portuguese would be an added advantage.