Sales Lead

We are seeking a dynamic and experienced Head of Sales to lead the Sales department at one of our clients. As the Head of Sales, you will be responsible for developing and implementing sales strategies to drive revenue growth and expand our customer base.

Your primary focus will be on leading and motivating our sales team to achieve targets, fostering a high-performance culture, and ensuring excellent customer service. You will also collaborate closely with other departments to align sales strategies with overall business objectives.

Working closely with all co-founders, you will:

• Develop sales strategies: Rapidly gather market insights on SMEs across the Ag and Food industries. Understand the customer archetype(s) and how they make financial decisions (e.g., investment, borrowing, etc.). Formulate innovative and data-driven sales strategies tailored to an early-stage startup with limited resources.s.
• Originate Leads and Convert Clients: Actively engage in lead generation activities, including outreach, networking, and relationship-building. Nurture leads and drive conversions, demonstrating the value proposition of our offering. (Ideally with a preexisting SME client book)
• Own the Sales P&L: Present sales, revenue and expense reports and realistic forecasts to the leadership team.
• Build Sales Operations: Establish scalable sales processes and systems to accommodate growth and expansion, working closely with Engineering, Data & Analytics, and Marketing. Hire, train and lead your first sales team hire(s).
• Lead Sales Experiments: Design and execute experiments to identify effective lead generation channels (online, in-person, partnerships). Track and optimize conversion rates and improve sales funnel efficiency.

In short, youll be responsible for delivering strong commercial traction and contributing to company`s success, by achieving or exceeding a portfolio of 150 loans and R20 million disbursed in less than 12 months. This is an incredible role for someone who wants to develop a playbook in South Africa, with the potential for expansion across the SADC region (350+ million population). Youll be instrumental in contributing to our next seed fundraising round ($xm) from international investors.

• At least 4 years of successful experience in sales, consistently exceeding targets, with some experience heading up a sales team.
• Energy in bucket loads and ability to thrive in an unstructured, early-stage environment.
• Proven capability to lead and deliver fast and significant growth in under 12 months.
• Experience setting up sales operations and building a sales team to deliver top-level sales performance.
• Industry expertise, particularly in selling financial products directly to SMEs, and willingness to rapidly build an understanding of the fundamentals of the Ag and Food industries.
• Someone who gets hands-on and is excited to get involved in closing big deals and building strategic partnerships.
• Excellent communication skills in English plus one other South African language.
• BSc/MSc degree in Business Administration or a related field.
• Based in Johannesburg (preferably) or Cape Town.
• Ability to travel 50%+ of the time.

Bonus points for:

• Familiarity with the Agricultural and Food industries.
• Prior startup or FinTech experience

What we offer

• Purpose-driven mission: You're not just filling a role; you're banking Africa's SMEs, fuelling their growth.
• Growth opportunities: Sky's the limit here. Show us excellence, and the possibilities for your career are endless as we grow rapidly.
• Flat & entrepreneurial organisation: No hierarchy. Everyones got a voice. The best idea wins the day. You will interact and work with everyone, from first employees to the founders.
• Competitive compensation: We value your skill and offer a package that reflects it, including competitive salary for an early-stage startup, sales commission, stock options, and benefits.