Senior - Business & Partnership Manager (Francophone Africa)
Learn About Farmerline
Do you want to improve millions of lives and leave a lasting legacy at the same time? Do you want to use your talents and skills to make a difference and not just a living? Do you want to help feed the world now and in the future? Farmerline works to reinvent how the world thinks and invests in the lives of small-scale farmers. We are working to help farmers produce and sell food. We are bold and systemic thinkers but operate lean and nimble. Since 2013, Farmerline has directly helped farmers to improve their productivity and profit in Ghana and also provided technical support to other organizations to do the same. Farmerline started its operations serving 800 farmers in the Ashanti Region of Ghana with information via mobile information services. We have supported many organizations with our tools and knowledge to improve the way they work with farmers. Over the past 9 years, Farmerline and its partnership network has profiled and served over 1million farmers and digitized over 1,000,000 acres of farmland across 16 countries in Africa.
Farmerline is the fastest growing Agtech company in Africa with a recent pre-Series A funding of $14 million led by Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund (ARAF), Oikocredit and FMO, the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank and nine other global investors.
We are a learning organization and you will have the chance to apply your ideas and creativity to solve problems every day. If you work well in a dynamic collaborative culture, set high standards, and meet challenges with determination and a sense of humour, you’ll thrive at Farmerline. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. We value diversity and encourage applications from all candidates. We believe that diverse perspectives help our teams to create innovative solutions and understand our global clients’ needs. In alignment with our values, we are committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse global workforce without discrimination.
Field
Details
Job Title
Senior - Business & Partnership Manager (Francophone Africa)
Department and Location
Corporate Services, Abidjan
Incumbent Supervisor
Country Manager - IvC
Suggested start date
Immediately
Length of assignment
Permanent role subject to performance
Role Overview
The overall purpose of Senior - Business & Partnership Manager (Francophone Africa) is to meet and exceed sales targets and business goals by bringing Farmerline’s tools and services to clients and partners around the world. The role involves building a deep understanding of Farmerline’s technologies, products, services, and potential tools, translating these to fit the needs of a wide range of organizations (including but not limited to Local agribusinesses, Global Traders and Manufactures, Food Brands, Cooperatives/ Farmer groups, NGOs, Donors, Government institutions) working to improve the livelihoods of farmers and help create lasting profit for farmers everywhere. You will be evaluated based on partnerships initiated and managed successfully, and sales closed. The ideal candidate is a self-starter and a team player, has strong written and verbal communication and presentation skills and a deep understanding and network of the global commodity supply chain (especially Cocoa), agricultural digitalization and business intelligence and insight services.
Responsibilities
- Provide general support to Farmerline ’s business development processes by participating on concept notes and proposals and business development marketing materials: management plans, corporate capability statements;
- Stay abreast with key market trends and intelligence with the ability to seek new business opportunities and formulate sales strategies to capitalize on growing the business
- Generate sales leads, actively engage and manage a growing pipeline of potential partners (Local agribusinesses, Global Traders and Manufactures, Cooperatives/ Farmer groups, NGOs, Government institutions), prioritize and build strategic relationships with them based on needs and alignment to Farmerline’s mission and business goals.
- Assess and convert leads with sales potentials from the Marketing and Communications team
- Grow Farmerline’s market share across Africa in the digitalization of commodities sector, prospecting, cold calling, and networking within the global commodity trading/ sourcing, agricultural and nutrition security, and other relevant sectors with a primary focus on countries in Francophone West Africa.
- Research and identify new business opportunities - including new markets, growth areas, trends, customers, partnerships, products and services - or new ways of reaching existing markets
- Establish and develop relationships with key contacts in potential organizations to foster partnerships and business development opportunities.
- Leverage knowledge, experience and network in local and global market space to negotiate prices and secure deals from local and international businesses.
- Carry out sales forecasts and analysis and present your findings to senior management/the board of directors
- Understand the needs of your customers and be able to respond effectively with a plan of how to meet these needs
- Research and attend relevant seminars, conferences and events to expand network and boost sales potential
- Prepare proposals and conduct professional presentations to prospective and existing customers and partners
- Consultative sales and account management of new and existing partner base
- Become fully conversant on Corporate and Farmer Services operations, historical and current, and be able to support, advise and recommend to team and partners best approach for collaboration in order to achieve sales target and business goals
Required Qualifications
- Bachelors or Masters Degree in an appropriate field of study
- Successful track record in building partnerships, relationship management, and business development in the commodity industry (especially Cocoa) with increasing responsibilities with a minimum of 4 years of experience.
- Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with the business community, industry players in agriculture, customers, and colleagues
- Excellent organization, problem-solving and time management skills.
- Excellent writing and presentation skills in French and English; especially budget and proposal writing
- The ideal candidate must have resided and worked in Ivory Coast for a minimum of 3 years
- Demonstrated ability to learn new processes and adapt quickly to changing requirements and roles
- Proven experience in client prospecting, negotiation, closing, client relationships and meeting sales goals
- Advanced use in productivity tools and Sales CRM such as Pipedrive.
- Must be fluent in basic written and spoken English and French
Top Skills
What We Do
We create access for all players in the agricultural value chain
Farmerline is a company that develops solutions to increase access to farmers and simplify transactions throughout the agricultural value chain. Our focus on creating lasting profits for farmers everywhere has fuelled our innovations from the very onset. We are the first organization in Africa to give farmers access to information through voice messages in local languages, effectively bridging the knowledge gap among smallholder farmers. We are building the “Amazon” for farmers where they can access these timely services and other quality resources at affordable prices in their community.
Since our inception in 2013, we have gone beyond serving farmers with information and resources that increase their yield. Now, we also provide global organizations with the tools they need to reach, engage and transform the agricultural last mile.
Our belief in the power of technology to ensure sustainability across the agricultural value chain gave birth to Mergdata (www.mergdata.com); a mobile and web application for last-mile engagement.
With this technology, we ensure that all last-mile engagements create access for all players, ensure transparency and efficiency, and ultimately, contribute to global food security.
The software also offers real-time traceability, certification audit, farm mapping, farmer education, and analytics solutions to help organizations that work with farmers achieve their sustainability and food security goals efficiently. Mergdata uses big data and AI to give organizations insight into the work of farmers and to give farmers increased access to resources and services; including financial services.
