Head, Sales

  • Full-time

Company Description

About Us

Husk Power Systems (“Husk”) is an award-winning clean energy company serving rural India and Sub-Saharan Africa. In 2023, it was named “World’s Best Challenger Brand” in the energy industry and is a 3-time Global Cleantech 100 company. The company’s AI-powered rural energy platform provides 24/7 renewable power to rural households, commercial customers, institutions, and small factories. It also delivers a range of other products and services, including e-commerce and credit financing of branded appliances for home and commercial use, as well as community-based solutions for e-mobility and the agricultural value chain. Husk’s mission is to superchange economic growth and social well-being in rural communities that are unserved and underserved

Husk Values

Safety; Honesty and Integrity; Mutual Respect; Frugal Innovation; Quality and Reliability; Excellence as an Attitude; We > I; Fail Fast and Learn Faster.

Husk is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to diversity and inclusion and welcomes all applicants regardless of age, disability, gender, marital status, pregnancy and maternity, race, or religion. Husk is committed to improving gender balance within its teams in India and globally. Female candidates are therefore highly encouraged to apply even if not all requirements are met.

Benefits

Husk offers flexible working conditions with employee benefits that are in line with global best practices. These include clear career growth planning, transparent annual review processes that are gender inclusive, maternity, and paternity leave, gender-inclusive workplace conditions, family health insurance, and frequent training to assist the employees to grow in and to the next roles. Husk does not believe in micromanagement and encourages its employees to have a healthy work-life balance, hence giving them the freedom to manage their workload to be compatible with their lives.

Job Description

Role Summary

Husk is recruiting for a Sales Head to help expand its Mini Grids business footprint within Nigeria and across other parts of sub-Saharan Africa. We seek a highly motivated and talented salesperson for our rapidly developing Nigerian market focusing on territorial sales across Husk sites and potential sites and who will be committed to executing at a high level in a fast-paced environment.

The Sales Head will be accountable for the MiniGrids Sales Team's financial performance in partnership with the Country Director and is required to drive continuous revenue growth. This position provides the opportunity to join a growing team that is changing the face of rural electrification in Nigeria and Asia.

The individual should also be passionate about contributing to solving one of Nigeria’s most critical challenges – the energy access deficit. This is a role with a reporting line to the Country Director.

Key responsibilities:

General

  • Manage, motivate, and mentor other team members along with a variety of personnel to create a positive, constructive, and performance-driven dynamic, while driving efficiencies. 
  • Establish the strategic vision and direction for the HMG Sales.
  • Drive “Best Practices” across the business. Once a “Best Practice” has been identified, ensure that the practice is visible nationally and to another subsidiary.
  • Managing sales operations with a focus on achieving predefined sales targets. Forecasting and planning monthly, quarterly, and yearly sales targets and executing them in a given time frame
  • Work closely with Heads of other Business Units to understand sales/business performance trends and position partnership engagements adequately.
  • Negotiate solutions, resolve conflicts, and provide solutions in the best interest of Husk, and our customers/clients and employees.
  • Act as a leader within the country. Understand the priorities of the country operations and support the Country Director and Heads of other Business Units when necessary.
  • Support the optimization of various Husk NG activities to ensure best practices are entrenched towards more efficient processes.

Sales Management and Revenue Assurance

  • Formulating sales strategy and ensuring sales goals are achieved.
  • Provide regular reporting on sales management, sales pipeline development, forecasting, key account status, market condition updates, sales results, and budget performance.
  • Develop and implement robust sales management processes. Stringently monitor revenue pipeline to ensure revenue targets and achievements.

Business Growth and Support

  • Identify new markets and business opportunities for sales and revenue growth.
  • Market research across the HMG business, including but not limited to marketing, business development, review, and budgeting, across Husk sites and Potential Sites.
  • Development of accurate segmentation and targeting of the market including identification of customer and market opportunities, market entry/expansion strategy, establishing a balance of long-term pipeline and short-term revenue.
  • Create community market intelligence packs to drive customer sizing and customer pricing decisions. Establish scalable promotional tools and processes.
  • Support business growth and continuous cost & and quality improvements in the business.

Stakeholder Management

  • Coordinate, maintain regular communication, and develop positive and productive relationships with various stakeholders, regulatory stakeholders, customer groups, etc.
  • Collaboration and convergence with the Operations/Service, Engineering, IT and Software and,the finance department to ensure successful implementation of business plans.
  • Build and maintain a high-performing sales team whilst promoting individual/team performance and a collaborative attitude across board.

Thought Leadership

  • Drive thought leadership engagements to ensure Husk maintains local visibility as an industry leader within the MiniGrids space.

Qualifications

Required Skills & Attributes

  • 10+ years of relevant sales experience, with 3 – 5 years in a similar role within the energy sector.
  • Graduate from a leading institution with a related degree in Sales, Business Management, and marketing. Postgraduate degree in business and/or related professional qualifications, a plus.
  • A clearly defined strategic thought process and a continuous improvement mindset with excellent problem-solving skills.
  • This position requires an in-depth understanding of business development, sales, critical thinking, and the ability to provide time-bound solutions to the benefit of the company, and projects.
  • Hands-on experience in driving sales within rural and peri-urban areas (B2C & B2B)
  • Great relationship management skills and an understanding of data analysis and forecasting methods.
  • Excellent skills with MS Excel, MS Word, MS PowerPoint, and project management tools (MS Project, Asana, Slack, etc.)
  • In-depth knowledge of the power sector in Nigeria, a plus.
  • Business-level fluency in relevant Nigerian languages, an added advantage.

Additional Information

Location and Travel

This role is based in Abuja, Nigeria, and requires 50% travel to other areas of Husk MiniGrids locations.

Salary

Based on the candidate’s experience and qualifications, salary can be negotiated, if required.

Women candidates are encouraged to apply.

DISCLAIMER:

This description indicates the general nature and level of the qualifications and duties required of employees in this job classification, as well as the essential functions a person must be able to perform to do this job. It is not designed to be a comprehensive inventory of all duties and qualifications required of employees assigned to this job.

Husk Power Systems and its subsidiaries are equal-opportunity employers and make employment decisions on the basis of merit and business need. We hire without consideration of race, colour, religion, citizenship, political activity or affiliation, marital status, age, national origin, ancestry, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, sex or gender, or any other basis protected by law.