Marketing and Commercial Lead
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Role description
Job title Marketing and Commercial Lead
Reports to CEO
Department Commercial/Growth
Summary The Marketing and Commercial Lead will be responsible for building the company’s market presence, driving sales growth, strengthening customer relationships, and positioning the brand as a trusted premium honey and bee products company. This is a hands-on leadership role suited for a growing startup where strategy and execution are equally important.
The role requires someone who can develop commercial plans, manage sales channels, support brand building, coordinate marketing activities, identify new business opportunities, and work closely with operations, finance, and production teams to ensure that market demand is translated into revenue.
Responsibilities
1. Commercial Strategy and Sales Growth
• Develop and implement a clear commercial growth plan for retail, corporate, hospitality, institutional, and export market opportunities.
• Set monthly and quarterly sales targets in consultation with the CEO and track progress against agreed revenue goals.
• Identify and secure new customers, distributors, retail outlets, hotels, restaurants, corporate buyers, and strategic partners.
• Build and manage a simple but effective sales pipeline, including leads, customer follow-ups, conversion status, and expected revenue.
• Support pricing decisions, product bundling, promotional offers, and channel-specific sales strategies.
2. Brand Building and Marketing
• Lead the execution of the company’s marketing and brand awareness activities across digital, retail, events, partnerships, and direct sales channels.
• Ensure consistent communication of the company’s brand story, quality promise, origin, traceability, and social impact.
• Coordinate with designers, social media service providers, photographers, printers, and other vendors to produce high-quality marketing materials.
• Support the development of product catalogues, sales presentations, social media content, launch campaigns, promotional materials, and customer-facing documents.
• Monitor market trends, customer feedback, competitor activity, and emerging opportunities in the honey, food, wellness, hospitality, and gift markets.
3. Customer and Partnership Management
• Build strong relationships with key customers and partners, including retailers, hotels, restaurants, duty-free outlets, corporate buyers, NGOs, and institutional clients.
• Ensure timely follow-up with customers from first contact through order confirmation, delivery coordination, payment follow-up, and repeat sales.
• Develop customer retention strategies, including seasonal promotions, corporate gifting offers, loyalty opportunities, and premium product positioning.
• Represent the company professionally in meetings, trade fairs, exhibitions, launch events, buyer discussions, and stakeholder engagements.
4. Sales Operations and Coordination
• Work closely with production, inventory, logistics, and finance teams to ensure that confirmed orders can be fulfilled on time and to the required quality standard.
• Maintain accurate records of customers, orders, pricing, sales performance, payment status, and customer feedback.
• Prepare weekly and monthly commercial reports showing sales performance, pipeline status, key risks, customer feedback, and recommended actions.
• Support basic demand forecasting to help the company plan production, packaging, inventory, and cash flow.
• Ensure that customer commitments are realistic, clearly communicated, and properly coordinated internally.
5. Startup Execution and Team Contribution
• Work in a flexible, hands-on manner across commercial, marketing, customer service, and operational tasks as required.
• Help establish simple systems, templates, sales processes, reporting tools, and commercial discipline suitable for a growing startup.
• Contribute to a culture of ownership, urgency, accountability, customer focus, and practical problem-solving.
• Support recruitment, onboarding, and supervision of junior sales, marketing, or customer service staff as the company grows.
• Perform any other work-related duties assigned by the CEO.
Experience • Minimum 4–6 years of experience in sales, marketing, business development, commercial management, FMCG, agribusiness, food products, hospitality, retail, or consumer brands.
• Demonstrated experience growing sales, managing customer relationships, and converting leads into revenue.
• Experience working in a startup, small business, social enterprise, agribusiness, or fast-growing company is strongly preferred.
• Experience in premium food products, honey, coffee, cosmetics, wellness, hospitality, export, retail, or corporate gifting is an advantage.
• Proven ability to work independently, take initiative, and deliver results with limited supervision.
Education • Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business Administration, Management, Economics, Communications, or a related field.
• A master’s degree is an advantage but not required.
• Strong practical experience in commercial growth, sales execution, and brand building may be considered in place of advanced academic qualifications.
Skills • Strong sales, negotiation, and customer relationship management skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in Amharic and English.
• Ability to develop simple commercial plans and translate them into practical weekly and monthly actions.
• Strong understanding of branding, customer positioning, and market development.
• Good financial and commercial literacy, including pricing, margins, revenue targets, and sales reporting.
• High proficiency in Microsoft Office, especially Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.
• Comfortable using digital tools, social media platforms, customer databases, and basic reporting systems.
• Strong attention to detail and ability to follow through on customer commitments.
• High level of integrity, professionalism, ownership, and accountability.
• Ability to work under pressure, manage ambiguity, and adapt quickly in a growing startup environment.
• Willingness to travel for market visits, field visits, customer meetings, events, and partner engagements when required.
Personal attributes • Entrepreneurial, proactive, and results-oriented.
• Strong sense of ownership and urgency.
• Practical problem-solver who can move from strategy to execution.
• Customer-focused and commercially minded.
• Comfortable working in a growing company where systems are still being built.Passionate about building a high-quality Ethiopian brand with strong social and environmental impact.
How To Apply
Application requirements Interested applicants should submit:
• Updated CV.
• Brief cover letter explaining relevant commercial, marketing, or sales experience.
• Examples of previous sales growth, marketing campaigns, customer acquisition, brand development, or business development work, where available.
Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted.
Application email;
hiwothiwiamanuel@gmail.com
Skills (mandatory):
Communication, Attention to detail, Problem solving
Work experience:
3-5 years
Apply Now!
Reports to CEO
Department Commercial/Growth
Summary The Marketing and Commercial Lead will be responsible for building the company’s market presence, driving sales growth, strengthening customer relationships, and positioning the brand as a trusted premium honey and bee products company. This is a hands-on leadership role suited for a growing startup where strategy and execution are equally important.
The role requires someone who can develop commercial plans, manage sales channels, support brand building, coordinate marketing activities, identify new business opportunities, and work closely with operations, finance, and production teams to ensure that market demand is translated into revenue.
Responsibilities
1. Commercial Strategy and Sales Growth
• Develop and implement a clear commercial growth plan for retail, corporate, hospitality, institutional, and export market opportunities.
• Set monthly and quarterly sales targets in consultation with the CEO and track progress against agreed revenue goals.
• Identify and secure new customers, distributors, retail outlets, hotels, restaurants, corporate buyers, and strategic partners.
• Build and manage a simple but effective sales pipeline, including leads, customer follow-ups, conversion status, and expected revenue.
• Support pricing decisions, product bundling, promotional offers, and channel-specific sales strategies.
2. Brand Building and Marketing
• Lead the execution of the company’s marketing and brand awareness activities across digital, retail, events, partnerships, and direct sales channels.
• Ensure consistent communication of the company’s brand story, quality promise, origin, traceability, and social impact.
• Coordinate with designers, social media service providers, photographers, printers, and other vendors to produce high-quality marketing materials.
• Support the development of product catalogues, sales presentations, social media content, launch campaigns, promotional materials, and customer-facing documents.
• Monitor market trends, customer feedback, competitor activity, and emerging opportunities in the honey, food, wellness, hospitality, and gift markets.
3. Customer and Partnership Management
• Build strong relationships with key customers and partners, including retailers, hotels, restaurants, duty-free outlets, corporate buyers, NGOs, and institutional clients.
• Ensure timely follow-up with customers from first contact through order confirmation, delivery coordination, payment follow-up, and repeat sales.
• Develop customer retention strategies, including seasonal promotions, corporate gifting offers, loyalty opportunities, and premium product positioning.
• Represent the company professionally in meetings, trade fairs, exhibitions, launch events, buyer discussions, and stakeholder engagements.
4. Sales Operations and Coordination
• Work closely with production, inventory, logistics, and finance teams to ensure that confirmed orders can be fulfilled on time and to the required quality standard.
• Maintain accurate records of customers, orders, pricing, sales performance, payment status, and customer feedback.
• Prepare weekly and monthly commercial reports showing sales performance, pipeline status, key risks, customer feedback, and recommended actions.
• Support basic demand forecasting to help the company plan production, packaging, inventory, and cash flow.
• Ensure that customer commitments are realistic, clearly communicated, and properly coordinated internally.
5. Startup Execution and Team Contribution
• Work in a flexible, hands-on manner across commercial, marketing, customer service, and operational tasks as required.
• Help establish simple systems, templates, sales processes, reporting tools, and commercial discipline suitable for a growing startup.
• Contribute to a culture of ownership, urgency, accountability, customer focus, and practical problem-solving.
• Support recruitment, onboarding, and supervision of junior sales, marketing, or customer service staff as the company grows.
• Perform any other work-related duties assigned by the CEO.
Experience • Minimum 4–6 years of experience in sales, marketing, business development, commercial management, FMCG, agribusiness, food products, hospitality, retail, or consumer brands.
• Demonstrated experience growing sales, managing customer relationships, and converting leads into revenue.
• Experience working in a startup, small business, social enterprise, agribusiness, or fast-growing company is strongly preferred.
• Experience in premium food products, honey, coffee, cosmetics, wellness, hospitality, export, retail, or corporate gifting is an advantage.
• Proven ability to work independently, take initiative, and deliver results with limited supervision.
Education • Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business Administration, Management, Economics, Communications, or a related field.
• A master’s degree is an advantage but not required.
• Strong practical experience in commercial growth, sales execution, and brand building may be considered in place of advanced academic qualifications.
Skills • Strong sales, negotiation, and customer relationship management skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in Amharic and English.
• Ability to develop simple commercial plans and translate them into practical weekly and monthly actions.
• Strong understanding of branding, customer positioning, and market development.
• Good financial and commercial literacy, including pricing, margins, revenue targets, and sales reporting.
• High proficiency in Microsoft Office, especially Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.
• Comfortable using digital tools, social media platforms, customer databases, and basic reporting systems.
• Strong attention to detail and ability to follow through on customer commitments.
• High level of integrity, professionalism, ownership, and accountability.
• Ability to work under pressure, manage ambiguity, and adapt quickly in a growing startup environment.
• Willingness to travel for market visits, field visits, customer meetings, events, and partner engagements when required.
Personal attributes • Entrepreneurial, proactive, and results-oriented.
• Strong sense of ownership and urgency.
• Practical problem-solver who can move from strategy to execution.
• Customer-focused and commercially minded.
• Comfortable working in a growing company where systems are still being built.Passionate about building a high-quality Ethiopian brand with strong social and environmental impact.
How To Apply
Application requirements Interested applicants should submit:
• Updated CV.
• Brief cover letter explaining relevant commercial, marketing, or sales experience.
• Examples of previous sales growth, marketing campaigns, customer acquisition, brand development, or business development work, where available.
Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted.
Application email;
hiwothiwiamanuel@gmail.com
Skills (mandatory):
Communication, Attention to detail, Problem solving
Work experience:
3-5 years
Apply Now!