The Business Development Manager is responsible for driving significant revenue growth and new client acquisition across various logistics verticals within the freight industry. This role focuses on executing robust strategies to achieve defined volume, revenue, and margin targets through structured sales activities and strategic account management.
Key Responsibilities
Business Growth & Acquisition
- Develop and execute a robust pipeline for new business across assigned verticals and trade lanes (import/export, sea, air, logistics, contract logistics, SEZ, and project cargo).
- Identify, qualify, and convert leads into profitable accounts through structured prospecting, solution design, and negotiation.
- Achieve defined volume (TEU), revenue, and margin targets while maintaining high conversion ratios.
- Drive end-to-end commercial proposals including pricing, quotations, and RFQ responses ensuring competitiveness and alignment with corporate guidelines.
Strategic Account Management
- Map key customers, decision-makers, and influencers to strengthen relationships and ensure our client becomes the partner of choice.
- Maintain and expand relationships with existing clients by ensuring service excellence, identifying upselling/cross-selling opportunities, and supporting key account strategies.
- Work with the Commercial Manager and other business Heads to develop and execute customer specific account plans.
Market Intelligence & Strategy Execution
- Gather and analyse market insights, competitor intelligence, and customer trends to support data-driven decisions and pricing strategies.
- Support the rollout of vertical and corridor strategies by contributing to sector development plans (e.g., FMCG, Retail, Healthcare, Agri business, Oil and Gas).
- Collaborate with the SEZ commercial team to position our client as a one-stop solution for port-centric logistics and regional trade growth.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Work closely with Operations, Customer Service, and Finance teams to ensure seamless client onboarding, service delivery, and profitability.
- Participate in internal planning meetings to align customer requirements with operational capabilities and trade-lane capacities.
- Support the implementation of CRM systems by tagging prospects, logging interactions, and updating pipeline stages regularly.
Reporting & Performance Management
- Prepare weekly and monthly reports on pipeline performance, conversion rates, and customer activity.
-
- Ensure accurate CRM data entry and reporting to support visibility and management decision-making.
- Track key metrics including TEU volumes, gross margin, and account retention.
Qualifications and Attributes
Experience
- Minimum of 5 years of experience in the freight industry.
Required Qualifications
- Business Degree.
- Diploma in Sales & Marketing.
- MSK/CIM membership (Marketing Society of Kenya/Chartered Institute of Marketing).
- In-depth knowledge of the freight industry.
Personal Attributes
- Integrity
- Proactive
- Customer focus
- Collaboration
 Kenya.png){kind=logo}
