Head of Commercial Business Development

Job description / Role

The Head of Commercial Business Development & Marketing is responsible for leading commercial products marketing, new product development, corporate implementations, and the overall corporate business in the Bahrain market.

The position will also be responsible for providing thought leadership to commercial business resources across the MENA region (excluding the UAE) to ultimately drive business growth, new opportunities and manage existing business in these markets through indirect reporting lines.

Strategic Commercial Product Development
- Lead the development of a detailed Product Line Strategy (PLS) for the commercial segment based on competitive landscape, market opportunity and billed business potential;
- Build the PLS in the MENA region by developing a deep understanding of the segment through bench marking, competitive analyses, and research; recommending best practices; and generating profitability analyses and business cases.
- Execute the Commercial PLS objectives according to the set rollout plan for the region in support of product development for Large Corporations, Small Business, and Government Clients, by overseeing the planning, development and design of the PLS from product decision through the end of life cycle.

Leadership & Strategy
- Provide thought leadership on innovative programs, functionalities, and strategies that Commercial Sales & Account Management can implement with clients.
- Manage cross-functional relationships with Sales and Account Management Teams, Servicing, Technologies, and markets to ensure successful development, rollout, management and growth of product/feature/functionality for:
- Corporate Cards enhancements (e.g. Local Currency, Platinum, etc)
- Business Travel Account Solutions
- Corporate Purchasing Card
- LC SME card
- Any other initiative that result from the PLS
- Lead the development of strategic business plans for Commercial products, in consultation with sales and customer management, customers, and third party partners, including analysis of revenue opportunities and related costs.
- Provide guidance and support, as needed, on the go-to-market plan for product/feature/functionality of the Commercial Product portfolio, and assist the sales team in closing complex deals with corporate clients by communicating the product value proposition, analyzing the financial business case advantages (e.g. rebates).

Product Management
- Enhance and manage commercial product program pricing, product strategies, and roadmaps for continued growth in the segment in coordination with Sales & Account Management.
- Monitor and evaluate product performance and profit and loss per commercial product.
- Responsible for Implementing ATL and BTL (including digital/ online) marketing programs to promote commercial products across the MENA region.
- Understands economic implications for Commercial Customers and the overall Product organization on business strategy and quantifies value of features for sales.
- Responsible for managing market research, opportunity assessments, and customer satisfaction/ VOC that may drive new ideas and concepts.

Corporate Implementations
- Provide thought leadership to deliver Large & Regional Implementations centrally, through the implementation management team, who will support the business by managing all large strategic implementations regionally utilizing AXP best practices while following a rigorous, structured approach.
- Insure that a strategic implementations process is in place to look at the entire implementation project lifecycle (from planning to post implementation reviews) with an aim to maximize WTT ratio and capitalize on achieving the PCV associated.
- Lead efforts to enable empowered local implementations (for smaller deals): this should be achieved by leading efforts to create an “Implementation Centre of Excellence”. This Centre of Excellence would look at assisting the sales & account management teams in applying best practices when it comes to corporate customer implementations that do not meet the “strategic Implementations” status. The idea is not to only post documents on some portal, but to also make them feel the value by training them and equipping them with the knowledge associated.

Markets Business Development (Including Bahrain)
- Take ownership of the markets and individual resources billings annual targets
- Lead sales efforts to achieve market overall “New to Franchise” target for the market
- Ensure that efforts associated with managing existing clients are made to deliver the market growth billings target
- Ensure that New Products are effectively rolled-out in the market by achieving the associated billings target

Requirements

- Strong thought leadership and strategic planning capability with demonstrated experience.
- Strong marketing skills, specifically in growing sales for the corporate segment.
- Strong understanding of process management supporting commercial cards for sales, account management, servicing and the systems platforms that support Card products.
- Innovative marketing thinking to develop ground-breaking solutions.
- Very good negotiation skills.
- Strong leadership skills combined with very good interpersonal skills are required to contribute effectively in the development and implementation of strategies within the senior management team, the sales and account management team and across functional boundaries in a unique multinational/cultural environment.
- Excellent communication and presentation skills, necessary to build sustainable relationships.
- Highly confident and convincing. Strong interpersonal skills to influence all levels of the organization.
- 5 - 10 years plus experience in marketing BD and 3 years plus experience in the Middle East region and in the commercial segment is important.
- Good commercial and financial acumen.
- Must possess strong analytical skills and detail orientation.
- Working knowledge of Cards processing platform is an advantage.

About the Company

Robert Walters is one of the world's largest specialist professional recruitment consultancies with 53 offices spanning 24 countries.

We've helped thousands of professionals find permanent, contract and interim roles with leading global corporations, small to medium sized companies and innovative start ups. Our specialist recruitment focus includes: accountancy and finance, banking, engineering, operations, legal, IT, sales, marketing, procurement & logistics, HR and support/administration.