Commercial Manager-Inland Product (Trucking/Forwarding)

Location: Nigeria

Reports to Area Sales Director

Position Overview

Key Responsibilities:

• Drive the identification and development of relevant Inland products for the Area (incl. premium services) together with Operations and Sales.
• Gather feedback on the market (from other Area Inland functions) including potential transport solutions for different modes and include product needs in the final product offering
• Identify Inland value propositions and support Sales with tangible product information
• Act as main PoC for the Account Managers on product-related Inland questions
• Provide priorities and commercial ambitions to Procurement and support them in defining the SLAs for transport providers
• Drive the identification and development of relevant Inland products and define the Inland network strategy by conducting required analysis on underserved/overserved locations, equipment levels etc.
• Own the capacity demand forecasting reports and engage in active management of capacity availability and utilization.
• Outline option space for sourcing of fixed capacities from simple contacting to M&A potential.
• Analyze fixed capacity requirements based on operations and commercial data
• Identify potential vendors in market and support procurement on negotiations with existing and new partners to continuously improve and extend the vendor base
• Plan and manage strategic vendor relationships

Qualifications:

• At least 5 years’ experience in shipping/container steering
• Strategic thinker who is customer centric
• Experience in sales and operations of trucking industry will be an advantage.
• Experience working in Nigeria, Cameroon, Congo and Angola will be an advantage
• Worked in a trucking or forwarding industry with hands on experience in product development for trucking corridors 
• Assertive negotiator
• Attention to detail.
• Team player with a proactive attitude
• Ability to work under pressure, goal and deadline driven.
• Very good written English skills (French is an added advantage)
• Good understanding of Microsoft applications.
• Thorough knowledge of port-based applications (Navis, ICUMS etc.) and documentation procedures.
• Ability to work on several systems simultaneously and interpret the data
• Successfully completed commercial training or comparable studies in Business, Commerce, Sales, Engineering, Logistics or similar
• Several years of professional experience in shipping, forwarding or logistics, preferably in sales or operations
• Excellent understanding of Inland transport, as well as ocean shipping markets
• Deep understanding of Inland transport performance measurement
• Well-developed analytical thinking and creative problem-solving skills with high level of initiative, ability to work in a team and assertiveness.
• Strong communicator with experience in management level communications