Area Business Manager

Who we are

Greenlight Planet designs, distributes, and finances the purchase of solar-powered home energy solutions for the world’s 1.3 billion under-electrified consumers.  We are market leaders in the distributed off-grid solar industry, and our Sun King™ products have enabled 76 million people around the world to access clean, reliable, solar-powered light and energy at home. 

Sun King products range from portable solar lamps to more robust multi-light solar home systems, to solar-powered televisions and fans and energy-efficient inverter bulbs.  Our products drastically improve quality of life for those that lack reliable electricity access: they help extend the number of productive, income-generating hours in a day; they enable children to study after dark; they allow families and communities to gather safely to socialize after sunset; and when replacing field based sources of light like kerosene lamps, they reduce exposure to indoor air pollution.     

We reach our customers through two distinct business models: a vast network of more than 300 distribution partners across 40 countries, and through our EasyBuy™ Direct sales channel, where we sell directly to consumers in India, Kenya, Myanmar, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia through a network of more than 7,000 commission sales agents.  Our customers have the option to purchase these products upfront or to pay for them through an installment payment plan over a period of 4-18 months through our Sun King EasyBuy™ line, our technology-enabled ‘pay-as-you-go’ (PAYG) systems. 

Greenlight employs more than 1,500 people in 11 countries across sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.  We are passionate about serving off-grid customers, and we are driven by the challenge of continuously innovating and growing a smart, sustainable business with profound impact on the world.

The team you would join:

Greenlight’s pay-as-you-go (PAYG) Commercial team is building its presence in Mozambique, and we are looking for an experienced Area Business Manager to join our team.  Our PAYG-enabled products allow consumers to pay for their Sun King products over a period of 4-18 months.  The inbuilt PAYG technology enables customers to pay for a few days’ or weeks’ worth of energy at a time, and it monitors how far they have progressed towards the completion of their payment plan. 

While Greenlight is new to Mozambique, we have built successful, fast-growing sales organizations in Kenya, Myanmar, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia, and we are market leaders in the global PAYG solar industry. 

What you would be expected to do:

The Area Business Manager will lead sales, collections and distribution operations in the area they are assigned for the direct distribution of Sun King Solar products sold on Pay-As-You-Basis (also called and recognized as “EasyBuy” Business unit) through a network of agents called as “Energy Officer”. 

EasyBuy technology and services allows customers to purchase units by paying for their Solar products in small instalments, thus ensuring they are extremely affordable for off-grid or rural customers. The Area Business Manager is ultimately accountable for generating sales, ensuring collections are timely and accurate and keeping the entire Direct Distribution growing rapidly in a sustainable manager.  

Key responsibilities:

• Hire & retain Energy Officers: Hire, train and maintain a team of at least 40 active Sun King Energy Officers in the area. Use multiple avenues for finding the right talent to sell Sun King EasyBuy products with the help of village influencers such as the village heads, teachers, religious heads, doctors, farmers and others, as applicable. Create a reputation and goodwill for the mission of Sun King to provide clean, affordable and reliable source of energy in their areas. 

• Training of Energy Officers: Provide training to the Energy Officers on several aspects of the business such as sales, collections, product, technical, inventory and logistics related. Ensure that they are fully supported and lead in the best professional manner demonstrating highest levels of integrity, ethics and professionalism while dealing with customers.  

• Provide role clarity to Energy Officers: Provide complete clarity to Energy Officers related to their day-to-day tasks, sales & collections plans, routes and targets. This includes, ensuring Energy Officers have a pre-agreed sales route/area to sell in, they understand how to demonstrate and sell Sun King products, they have the confidence to be able to present and resolve basic customer queries on the spot and they have access to Area Business Manager at all times in case of questions and concerns. 

• Daily field visits: Have a weekly touchpoint with every Energy Officer in your area – either through in-person meetings, making a sale to the customer in your area or having a call. Resolve all possible issues faced by the Energy Officers and report them to your Regional Business Manager, every week. Ensure that first 5 sales of each Energy Officer are done along with the Area Business Manager in the area, by each Energy Officer to ensure that the core sales and collection process is fully understood by each Energy Officer.

• Work with Energy Officers: Conduct joint field work with a group of Energy Officers to provide sales and collection training on a weekly basis and drive EO engagement. This includes doing night activations which take place from 6.30PM to 9.00PM, market activations, visiting local communities and gatherings such as SACCOs, Self Help groups, retail centres and markets to make group sales. 

• Exceed your sales & collections targets: Meet or exceed sales and collection targets established and agreed on 2nd of every month by your Regional Business Manager. Provide daily, weekly updates on sales, EO recruitments, Customer issues and resolutions, as desired and agreed with your Regional Business Manager. 

• Drive robust field sales processes: Review collection progress with your Energy Officers daily and provide adequate training to them on driving better collections in your areas. This includes, customer and area profiling, ensuring regular and timely collection follow-ups, resolving customer issues to ensure they make payments and ultimately repossessing the systems as a last recourse in case the customer defaults. 

• Remain externally focused: Keep an eye on competition within your area and ensure you take adequate measures to protect and grow our business from competitive pressures. Proactively inform your leadership team and take measures to ensure Sun King remains a paramount brand name in Solar products for your area. 

• Resolve customer issues: Provide world-class support to your customers as it relates to product delivery, training on how to use and make payments, installation, after sales warranty issues. Ensure that you work with your Energy Officers to establish clear expectations and processes to resolve all customer issues within 24 hours.   

• Control Marketing & Other Support spend: Provide adequate marketing support & equipment (such as smartphones) necessary to all your Energy Officers. Ensure we get maximum return on investment for all the costs we incur in areas of marketing, supply chain, store maintenance and smartphone issuance.   

• Review meetings with Energy Officers: Conduct weekly table meetings with Energy Officers and ensure that you have RBM present in those meetings to resolve any outstanding customers or EO issues. Coordinate, plan and organize the meeting to have maximum attendance and progress. Recognize outstanding performers from time to time and ensure the motivation of Energy Officers is maintained at an all-time high. 

• Grow Retail presence: Ensure the retail network in your Area grows with the help of an Area Retail Coordinator, hired under you. Ensure all retail related activities are followed per process and the base of high-selling retailers grows exponentially within your area of operation.

You might be a strong candidate if you:

• Hold a Degree or Diploma in any educational background. 
• Have at least 2 years of field sales experience in the same area. Preferably having worked in Micro-Finance, Banking or Telecom field sales roles. 
• You are passionate about working with rural consumers and resolving their issues. 
• Are process oriented individual and work style, is able to work independently and lead the area.
• Driven by the social mission to provide energy to consumers and employment to rural communities. Should be a values driven individual. 
• Good communication and interpersonal skills to be able to build and lead large Energy Officer teams. 
• Can clearly and straight to the point communicate with fluency in both written and spoken English and Portuguese 

What we offer (in addition to compensation and statutory benefits):

• An opportunity to grow as a professional in a dynamic, fast-growing, high impact industry; 
• The chance to work in an open-minded, collaborative culture surrounded by enthusiastic Greenlighters who are driven by the challenge of continuously innovating and growing a smart, sustainable business with profound impact on the world;  
• A truly multicultural experience: you will have the chance to work with and learn from people from different geographies, nationalities, and backgrounds. 
• Structured, tailored learning and development programs that help you become a better leader, manager, and professional through the Greenlight Academy.

We place great importance on sustaining a diverse, inclusive work environment.  

We believe that diversity (of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, national origin, personality type, perspective, and all the other fascinating characteristics that make us different) enriches innovation and our competitiveness in the market. 

We strive to ensure diverse perspectives inform critical decisions, and we actively work towards ensuring all Greenlighters feel like they belong.  We also know that sustaining an inclusive workplace requires conscious effort and is a continuous journey, not an end-state.

Greenlight recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes individuals based on experiences and demonstrated job performance, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, national origin, HIV/AIDS status,  disability, or any other protected characteristic as established by law.

What to expect from us, after you submit your application:

The first step is to apply for the job opening through Greenlight’s career website. You can expect an email response within three weeks regarding the status of your application.  If you are shortlisted for consideration, we’ll set up a conversion with you to learn more about your interests and background, share more about the job requirements and Greenlight Planet, and answer any initial questions you may have.