Executive: Sales

Job Advert Summary

The Executive: Sales carries the commercial accountability for Optix's national revenue performance — net new annual recurring revenue, expansion revenue from existing customers, subscriptions and services revenue, gross retention, and the qualified pipeline that underwrites the next two to four quarters of forecast. The role owns the design, discipline and performance of the South African sales organisation across new business acquisition, key account management and regional sales coverage, and is the senior commercial voice in the SA leadership team.

This is a sales-leadership operating role, not a sales-administration role. The Executive: Sales is expected to install commercial discipline without becoming bureaucratic, to coach and hold sellers accountable without softening the line on results, and to lead the South African sales organisation through a period of structural redesign — separating new business hunting from key account management, integrating regional coverage and clarifying the interface with CX Services. The role must remain commercially focused while ensuring sales and account teams work cleanly with CX, operations and global account structures.

Minimum Requirements

Experience:

• Minimum 10 years in B2B sales, with a track record of carrying and delivering against a meaningful national or large-regional revenue number.
• Minimum 5 years in sales leadership, with direct accountability for a sales team of 10 or more across mixed motions (new business and key account management).
• Proven experience selling complex enterprise solutions with multi-stakeholder buying committees, multi-quarter sales cycles and significant post-sale service dependency.
• Demonstrable ownership of annual recurring revenue, subscriptions and services revenue lines — not pure one-time transactional sales.
• Sector relevance preferred: transportation, telematics, fleet, logistics, vehicle technology, B2B SaaS, managed services, control-tower / operational visibility, enterprise technology or adjacent. Direct sector experience is not mandatory but will materially shorten ramp.
• Experience leading a sales team through structural change — restructure, redesign, integration or significant target-operating-model shift — and stabilising performance through and beyond the change.
• Salesforce (or equivalent enterprise CRM) used as a management operating system, not as a passive system of record.
• Experience operating inside a multinational, with reporting into a global commercial line and accountability for the in-country number.
• Experience working closely with customer experience, operations and product / engineering functions to deliver customer outcomes and protect revenue.

Qualifications:

• A relevant undergraduate degree (business, commerce, engineering, technology, or related), or equivalent demonstrated commercial experience
• Formal sales methodology certification (MEDDIC/MEDDPICC, Challenger, Miller Heiman, SPIN, Sandler or equivalent), or equivalent demonstrated mastery
• Working command of Salesforce or equivalent enterprise CRM

Preferred (not minimum) extras include a postgraduate qualification (MBA/MCom), formal sales-leadership executive education, sector exposure to fleet/telematics/logistics/B2B SaaS, and continuing development in coaching or behavioural science.

Duties & Responsibilities

• Own and deliver national revenue performance — full commercial number across new ARR, expansion ARR, subscriptions/services revenue, and retention, with regular performance reviews against commitment.
• Build and run the sales operating model — structure, role definitions, territories, account assignments, and operating cadence (pipeline reviews, deal reviews, forecast calls, QBRs).
• Lead and develop the sales leadership team — weekly 1:1s, structured monthly reviews, coaching against the BARS competency framework
• Install and police sales process and CRM discipline — methodology, stage definitions, qualification criteria, and rejecting non-compliant forecast/pipeline submissions.
• Manage pipeline coverage and forecast accuracy — published coverage ratio, weekly reviews, surfacing gaps two quarters out, reporting forecast with no surprises.
• Drive new business acquisition — target account list, account-based selling, personal engagement on the largest pursuits
• Grow and retain key accounts — account planning standards, white-space mapping, quarterly reviews, personal sponsorship of top-tier accounts.
• Lead through structural change — separating hunting from KAM, having courageous conversations, exiting underperformers fairly, stabilising the model within six months.