Sales Facilitation Consultant At Palladium International

About Palladium:

Palladium is a global company working to design, develop and deliver positive impact on the lives and livelihoods of people around the globe; broaden access to health, water, power, and infrastructure; build enduring, sustainable, and transformative institutions and market systems to address global challenges; and conserve the natural world. We operate in over 90 countries and have a workforce of 3,000 talented, motivated, and diverse staff of all religions, races, languages, and gender identities.

Palladium Americas:

Our Americas’ business team has brilliant and passionate colleagues working in Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and North and South America as well as the Caribbean, fulfilling projects and assignments for clients from institutions, corporations, governments, and foundations based in the Americas. We have offices in Washington, DC, New York City, and Raleigh-Durham, NC.

Project Overview:

Future Growth Initiative (FGI) activities are directed towards building Central Asia’s economy of the future, which is resilient, independent, and interconnected. These activities are fostering the creation of an environment conducive to youth development, women empowerment, and the promotion of innovation and technology. FGI increases competitiveness, creates and improves jobs, increases sales, and attracts investment within the ICT, tourism, light manufacturing, and food & beverage target sectors. FGI achieves this by building and strengthening partnerships and alliances with and between large companies, mature MSMEs, startups, academia, and various associations. FGI’s activities are divided into three components to provide jobs and incomes for Central Asia’s growing workforce, propelling the region toward self-reliance in the targeted industries:

• Component 1: Enterprises – Fostering Competitive Industries
• Component 2: Employment – Developing a Capable Workforce and Entrepreneurship
• Component 3: Enabling Environments – Creating Conditions for Jobs and Investment

FGI will transform market systems in ways that help high-potential firms and sectors grow, foster market linkages to match the demand for workforce skills with training offered to youth and women, link entrepreneurs to high-growth markets, and build more business- and worker-friendly policy environments and institutions to sustain private sector-driven growth.

This Opportunity:

Even though the light manufacturing and food & beverage industries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan produce a variety of goods of reasonable quality, it is not easy to find them in cross-border markets. There are many reasons discouraging and preventing Central Asian companies from actively trading with each other, including logistical challenges, regulatory obstacles, lack of market intelligence of the neighboring countries, and insufficient knowledge of policies and procedures at both government and company levels.

FGI provides diverse support to local companies in Central Asia trying to enter regional markets, especially that of Kazakhstan, by organizing roundtables and arranging B2B meetings with leading anchor producers and retail chains that are constantly looking to extend their supplier base. However, these efforts are not sufficient for signing sales-purchase agreements. To enable the successful closing of agreements, the project needs to secure hands-on, practical support and sales expertise from export/import professionals.

To address this issue, FGI is seeking a Sales Facilitation Consultant with comprehensive sales/exporting knowledge and experience in helping companies from the region grow through expanding into the Kazakhstan market.

Location: The position is based in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Reporting and Supervision:

The Sales Facilitation Consultant will report to DCOP, Team Leader – Component 1 & 2.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities:

Sales Project Stages

1. Identification of up to 12 anchor companies or products produced in the Central Asian Region that may be of interest to the Kazakhstan market (May l5, 2022 – October 2022).
2. Find a distribution network, a retailer or a buyer in the Kazakhstan market, and develop a distribution channel for each product/company. (July 2022 – March 2023).

Tasks

1. Build a strong pipeline of producers willing to and capable of selling in Kazakhstan, including those recommended by FGI Country Teams.
2. Identify a level of export readiness of the pipeline firms; collect all the information, samples, leaflets, catalogues, etc. that are necessary to generate sales leads.
3. Identify a distribution channel for each company/product, establish necessary contacts for potential sales, represent beneficiary companies in introductory negotiations meetings, make product presentations/pitches, and guide further negotiation/communication with potential buyers.
4. Provide feedback on improvements needed on products to materialize sales prospects, including re-designing the products and packaging if/as necessary and developing necessary materials (labels, price lists, etc.) required by the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan based on initial discussions with buyers.
5. Plan cost-effective logistics and conduct a proper survey of tax legislation, customs legislation, and certifications.
6. Guide, support, and accompany each beneficiary company on negotiations with buyers, logistics firms, and government agencies on items such as taxes, customs, certification bodies, etc.
7. Conduct regular calls with each beneficiary company on the status and progress of export planning and provide follow-up consultations to beneficiary companies to close sales contracts.

Deliverables

1. A draft pipeline including up to 12 Central Asian producers.
2. Photos of samples, meetings with buyers’ representatives, certifications received, etc.
3. For each firm, upon FGI approval, a Client Engagement Letter should be presented. A client engagement letter should be signed by the Consultant and the beneficiary company. The letter should include the name and description of the firm, the sector to be supported, the proposed timeline of assistance, and the expected product to be sold. FGI will evaluate and approve or deny the engagement letter within seven days.
4. Confirmation or evidence of a successful ‘transaction event’ in the form of a sales contract, purchasing order, photos of the imported goods on the shelves of Kazakhstan retailers, etc.**

Key Competencies Required:

• 3+ years of professional work experience in sales facilitation/promotion.
• Experience in managing all aspects of the sales supply chain, from market research to the inception of contracts to final product distribution, preferably in the food & beverage sector.
• Proven track record in sales and export facilitation and finalized agreement with major retailers and distributors.
• An extensive network of wholesalers, distributors, supermarkets, and import agencies in Kazakhstan and Central Asia, the latter being desirable but not essential.
• Proficiency in spoken and written Russian and Kazakh. Proficiency in the English language is an asset.

Level of Effort (LOE) and Pay for Performance (P4P) Details:

• This position starts in/around May 2022, for a one year period.
• It is estimated that the Consultant will spend up to 20 consultant days for the deliverables as identified above. FGI will cover no more than $1,000 per identified producer for this effort, including but not limited to tasks 1-7 identified above. The rest of the service cost should be paid by the beneficiary company.
• As a performance bonus, FGI will pay the Consultant an additional $1,000 per identified producer for which the Consultant is able to provide confirmation or evidence of a successful ‘transaction event’ in the form of a sales contract, purchasing order, photos of the imported goods on the shelves of a Kazakhstan or Uzbekistan retailer, etc.

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion – Palladium is committed to embedding equity, diversity, and inclusion into everything we do. We welcome applications from all sections of society and actively encourage diversity to drive innovation, creativity, success and good practice. We positively welcome and seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce; and that all job applicants and employees receive equal and fair treatment regardless of their background or personal characteristics. These include: (but are not limited to) socio-economic background, age, race, gender identity and expression, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, nationality, veteran, marital or Indigenous status.
Should you require any adjustments or accommodations to be made due to a disability or you are a neurodivergent individual or for any other circumstance, please email our team at accessibility@thepalladiumgroup.com and we will be in touch to discuss.
Safeguarding – We define Safeguarding as “the preventative action taken by Palladium to protect our people, clients and the communities we work with from harm”. We are committed to ensuring that all children and adults who come into contact with Palladium are treated with respect and are free from abuse. All successful candidates will be subject to an enhanced selection process including safeguarding-focused interviews and a rigorous due diligence process.