About this role
Job Purpose
The Ocean Freight Bulk Business Development Senior Manager/Director is a senior regional commercial leadership role within DHL Global Forwarding, accountable for profitable growth across multiple countries in the bulk logistics sectors through new business acquisition, regional sales strategy, and expansion of existing customer relationships.
This position will define and execute the regional commercial strategy, translate global product priorities into country-level action plans, and ensure delivery of scalable, customized solutions that meet the needs of strategic regional customers.
The incumbent will provide senior commercial direction, leverage regional market intelligence, and align country sales, product, trade, operations, and pricing stakeholders to strengthen value propositions, improve sales effectiveness, and build long-term customer loyalty.
Main Responsibilities
Market Intelligence Gathering: Conduct in-depth market research to identify trends, customer needs, and competitive landscapes within the bulk logistics sectors, providing insights for pricing strategies and product development.
Regional Commercial Strategy: Define and execute multi-country business development and marketing plans aligned with global product and regional commercial objectives, with clear priorities for revenue, profitability, market share, and strategic customer growth.
Regional Sales Leadership and Governance: Set regional sales direction and governance for Ocean Bulk, align country sales leaders around priorities and targets, and use performance metrics to drive consistent execution and accountability across the region.
Lead Generation and Nurturing: Implement a comprehensive lead generation strategy utilizing digital marketing, content marketing, trade shows, and networking to attract potential customers. Leverage CRM tools to track and analyze lead sources and conversion rates.
Sales Pipeline Management: Maintain a robust sales pipeline management system that tracks opportunities in the CRM from initial contact to closing, ensuring visibility and accountability at each stage. Regularly review and analyze the pipeline to identify bottlenecks and facilitate corrective actions.
Cross-Selling and Upselling: Identify opportunities for cross-selling and upselling additional services to key customers, collaborating with the sales team to develop targeted campaigns aimed at expanding service offerings.
Strategic Customer Sponsorship: Own or sponsor selected regional strategic accounts and coordinate executive engagement across countries. Lead regional retention, growth, and reactivation initiatives informed by customer and commercial data.
Regional RFQ Governance: Provide senior oversight for strategic and multi-country RFQs, ensuring clear win strategy, cross-country coordination, competitive solution design, pricing discipline, and post-bid reviews to improve future outcomes.
Regional Sales Enablement: Sponsor development of differentiated value propositions, scalable solutions, sales collateral, and capability-building programs. Ensure country teams are equipped to position and sell Ocean Bulk Solutions effectively.
Executive Stakeholder Engagement: Build and maintain strong relationships with regional and country leadership, global product management, trade, operations, pricing, and strategic customers, ensuring alignment on priorities, investment, and execution.
Regional Performance Management: Establish regional performance reviews covering pipeline, conversion, revenue, profitability, customer retention, and strategic initiatives. Provide executive-level reporting and intervene where performance or execution is off track.
Skills, Experience & Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent.
- Relevant certifications in logistics or sales management are an advantage.
- Minimum 10 years of progressive experience in business development, sales, product, or account management within logistics or freight forwarding, including senior leadership responsibility across multiple countries or a region.
- Strong expertise in bulk operations, with deep knowledge of freight forwarding and logistics.
- Strong commercial judgement, strategic thinking, and analytical capability, combined with excellent communication, influencing, and negotiation skills to align senior stakeholders across countries and functions.
- Proven capability in regional pipeline governance, forecasting, CRM and performance management, with the ability to develop differentiated value propositions, scalable solutions, and complex regional commercial agreements.