Market Development Manager

at  Syngenta Crop Protection

Company Description
As a world market leader in crop protection, we help farmers to counter these threats and ensure enough safe, nutritious, affordable food for all - while minimizing the use of land and other agricultural inputs. Syngenta Crop Protection keeps plants safe from planting to harvesting. From the moment a seed is planted through to harvest, crops need to be protected from weeds, insects and diseases as well as droughts and floods, heat and cold. Syngenta Crop Protection is headquartered in Switzerland.
Job Description

ACCOUNTABILITIES

• Gather market intelligence input for Bio market with Pre-launch market analyses
• Coordinate the creation of our BioStimulant portfolio with Marketing, CPD & Regulatory teams, ensuring trials are well executed (clarity on protocols) and registration dossier are submitted on time
• Define with rest of the ZA team our Biologicals GTM strategy – organizing GTM workshops
• Continuous Portfolio review & strategy alignment with local requirements; converting into an actionable launch campaign & coordinating the rollout.
• Contribute to portfolio enhancement by developing new ideas & developing BCs with Campaign leads – recommending products from our internal pipeline or looking for 3P partnerships to fill gaps
• Define the local product positioning in close collaboration with the AMEA and the Valagro teams and demonstrate its fit to local market needs
• Value pricing on new product introductions
• Design detailed campaigns to launch new brands together with campaign leads
• Close monitoring of performance with post-launch product performance evaluation
• Act as the go-to person in country to identify opportunities for introducing new marketing approaches
• Provide agronomic support, training and coaching for Biologicals and related services to the Commercial force, channel partners and grower
• Align with CPD and regional team on methodology for adaptation trials & protocols to build the story for our BioStimulants and BioControls. Help identifying measurable, technical attributes for our solutions.
• Ensure generation of strong local performance data to build solid technical positioning, tailored to local needs & practices. Set the base for “Building the story”
• Analyze data in relation to trial targets and share results & insights to continuously improve our strategies in biologicals
• Ensure technical recommendation transfer into technical stories for the campaigns & commercial force
• Lead the relationship with the national advisors and research institutes
• Lead grower, channel & value chain segmentation process. Ensure the alignment to the country GTM.
• Be the experiment lead of the Soil health doctor project – piloting this new service and defining potential for ZA (possible GTM for Biological)

KNOWLEDGE, EXPERIENCE & CAPABILITIES

• Degree in agronomy with strong marketing knowledge
• Fluency in English & Afrikaans (verbal and written)
• Strong technical experience in Biostimulants and/or Fertilizer Business
• 3-5 years’ experience of the agri-business sector in Marketing, Sales and project management
• Strong and convincing presentation style
• Good communication skills
• Analytical thinker with understanding of market dynamics and competitive environment.
• Ability to use market research effectively to understand and anticipate changes in the market and adjust strategies.
• Influencing and negotiation skills, financial acumen including people and project management

• Business development of the Syngenta biological offer in ZA – ensuring the bio-acceleration plan on product development and commercialization is realized.
• Drive and implement Syngenta ZA Biostimulant strategy in close collaboration with the Commercial Team and CPD team, ensuring that the resources allocation is aligned with business priorities.
• Establish technical expertise and network required to drive a leading position in the Biological market
• Ensure technical and Marketing support for launch of Biostimulant products in the South African market
• Act as reference (“go to”) person for Biostimulants in South Africa
• Lead the discussion with Biologicals 3rd party partners, in close collaboration with campaign leads
• Lead the Soil Health Doctor experiment in South Africa (part of the Innovation Incubator)