Consultant

Growth & Scaling Experteer

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Skills Needed

Business Strategy
Data Analysis
Entrepreneurship
Finance
Sales

Consultant

Provides information, makes recommendations, and assists with the implementation of solutions.

Outcomes

As the company has overcome its start-up phase, it is now entering a scaling paths. For an orderly and planned growth, the company needs to develop a 3-5 years strategy plan analyzing its refining its operation, digitization of its sales and end-customer financing models, product testing according to customer needs and the management of external working capital.

Currently, the company develops a door-to-door sales model: To receive a solar product, off grid households dial the short code *265# on Airtel or MTN network, order number of solar systems they need, make mobile money payment, type their name, location and the then send SMS to us using their mobile handsets. We receive the order and confirms delivery instantly via SMS. They then deliver using an existing transport network of 350,000 Taxi Motorcycles.

We search for an experienced sales strategy specialist with some experience in digital payment to accompany us in its growth phase. We search for an expert willing to work with us in Jinja, Uganda, for successive 3 months in early 2020, with a follow-up visit of one months in the second half of 2020 as well as a continued virtual consultancy over 6-9 month (depending on demand).

Deliverables of the Project:

Expert consultancy and hands-on training to design a growth and sales strategy for the next 3 – 5 years
Standards and training of the sales force: sales management, using story telling for sales process, social selling, identifying user insights etc.
Support in digitization of inventory sales system including tracking, M&E and digital financing packages to end-customers
Shaping the product portfolio to a set of solar-home appliances and solar for productive use

Language Proficiencies

English

Estimated Workload

Full time (30+hours a week)

When Can You Start?

The ideal start date for this project is Flexible.

Timezone

Project Details

Description

Africa requires more than $300 billion in investment capital to achieve universal electricity access by 2030. On the other hand, the capacity needed to produce a watt of solar power enough to run a small light which in 2008 cost $4, has come down to $1 (world Bank, Lighting Global). In Uganda the majority of energy-poor people live in rural or peri-urban areas and have little purchasing power, solutions such as expanding the national grid are neither financially feasible nor a political priority. According to the Uganda Rural-Urban Electrification Survey in rural areas, 58.1 percent of households use kerosene for lighting and over 89% of rural households are not reached by the grid compared to the still inaccessible 34% unconnected in urban areas.

We are an “energy-access” and last-mile distribution company with an annual turnover of 180,000 USD (2018), 42 employees, a product portfolio of 5 solar homes-systems traded in a sales network of above 400 sales end points in rural regions in Uganda. Since 2014, we have distributed 24,000 energy appliances mainly for household use and, thus, reached more than 100,000 people.

We offer a last mile delivery of solar light systems and deployment of short messaging service (SMS) and USSD technology for aggregating energy demand, payments, quality customer service and impact assessment at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP).

The company is led by a young Ugandan business men who has proven his leadership skills by building the sales network, designing the energy products traded with international (mainly Chinese) suppliers and developed a data-base of customer needs in rural Uganda.