Business Development Officer

Position Overview:

The Business Development Officer (BDO) supports the growth of Root Capital’s Portfolio by supporting pipeline development, developing market studies and other industry intelligence analysis, and contributing to marketing for the Africa region. The BDOs work closely with the BDM and other BDOs to achieve these objectives.

The BDO also supports regional initiatives that seek to 1) attract new clients and 2) understand new markets or impact opportunities. The BDO role partners with Lending, Advisory, Impact, External Affairs, and other areas to achieve their objectives.

About Us:

Root Capital is a nonprofit whose mission is to grow rural prosperity and build the resilience of farming families around the world. We support the growth of agricultural enterprises so they can transform rural communities. These businesses purchase crops such as coffee, cocoa, or grains from smallholder farmers. With growth, they become engines of impact that can raise incomes, create jobs for the next generation of leaders, level the playing field for women, and take urgent action against climate change.

We supply these businesses with vital credit and capacity building to foster their growth and resilience. We work in hard-to-serve communities where others don’t. To date, we’ve distributed $1.8 billion to improve the lives of over 10 million people in farming communities.

Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Root Capital currently has associated offices in Costa Rica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Colombia, Peru, Ghana, and Kenya.

Responsibilities:

Business Intelligence

The BDO will carry out research to support Root Capital in broadening its addressable market and securing customer loyalty. Research will focus on the following topics:

• Market sizing and opportunity assessment: The BDO will conduct (or contract research for, or participate in broader teams) in-depth and insightful research that clarifies current market opportunities
• Support competitor analysis: The BDO will collect information about the offerings and value proposition of local and international competitors.
• Support Voice of the Client Survey: Analyze information from clients in order to understand client satisfaction
• Participation in the Country Updates: The BDO will update master country strategic plans in order to inform Root Capital about priorities and emerging opportunities at the regional level in the existing countries.
• Keep updated strategic information for regional portfolio development. Maintain an updated catalog of prioritized value chains and a list of partners/stakeholders.
• Systematizes strategic information for portfolio development. Maintain an  updated catalog of enterprises in prioritized value chains, also keeps an updated list of stakeholder/partners.

Actions for pipeline development

The BDO will contribute to the development of the new portfolio by the identification of qualified prospective clients through different initiatives; also BDOs make sure that the pipeline of leads is updated.

• Conduct Lead Pre-Assessments: analyze new leads and facilitate the introduction of candidates with desirable profiles to Root Capital’s Advisory team or loan officers, providing background information and supporting an efficient response time.
• Pipeline management: track the lead generation activities of the regional team and measure efficacy of our networking, campaigns, and events. Maintain updated leads record in SF. Conduct analysis of the pipeline in order to identify new opportunities for the portfolio.
• Lead cultivation and client management follow-up: coordinate regular follow-up meetings, ensuring the meetings are in the calendar, an agenda is drawn and report shared to participants
• Organize Introductory Workshops: collaborate with Root Capital’s Advisory function to design, promote, and execute financial management workshops to introduce Root Capital to potential clients and prepare them to manage credit.

Marketing and Communications

The BDO will work closely with the Communications Team in order to improve customer service and develop partnerships with strategic stakeholders. The BDO will:

• Provide inputs to the Communications Team about marketing priorities for marketing materials and the communication strategy for each region and prioritized stakeholders. Provide feedback about marketing materials and collateral and support the process of generating marketing materials in the region
• Participate in Marketing Campaigns: prioritize and launch new marketing campaigns in cooperation with the Communications and Regional teams.
• Event coordination support: the BDO should facilitate the coordination of the team members in the region of the most important events for portfolio development.

Required Skills and Experience

• Minimum 5 years work experience in agricultural finance, financial services market
  research or sales, agricultural value chain development, business development services,
  or a related field.
• Bachelor in Agribusiness Management or business related degree.
• Strong oral and written communication skills and strong interpersonal skills.
• Experience working with rural SMEs in a developing country context, preferably with involvement in business’ financial management in the role of Finance Manager, Lender, Financial Advisor, etc.
• Experience conducting value chain analysis and/or market research in the rural sector.
• Experience with initiatives for customer success.
• Ability to think creatively and critically to solve problems and collaborate to integrate diverse stakeholder needs and perspectives.
• Ability to prioritize and execute multiple tasks.
• Willingness to travel nationally/ internationally up to one-quarter of the time.
• Fluency in English and the local language in his/her location of hire, and the patience to communicate with non-native speakers of each is required.

Root Capital provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, active military or veteran status, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, pregnancy (which includes pregnancy, childbirth, medical conditions related to pregnancy and childbirth, and breastfeeding and expressing breast milk), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information or any other characteristic protected by law. Root Capital is committed to creating a dynamic work environment that upholds our leadership principles of accountability, empowerment, equity, integrity, service, and transparency.