Cybersecurity Business Development Manager (Lagos)

About the role

An IT distributor operating across Africa and the Middle East is looking for an experienced, results-driven Cybersecurity Business Development Manager in Lagos to lead the growth of its cybersecurity portfolio. This is a business development and revenue-generating role focused on identifying opportunities, building relationships with enterprise and mid-market customers, recruiting and enabling partners, managing sales pipelines and positioning the cybersecurity solutions against competitors.

Key responsibilities

• Sales and business development: build and run a sales strategy, identify and qualify new business across enterprise, commercial and SMB markets, drive the full sales cycle and expand existing accounts with cross-selling and upselling.
• Competitive selling: compete against brands such as Sophos, Fortinet, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Cisco, CrowdStrike, Microsoft, Trend Micro and SentinelOne, understand customers' existing security environments and convert them to your solutions.
• Customer relationship management: build relationships with CIOs, CISOs, IT managers, procurement managers and others, and hold meetings, presentations and product demonstrations.
• Channel and partner development: recruit and enable resellers, system integrators, MSPs and IT partners, organize partner training and events, and drive partner-led opportunities.
• Pipeline and sales management: maintain accurate forecasts and pipeline reports, use CRM systems, develop account plans and keep opportunities moving through the sales cycle.
• Technical and solution selling: understand endpoint, firewall, network security, MDR/XDR and related offerings, and work with pre-sales teams on demonstrations, assessments and proof-of-concepts.

Required profile

• 5+ years of proven B2B sales experience in cybersecurity, networking or IT infrastructure.
• Demonstrable experience selling cybersecurity solutions to enterprise, commercial or SMB customers.
• Experience selling Sophos, Fortinet, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Cisco Security, CrowdStrike, Microsoft Security, Trend Micro, SentinelOne or similar solutions.
• A proven track record of meeting or exceeding sales targets.
• An established network of IT decision-makers, enterprises, resellers, system integrators and/or MSPs.
• Experience with channel, distributor and reseller sales models and with vendors and technology partners.

Required skills

• Strong understanding of cybersecurity technologies and competitive positioning.
• Experience managing the full sales cycle from lead generation to closing.
• CRM usage for tracking opportunities, activities and forecasts.