Head of Sales and Distribution – Eastern Cape

Lesaka Merchant Division is a fast-growing, technology-enabled business within Lesaka Technologies, focused on delivering innovative financial and operational solutions to merchants across South Africa. As the division undergoes strategic integration and reorganisation, we are building a future-ready platform that delivers customer-centric solutions that help merchants grow and fulfil their potential.

Role Purpose
The Provincial Head of Merchants (Corporate Solutions) plays a critical role in Lesaka’s ability to scale, deepen merchant relationships, and deliver on its mission to enable merchant growth across South Africa. This role bridges strategy and execution, ensuring national ambition translates into meaningful local impact.

The incumbent is accountable for the end-to-end performance of the merchant business within a defined province, including revenue growth, profitability, merchant acquisition and retention, customer experience, and execution of national strategy.

Key Accountabilities

Provincial Commercial and P&L Ownership

• Own and deliver provincial revenue, cost, margin, and growth targets.
• Develop and manage provincial budgets, forecasts, and commercial plans.
• Drive productivity and improve unit economics.
• Monitor business performance and take corrective action to achieve financial targets.
• Ensure disciplined management of sales performance and commercial returns.

Merchant Growth, Portfolio Expansion and Market Development

• Lead merchant acquisition and portfolio growth.
• Identify provincial growth opportunities.
• Execute go-to-market plans for card acquiring, POS, digital payments, and VAS.
• Drive merchant penetration, activation, and share of wallet.
• Ensure meaningful provincial contribution to national growth.

Customer Experience and Retention

• Ensure a consistent, high-quality merchant experience.
• Reduce churn through proactive merchant engagement.
• Drive retention strategies that strengthen long-term relationships.
• Embed a customer-centric culture.
• Escalate and resolve service issues timeously.

Leadership and Team Management

• Lead, coach, and develop provincial sales teams.
• Build a high-performance culture with clear targets and accountability.
• Drive sales management routines (pipeline, performance, field support).
• Identify and develop capabilities within the team.
• Support succession planning and talent readiness.

Strategy Execution and Localisation

• Translate national sales strategy into provincial execution plans.
• Align commercial priorities with local market needs.
• Provide feedback on product, pricing, and customer propositions.
• Ensure alignment between national and provincial priorities.
• Drive consistent execution of campaigns and initiatives.

Operational Excellence and Risk Management

• Partner with Operations to manage onboarding, compliance, deployment, and support.
• Drive adherence to processes, controls, and service standards.
• Manage regulatory, fraud, credit, and operational risks.
• Collaborate with Risk, Compliance, Finance, and other teams.
• Ensure adherence to policy, legal requirements, and Lesaka standards.

Stakeholder and Partner Management

• Build strong relationships with merchants and strategic partners.
• Represent Lesaka in provincial forums and engagements.
• Collaborate with Product, Tech, Finance, Risk, Marketing, and Ops.
• Act as the provincial voice for market intelligence and merchant insights.
• Strengthen partnerships that drive sustainable growth.

Key Performance Indicators

Financial and Commercial Performance

• Revenue growth vs budget
• Portfolio profitability and cost-to-serve
• Average revenue per merchant (ARPM)
• Sales productivity per Account Executive
• Product mix contribution

Merchant Growth and Portfolio Expansion

• New merchant acquisition
• Activation rates
• Growth in active merchants
• Cross-sell and multi-product penetration
• Share of wallet growth

Retention and Customer Outcomes

• Merchant retention
• Churn / attrition
• Save-rate on at-risk merchants
• Customer satisfaction
• Resolution within agreed timelines

Sales Execution and Discipline

• Pipeline coverage
• Pipeline conversion
• Forecast accuracy
• Sales activity discipline
• CRM/Salesforce data quality

Leadership and Team Performance

• Team target attainment
• Individual productivity
• Quality of performance management
• Coaching cadence
• Capability and succession readiness

Risk, Governance and Operational Discipline

• Compliance to onboarding, FICA, pricing controls
• Audit findings
• Fraud, credit, operational incidents
• Governance and reporting adherence
• Operational execution across onboarding, deployment, and servicing

Required Experience and Qualifications

Experience

• 8–12 years in payments, fintech, financial services, FMCG RTM, or B2B environments.
• Proven P&L ownership or regional leadership.
• Experience scaling field-based teams.
• Knowledge of merchant acquiring, POS, digital payments.
• Experience translating strategy into execution.
• Proven commercial growth and retention performance.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s in Business, Commerce, Finance, or related field.
• MBA advantageous.

Core Competencies

• Commercial and financial acumen
• Strategic execution
• Customer-centric leadership
• Data-driven decision making
• People leadership
• Stakeholder influence
• Planning and performance management
• Problem solving
• Risk and governance discipline

Leadership Attributes

• Entrepreneurial mindset
• Effective in high-growth environments
• Resilient and execution-focused
• Strong ethics
• Results-oriented
• Collaborative
• Strategic and hands-on balance

Success in the Role Will Look Like

• Deliver profitable growth
• Build a high-performing sales culture
• Expand the merchant base
• Improve retention and customer experience
• Execute national strategy locally
• Strengthen commercial discipline and operational excellence