About the Role
This role builds the acquiring business for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and owns its P&L. The Manager leads a team of 10–11 Sales Executives and the Outsourced Sales Partners channel to sign, onboard, and grow micro and small merchants across the UAE. The Manager is also responsible for redesigning how SME merchants are onboarded, ensuring that signed merchants are live within days rather than weeks. Acting as the eyes on the SME market, the Manager feeds competitor moves, pricing, and market trends back to senior leadership.
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Key Responsibilities
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P&L and Targets
- Own the SME acquiring P&L, including merchants signed and live, TPV, revenue, cost of sale, and contribution after team costs.
- Set monthly targets for each Sales Executive and Outsourced Sales Partner, tracking weekly delivery.
- Collaborate with Finance and Business Intelligence to prepare the SME budget and forecast, explaining variances.
- Grow revenue per merchant by cross-selling a comprehensive bundle of services: POS, SoftPOS, online checkout, Pay by Link, business wallet, WPS payroll, and cards.
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Sales Team Leadership
- Lead, coach, and manage a team of 10–11 Sales Executives, focusing on territories, daily activities, pipeline reviews, and performance management.
- Recruit and onboard new Sales Executives according to the hiring plan, ensuring team productivity.
- Develop a sales playbook that outlines target segments, prospect lists, pitching techniques, objection handling, and conversion strategies from existing government-fee payers.
- Run sales campaigns targeting free zones, typing centres, business centres, accountants, and associations.
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Incentive Policy
- Create the sales incentive plan for the SME team and Outsourced Sales Partners, collaborating with HR and Finance for approval by the Director – Commercials.
- Link incentives to live and transacting merchants, TPV, and revenue, not only to those signed.
- Regularly review and track the cost of the plan against the revenue it drives.
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Outsourced Sales Partners
- Select, onboard, and manage Outsourced Sales Partners, including contracts, targets, commission terms, and service levels.
- Train partner staff on products, pricing, KYB requirements, and onboarding steps.
- Monthly tracking of partner productivity and merchant quality, replacing partners that miss targets.
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Merchant Onboarding Revamp
- Map the current SME onboarding journey from application to first transaction, identifying and removing delays.
- Collaborate with Operations, Risk and Compliance, and Product to redesign the onboarding process, making it simpler with digital applications, e-signatures, risk-based checks, and automated MID and terminal setup.
- Set and track onboarding turnaround targets, aiming for T+2 from complete application to live merchant, while adhering to risk, scheme, and regulatory requirements.
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Merchant Activation and Retention
- Ensure merchants start transacting quickly, tracking activation within 30 days of going live.
- Monitor inactive and declining merchants, executing re-activation and retention actions.
- Collect merchant feedback on products and services, collaborating with Product and Operations to implement changes.
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Market and Competitor Intelligence
- Track competitor offers, pricing, and promotions in the SME market, including banks, PSPs, fintechs, and POS providers.
- Share monthly competitor and market feedback with the Manager – Acquiring Business, supported by Business Intelligence.
- Recommend changes to SME pricing, products, and bundles based on market insights and sales team input.
Requirements
- Education
- Bachelor's degree in Business, Finance, Engineering, or a related field.
- An MBA is preferred.
- Experience
- 8–12 years in SME or merchant acquiring sales with a bank, acquirer, PSP, or fintech in the UAE.
- At least 3 years in a leadership role for a field sales team of 8 or more, with a proven track record of meeting merchant acquisition targets.
- Experience managing third-party or outsourced sales agents, including structuring their commissions.
- Experience designing or running a sales incentive plan.
- Demonstrated success in improving onboarding, sales, or operations processes with measurable results.
- Technical and Payments Knowledge
- Familiarity with SME acquiring products: POS, SoftPOS, payment gateway, Pay by Link, and QR payments.
- Understanding of merchant onboarding requirements including KYB, documentation, risk checks, MCC, and MID setup.
- Knowledge of SME pricing models: MDR, fixed fees, bundles, and terminal economics.
- Familiarity with adjacent SME services: business accounts and wallets, WPS payroll, and business cards is a plus.
- Proficient with CRM systems and sales dashboards.
- Skills
- Strong sales leadership capabilities with clear target-setting, daily coaching, and accountability.
- Process-oriented with the ability to identify bottlenecks and implement improvements.
- Excellent relationship-building skills with partners, merchants, and internal teams.
- Strong commercial judgement, understanding the profitability of merchants and deals.
- Fluent in English; Arabic is an advantage in the UAE SME market.
