Africa Head of Services Sales (FLSM)

Job Description

We help the world run better
At SAP, we keep it simple: you bring your best to us, and we'll bring out the best in you. We're builders touching over 20 industries and 80% of global commerce, and we need your unique talents to help shape what's next. The work is challenging – but it matters. You'll find a place where you can be yourself, prioritize your wellbeing, and truly belong. What's in it for you? Constant learning, skill growth, great benefits, and a team that wants you to grow and succeed.

Africa Head of Services Sales (FLSM) – Job Description

(Scope: Southern Africa, West Africa, East Africa and Lusophone Africa)

Job Summary

The Africa Head of Services Sales (FLSM) is responsible for driving the growth, execution, and overall health of the Services Sales portfolio across Africa South. This role plays a critical part in accelerating the transformation of the services business, including the rollout, adoption, and scaling of SAP Success Plans and cloud services across diverse and developing markets.

As a First Line Sales Manager, this role has direct leadership accountability for Services Account Executives (SAEs) operating across multiple countries and customer segments. The role owns services bookings and execution, translates regional and global strategy into pragmatic market-level actions, and ensures profitable, predictable, and scalable services growth across markets with differing levels of cloud maturity and partner dependency.

Key Responsibilities

Build a resilient and scalable services business

• Develop and execute a Services Sales growth strategy for Africa, aligned with regional and global CE&A and Customer Success priorities.
• Own and deliver the Africa Services Sales booking targets across subscription and non-subscription services.
• Drive the positioning, sales, and adoption of Success Plans and cloud services, adapting go-to-market approaches to local market maturity and customer readiness.
• Define and execute the Services go-to-market model for Africa, including direct‑led, partner‑led, and co‑sell motions, aligned to country maturity, partner capabilities, and delivery feasibility.
• Segment countries and sub-regions based on size, growth potential, and cloud readiness, and prioritise investment, coverage, and capacity accordingly.
• Own services deal governance and pricing discipline, ensuring commercial competitiveness while maintaining global standards, contribution targets, and sustainable delivery models.
• Partner closely with Customer Success, Delivery, and Partners to ensure commercially viable and operationally executable services engagements.
• Contribute to long-term cloud revenue growth by supporting customer adoption, consumption, renewal, and expansion outcomes.

Drive transformation, demand creation, and followership

• Lead the transition from legacy services models (e.g. Premium Engagement / Preferred Success) to the Success Plans portfolio, ensuring clarity, alignment, and disciplined execution.
• Actively shape services demand early in the sales cycle by engaging in account planning, opportunity strategy, and value articulation alongside Customer Success and Industry teams.
• Champion a Cloud Mindset focused on customer value journeys, adoption milestones, and measurable outcomes.
• Act as executive sponsor for selected strategic customers and complex transformational engagements.
• Serve as a senior Services Sales leader within the Africa organisation, promoting a One‑SAP, One‑Services approach.
• Represent Africa Services Sales in regional and global forums, influencing strategy, investment priorities, and portfolio evolution based on market realities and customer feedback.

Field, lead, and develop a high-performing team

• Directly lead, coach, and develop a geographically distributed team of Services Account Executives.
• Set clear performance expectations and drive a rigorous operating cadence, including pipeline management, forecasting, deal reviews, and early risk identification.
• Ensure consistent execution discipline across markets while allowing flexibility for local commercial and customer realities.
• Build a strong and diverse talent bench by focusing on enablement, skills development, engagement, and retention.
• Collaborate closely with Sales leadership, Customer Success, Delivery, and Operations to ensure seamless end-to-end services engagement.
• Encourage innovation in commercial constructs and selling approaches suited to emerging and developing markets.

Key Competencies

• Customer Focus: Strong commitment to customer outcomes, adoption, and long-term value realization.
• Business Performance: Proven ability to deliver bookings, revenue, margin, and forecast accuracy in complex and price-sensitive environments.
• People Leadership: Demonstrated success in directly managing sales professionals across geographies, with a focus on accountability, coaching, and growth.
• Cloud Mindset: Embraces SAP’s Adoption and Consumption operating model.
• Transformation & Change Management: Comfortable leading portfolio and operating model transitions.
• Cultural Intelligence: Effective leadership across diverse cultures, languages, and market maturities.
• Evangelism: Communicates vision clearly and inspires customers and internal stakeholders.

Required Experience

• Solid experience leading services sales or cloud services sales teams, preferably in multi-country or emerging markets.
• Proven track record of delivering services bookings (subscription and professional services) and supporting consumption and renewal outcomes.
• Strong commercial acumen, including experience with pricing, deal structuring, and governance.
• Demonstrated ability to influence senior stakeholders across Sales, Customer Success, Delivery, and regional/global leadership.
• Broad understanding of cloud solutions, services portfolios, and value-based selling.
• Experience working effectively in matrixed, multicultural organisations.
• Strong communication, presentation, and stakeholder management skills.
• Experience in African markets strongly preferred.

Key Performance Indicators (not inclusive)

• Services subscription (cloudified) bookings
• Services non-subscription (professional services) bookings
• Consumed ACV
• Contribution / Margin
• Customer Satisfaction and Customer NPS
• Success Plans attach rate and adoption
• Services pipeline coverage and forecast accuracy

Language & Education

• Fluency in English required; French or Portuguese is a strong advantage.
• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent required

Bring out your best
SAP innovations help more than four hundred thousand customers worldwide work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively. Originally known for leadership in enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, SAP has evolved to become a market leader in end-to-end business application software and related services for database, analytics, intelligent technologies, and experience management. As a cloud company with two hundred million users and more than one hundred thousand employees worldwide, we are purpose-driven and future-focused, with a highly collaborative team ethic and commitment to personal development. Whether connecting global industries, people, or platforms, we help ensure every challenge gets the solution it deserves. At SAP, you can bring out your best.

We win with inclusion
SAP’s culture of inclusion, focus on health and well-being, and flexible working models help ensure that everyone – regardless of background – feels included and can run at their best. At SAP, we believe we are made stronger by the unique capabilities and qualities that each person brings to our company, and we invest in our employees to inspire confidence and help everyone realize their full potential. We ultimately believe in unleashing all talent and creating a better world.

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Requisition ID: 451717 | Work Area: Sales | Expected Travel: 0 - 10% | Career Status: Management | Employment Type: Regular Full Time | Additional Locations: #LI-Hybrid