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Illovo Group News Sales Awards winners recognised

At the recent Illovo Sales Conference, held on the 13^th and 14^th of July 2021, a new award was introduced and the inaugural winners were announced.

The purpose of this new award is to recognise and reward the top performing sales person in each team. The award has been initially introduced to the Domestic Trade Sales teams, and a standard set of criteria was used to evaluate and score all sales representatives within these teams. A key component to the Winning Sales Organisation (WSO) work is to introduce schemes and processes to regularly incentivise, motivate, reward and celebrate successes of sales people. In time, there will be additional categories added to the annual Sales Awards to include all sales and sales-related roles and these will reward various achievements aligned to KPI’s.

André Lubbe, Group Commercial Director, introduced the award and unveiled its name – “The Balozi Award for Salesperson of the year”. The award has been named after Ephraim Balozi Mafuru in recognition of his significant contribution to the Illovo sales capability journey, during his time as Group Head of Sales and RTC.

“Balozi” meaning ‘ambassador’ is the perfect name for the award that recognises the individual, who best represents and embodies Sales Excellence and will ensure that Ephraim’s passion for Sales Excellence is remembered for many years to come across Illovo.

It is with great pride that we introduce you to this year’s winners:

The Balozi Award for Salesperson of the Year 2021 was awarded to:

Illovo Sugar Malawi – Grant Njema

Kilombero Sugar Company – Emmanuel Sylvester

Zambia Sugar – Kalwilo Kabende

Illovo Sugar South Africa – Siyabonga Mthethwa

Learn more about one of these exceptional sales people Siyabonga Mthethwa

Siyabonga Mthethwa
Illovo South Africa
Sales Representative

1. Tell us something about yourself and your family life?
   I am a very responsible person, a hard worker in such a way that after tertiary when I was still unemployed, I had to start a business selling hotdogs in my small town of Mtubatuba. I then upgraded and bought a car that I used as a metre taxi, so that I could support my family. At home, I am a loving partner to my fiancée, and a loving and strict father to my kids. I am also a guiding brother to my sister and two younger brothers as we lost our parents when I was still in Grade 7 and became head of the house.
2. How do you like to spend your leisure time?
   I spend my leisure time predominantly with my family by taking them out for movies or sports events. Seeing my kids and partner happy makes me feel at peace with the world.
3. How long have you been in your current role?
   I have been a sales graduate trainee for years and a Sales Rep for the past four months.
4. What does Sales Excellence mean to you?
   Sales Excellence for me means to be able to build strong business relationships with my customers that will seek to create a win-win situation/benefits for both Illovo and my customer base in terms of sales growth. It means to be able to apply/use winning sales organisations tools to increase Illovo footprint and win share from competitors. That’s why for each and every single call, I apply VAPP and use my SFA tool to make sure that my sales process goes perfectly.
5. Who is your role model in life, and why?
   My Role Model is Gizze Taddese, who is an immigrant from Ethiopia. My father used to work for him, and when my father was sick, he made a promise that he will support me through my education journey. He supported me from Grade 8, and even up to my tertiary education and taught me to be independent, without expecting anything in return. I am who I am today, because of his teachings and I call him my father. I would also love to do that for someone in the future.
6. What advice would you give to someone who wants to work in sales?
   Sales is good, but you must also love it and be passionate about it. In sales you meet different people in different moods or with varying personalities and you need to be able to adapt with all of them and create good relationships with them, in order to achieve your objectives as a sales representative. You must also be a team player and be an honest person to yourself, your customers and your team.
7. What does winning this award mean to you?
   Winning this award means the world to me! It motivates me to keep on fighting for the brand that I am representing which is Illovo, and to carry on working close with my team, as they have been guiding me ever since I was introduced to this company. This award also proved to me that our hard work for this company is being noticed, no matter how far you may be from the office.