Account Manager, Wholesale Channel Partners

Introduction

The Account Manager is responsible for initiating, negotiating and growing commercial relationships with Comsol's wholesale channel partners  ISPs, retail MVNOs and banking MVNOs. This is a build-phase, hunter-and-farmer role: the successful candidate will originate new partner relationships from a standing start, negotiate commercial terms aligned to Comsol's partner tiering structure, and then own the ongoing relationship to grow account value over time. Account Managers will work closely with the Product Manager and CCO to ensure the commercial pipeline reflects the division's phased roadmap and revenue targets.

Duties & Responsibilities

Partner origination & business development

• Identify, prioritise and approach prospective channel partners across the three target archetypes: traditional ISPs, retail MVNOs and banking MVNOs.

• Build and manage a qualified pipeline of prospective partners.

• Lead first-approach and relationship-building activity with priority partners.

Commercial structuring & negotiation

• Package and present the relevant pricing to each partner.

• Negotiate commercial terms within approved governance parameters.

• Structure contract terms appropriate to partner type.

Relationship management & account growth

• Own the ongoing commercial relationship post-signature, acting as the partner's primary point of contact for commercial matters.

• Lead the partner onboarding programme by coordinating cross-functional activities between the Product Manager, Operations, and the partner to ensure a smooth transition from commercial agreement to technical implementation and successful service activation.

• Conduct regular business reviews with partners to track performance, resolve issues and identify growth opportunities.

Cross-functional collaboration

• Work closely with the Product Manager to feed partner requirements and market feedback into the product roadmap and pricing refinements.

• Coordinate with network/technical teams to ensure commercial commitments (SLA tiers, activation timelines) are deliverable.

• Partner with marketing on co-marketing fund activity for Strategic and Alliance partners, and on positioning materials for prospective partners.

• Escalate commercial risks (e.g. SLA breach exposure, MNO competitive response, partner credit risk) to the CCO in line with the division's risk governance framework.

Reporting & performance

• Maintain accurate account and pipeline records, forecasting committed spend, tier migration and renewal risk by partner.

• Report account performance, pipeline status and commercial risks to the CCO on a regular basis.

• Track and report against personal and divisional commercial KPIs (new partners signed, committed annual spend, tier progression, account retention).

Desired Experience & Qualification

Essential

• Proven business development and/or account management experience in telecommunications, wholesale, or a comparable B2B indirect-channel environment.

• Demonstrated ability to originate and close new commercial relationships from scratch, not just manage an existing book of accounts.

• Strong commercial and negotiation skills, comfortable structuring SLA-based, tiered or usage-based commercial agreements.

• Ability to operate credibly across different partner types  from traditional ISP procurement teams to sophisticated banking MVNO stakeholders  adapting approach and language accordingly.

• Comfortable working with pricing governance frameworks (cost floors, margin targets, escalation clauses) and translating them into partner-facing commercial terms.

Desirable

• Existing relationships or credibility with ISPs, retail groups, or banking/financial services MVNO teams in South Africa.

• Familiarity with Fixed Wireless Access, network slicing, MVNO enablement, retail loyalty, data-as-currency models, network sharing (MOCN) concepts.

• Experience selling API-enabled or platform-based propositions rather than traditional bandwidth/port products.

• Experience operating in a business scaling rapidly from startup to a larger organisation.

Cultural fit

• Self-starting and resilient comfortable originating relationships in a market where Comsol's proposition is new and not yet proven at scale.

• Consultative sales style suited to selling outcomes and commercial architecture rather than commodity bandwidth.

• Collaborative, working closely with product, network and marketing colleagues to bring partner-specific propositions to life.