Read this part first
This is a commission-only appointment. There is no retainer, no salary and no advance. If you sell nothing, you earn nothing. We would rather say that on the first screen than waste a fortnight of your time discovering it.
You would be an independent contractor, not an employee. You set your own hours, use your own laptop, phone and data, and are free to represent other non-competing products. We supply the product, the training, the target list and the demonstration account.
What you would be selling
TradeVault Africa is a trade compliance platform for African exporters and the people who move their goods. It covers the UK Developing Countries Trading Scheme, the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, the EU Deforestation Regulation, rules of origin, sanctions screening and export document generation.
The commercial argument is not abstract. African exporters routinely pay duty they do not owe because an origin declaration was wrong, and are being asked by European buyers for emissions and deforestation data most of them cannot yet produce. You are selling the system that answers those questions.
Everywhere
Platform subscriptions to exporters, importers, clearing agents and freight forwarders, plus referral channels who bring their own client book.
South Africa only
Additionally, fixed-fee compliance readiness work delivered by our principal, a registered natural scientist. You book it, he scopes and signs it, you earn on it.
Where
We are recruiting across all seven markets below. The first appointments are South Africa, Kenya and Ghana. Applications from the other four are genuinely welcome and go into an active pipeline, but we would rather tell you that now than leave you waiting on a decision that has not been scheduled.
What the work actually is
- Outbound email, calls and LinkedIn approaches to named exporters, importers and clearing agents in your market.
- Qualifying against three facts before you book anything: the firm trades with the EU or UK, the goods fall in a covered category, and your contact can authorise spend or reach the person who can.
- Running a live 30-minute demonstration of the platform against the prospect's own product codes and destinations.
- Escalating every technical regulatory question to our principal, on the call, using wording we give you. Escalation is expected and is never treated as a failure.
- Keeping the shared pipeline current the same day, so the pipeline belongs to the business and not to a notebook.
What you never do: give compliance advice, interpret a regulation for a specific consignment, confirm whether a particular product is in scope, quote a fee outside the approved band, or describe yourself as an employee. Those carry a professional registration behind them and they are not yours to give.
How you get paid
- A fee for every qualified demonstration delivered, not per hour worked and not per call made. This exists so that you earn in your first fortnight rather than waiting on a first close, which is the commonest reason good commission-only people give up early.
- A percentage of every subscription you sign, paid across the first twelve months, so retention is worth something to you and not just to us.
- A channel override where you sign a clearing agent or freight forwarder who then brings their own clients. This is the highest-leverage work in the whole plan and it is paid accordingly.
- In South Africa, a percentage of each readiness engagement you originate, on the fee actually received.
Exact rates are in the offer, in writing, before you make a single call. All percentages are of money actually received, excluding VAT, and are paid once the client has paid. We will also tell you honestly what a weak month looks like, not only a strong one.
Payment arrangements differ by country and we will be straight with you about yours before you start. We would rather agree a route that works than promise a commission we cannot reliably pay.
Who this suits
- You have sold business-to-business into farms, agri-processing, manufacturing, freight or logistics, and you are comfortable asking for the managing director by name.
- You can hold a conversation in regulatory vocabulary without pretending to expertise you do not have.
- You can run a video demonstration competently: screen share, stable connection, no fumbling.
- You have your own laptop, smartphone, data and transport.
- English is fluent. Kiswahili, Portuguese, French, Afrikaans or isiXhosa are a real advantage depending on your market.
It suits you less if you want a title on a business card, want leads handed to you, or would rather improvise the technical content than use the approved script.
How to apply
There is no form. Email careers@tradevault.africa with the subject line Country Representative application, tell us which country you are applying for, attach your CV, and answer these three questions in the body of the email.
1. In a demonstration, a client asks a technical regulatory question you cannot answer. What do you do?
This is the one that decides it. There is a right answer and it is not "I would work it out".
2. A prospect says: my European buyer has not asked me for any of this. What do you say?
We are looking for curiosity, not argument.
3. Walk us through your last three months in a commission role. Dials, meetings, closes, earnings.
Real numbers, including bad months, are a good sign. Vagueness about volume is not.
Applications without answers to all three are not read. That is not us being difficult: the job is largely about following an approved process precisely, and this is the cheapest possible test of whether that suits you.
Shortlisted candidates run a mock demonstration on the live platform after one day of preparation, with our principal playing the client. We will include a technical question you cannot answer, and what you do with it is most of the decision.
Want to understand the product before you apply? Read the blog, which covers the regulations you would be selling against, or the platform overview.