Role type: Managerial Role with direct reporting of 3 SFE Managers and dotted line reporting of respective country SFE managers
Industry: Pharmaceuticals / Life Sciences
Experience Required: 12+ years in pharmaceutical SFE consulting with global exposure
Role Summary:
We are seeking a highly experienced and strategic leader to spearhead our Sales Force Excellence (SFE) function. This role is pivotal in transforming our commercial operations through the design, implementation, and continuous improvement of best-in-class SFE processes. The ideal candidate will have deep consulting experience with top pharmaceutical clients globally, and a proven ability to drive measurable impact through data-driven, scalable, and sustainable SFE strategies.
Key Responsibilities:
1. Strategic SFE Process Design & Governance
- Lead the end-to-end design of SFE processes across the commercial lifecycle from customer segmentation to performance management.
- Establish regional standards and governance frameworks for SFE initiatives, ensuring alignment with business strategy and local market needs.
- Develop and institutionalize best in class SFE frameworks to ensure robust implementation and sustainability of sales initiatives.
2. Sales Force Design & Territory Optimization
- Drive sales organization design including role definitions, span of control, and field force sizing.
- Lead territory design and optimization using advanced analytics and geospatial modelling to maximize coverage and efficiency. Implement Granular Effective Planning (GEP) to enable customer-level planning and resource allocation.
3. Customer Targeting & Call Planning
- Oversee data driven call planning and customer segmentation strategies tailored to therapeutic areas and market archetypes.
- Define and refine targeting models based on prescribing behaviour, potential, and influence mapping.
- Integrate account-based planning for institutional markets with multi-stakeholder engagement strategies
5. Commercial Capability Enablement at Scale
- Establish a capability excellence framework that defines the core skills, behaviours, and customer engagement standards required for field teams across Emerging Markets.
- Build practical, scalable learning programs that include role-based onboarding, skill-building modules, simulations, job aids etc. and deployment at scale.
- Partner with country SFE / P&L leaders to ensure capability programs are adopted effectively while being adaptable to local market realities.
- Strengthen frontline manager capability by driving consistent improvement through feedback and follow up loops to create impact on field force performance.
6. Data, Analytics & Technology Integration
- Partner with Sales Ops and DPEx teams to build robust data infrastructure, reporting systems, and analytics capabilities.
- Ensure seamless integration of CRM, reporting platforms, and AI/ML models into SFE workflows.
7. Consulting & Change Management Expertise
- Bring a consulting mindset to problem-solving, stakeholder engagement, and solution design. Lead cross-functional workshops, diagnostics, and maturity assessments to identify SFE improvement opportunities.
- Drive change management and adoption strategies to embed new processes and tools across global markets.
- Minimum 12 + years of experience in top-tier consulting firms or internal consulting roles focused on pharmaceutical SFE.
- Demonstrated success in leading global SFE transformation programs across multiple geographies.
- Deep understanding of pharma commercial models, therapeutic area dynamics, and healthcare systems.
- Strong command of CRM systems (e.g., Veeva, Salesforce), analytics platforms (e.g., Tableau, Power BI), and data science tools.
- Advanced degree in Statistics, Business, Life Sciences, or Engineering and MBA
