Director, Customer Excellence

About AbbVie

AbbVie's mission is to discover and deliver innovative medicines and solutions that solve serious health issues today and address the medical challenges of tomorrow. We strive to have a remarkable impact on people's lives across several key therapeutic areas including immunology, oncology and neuroscience - and products and services in our Allergan Aesthetics portfolio. For more information about AbbVie, please visit us at www.abbvie.com. Follow @abbvie on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube.

JOB SUMMARY

Develops, recommends and delivers initiatives to maximize the impact and efficiency of sales resources. This role will be a key member of the Affiliate Management Team and is responsible for mentoring and managing the staff working in SFE, Training, CRM, BI, Trade Channel to deliver an effective service across the business.

Works closely with General Manager to ensure effective communication and adoption of best practice and processes to enable optimal deployment of sales resources. Ensures direct reports are trained and capable to execute country tasks and can deliver effectively on initiatives. The role will also liaise with Regional and International commercial excellence.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES 

Customer Segmentation/Targeting and Territory Optimization   

• Research, develop and define the strategy to profile, segment and target Abbvie’s customers managing the implementation of projects, identifying and communicating best practice and measuring success of approaches.
• Work with BUDs to set direction for sales management that will ensure salesforce effort is targeted to highest value customers aligned with business strategy and that KPIs are identified to track sales team performance.
• Run projects to identify optimal and code compliant coverage of key business accounts and target customer groups and collaborate with sales management to ensure resources are deployed across the BU/Product Line/Country effectively to maximize the impact of the sales teams.
• Lead re design of territory structures as required to ensure optimal coverage of key customers.
• Assess impact of new sales processes and the value of deploying sales team in different ways.
• Develop the key metrics that are used to track sales team performance across the business units working with BI and CRM teams to ensure systems and reports are in place to track metrics
• Maintain familiarity with current trends in salesforce deployment for the Pharmaceutical/Healthcare industry including understanding of how different models can deliver key business objectives.

Salesforce Bonus/Incentive Design                                                                     

• Work with the Region to shape and develop annual incentive schemes ensuring schemes are aligned to regional strategy and policy and are fair and motivational. Test and implement.
• Ensure local bonus policies are understood and paid correctly in country, providing support as needed to ensure correct management of sales bonus for accurate calculations and payments to be made.

Country Sales Operations                                                                             

• Lead and develop CRM and BI roles to ensure they support delivery of business strategy. Provide input to the structure and requirements of these roles/teams ensuring suitable training is provided and Abbvie systems are understood and fully utilized.
• Lead the implementation of significant CRM, BI and digital initiatives, working with relevant team members to ensure strong adoption, sustained effectiveness and clear local ownership of plans and deliverables.
• Drive digital adoption by the IFT by embedding tools, dashboards and field processes into day-to-day commercial routines, enabling data-led decision making and stronger execution discipline across sales teams.
• Drive accurate and timely reporting by CRM/BI ensuring effective working processes are in place to meet requirements of all business units.
• Ensure the sales operations organization has the right skills, capabilities and future-focused mindset to anticipate evolving business needs, adopt new ways of working and continuously raise the standard of sales operations and excellence.
• Represent the country on regional meets and lead/participate in workstreams. Inform lead team about regional and international commercial excellence initiatives and relevance to the business.  

Training                                                                                                                 

• Lead the Sales Training team in defining and executing a strategic capability-building agenda that strengthens sales effectiveness, customer engagement and account management excellence across the organization.
• Ensure sales training interventions are continuously aligned in real time with global scientific, behavioural and commercial excellence frameworks, translating global standards into locally relevant and actionable learning priorities.
• Drive effective coaching of sales managers to embed desired field behaviours, improve quality of in-field execution and build leadership capability to sustain performance improvement.
• Ensure timely upskilling of sales teams by identifying emerging capability gaps, prioritising interventions with commercial leadership and measuring impact against business and customer excellence outcomes.

Market and sales planning & analysis       

• Provide quantitative and qualitative commercial insights to the financial planning, S&OP and LRP processes.
• Propose commercial strategies which cover discount policy development and implementation, supply optimisation practices, routes to market analysis, pricing and promotional activities, targeted wholesaler and pharmacy relationships and any other commercial initiatives that drive domestic revenues.
• Analyze the performance of above-mentioned initiatives.

Leadership & Collaboration requirements

• Proven experience partnering with commercial teams to co-develop and execute local innovation and capability-building initiatives
• Strong discipline in reviewing SFE metrics and using data to course-correct campaigns
• Executive presence to influence stakeholders across regional, global, and local affiliate levels
• Leadership capability to drive accountability and results

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE

• Bachelor’s degree in Medical, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Life Sciences, Business Administration or a related discipline; postgraduate qualification in business, management or commercial excellence would be an advantage.
• Minimum 15 years of progressive experience in the healthcare or pharmaceutical industry, preferably in multinational organisations, with significant exposure to customer excellence, sales force effectiveness, commercial operations, training, analytics, CRM and digital capability building.
• Proven experience leading cross-functional customer excellence or commercial excellence agendas, including segmentation and targeting, territory optimisation, incentive design, sales operations, market planning and performance management.
• Demonstrated people leadership experience, including talent development, coaching, performance management and building high-performing teams across sales training, CRM, analytics, BI and digital functions.
• Experience in sales training, coaching, compliance programmes, budget management, forecasting and governance of sales and commercial excellence processes.
• Fluent in English with strong written and verbal communication skills and the ability to influence senior stakeholders in a matrix, multicultural environment.

ESSENTIAL SKILLS, EXPERIENCE AND COMPETENCIES

• Senior-level gravitas with a hands-on approach, able to shape strategy while driving disciplined execution across customer excellence priorities.
• Excellent understanding of ethical sales and marketing practices, compliance expectations and customer-focused engagement models in the healthcare industry.
• Strong strategic planning, budgeting, forecasting and business acumen, with the ability to connect market insights, customer needs, commercial priorities and operational execution.
• Deep knowledge of sales force effectiveness, CRM, BI, digital adoption, distribution channels, forecasting and performance management systems.
• Strong leadership, interpersonal, motivational and influencing skills, with the ability to build trust, align stakeholders and deliver outcomes in a fast-paced, matrix environment.
• Strong analytical, numerical, creative and conceptual thinking skills, with a proven ability to translate data and insights into clear strategic choices and measurable business actions.
• High personal effectiveness, including prioritisation, responsiveness, flexibility, resilience and the ability to operate with limited supervision while knowing when to consult, escalate or inform.
• Proven track record of success in setting high professional standards, driving change, fostering innovation and delivering customer and business impact.
• Seizes market opportunities through insight-led decision making, identifying customer and commercial priorities and choosing effective approaches to deliver sustainable impact.

BEHAVIOURS/VALUES

• Collaborates broadly across local, regional and global teams, prioritising and leveraging resources to ensure customer excellence goals are met.
• Builds trusting relationships with internal and external stakeholders, understands customer needs and embeds customer-focused practices across sales operations, training and analytics.
• Cultivates strategic networks and partnerships to achieve business goals, engages people with energy and clarity, and creates commitment to shared success.
• Adapts effectively in uncertain and changing environments, remains comfortable with ambiguity and brings future-focused thinking to evolving business and customer needs.
• Acts with integrity and authenticity, promotes trust, is receptive to the ideas of others and demonstrates self-motivation, creativity and innovation.

AbbVie is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to operating with integrity, driving innovation, transforming lives and serving our community.  Equal Opportunity Employer/Veterans/Disabled. 

US & Puerto Rico only - to learn more, visit https://www.abbvie.com/join-us/equal-employment-opportunity-employer.html

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