Senior Vice President, North American Sales

POSITION SUMMARY

The Senior Vice President of North American (NA) Sales is responsible for providing leadership to the sales organization and developing the overall sales strategy for the North American territory with the goal to drive revenue growth and commercial business in new and existing markets.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

•    Oversees strategic and goal setting for all levels of the sales team. Ensures teams meet/exceed sales targets designed to develop growth and profitability in targeted regions. Drives efficient business processes that include monthly and quarterly country and territory level reviews that result in an action plan to achieve revenue, expense goals, and funnel targets.
•    Responsible for NA strategy and proper execution to drive desired behaviors in the selling organization.
•    Responsible for establishing budgets, staffing plans, and resource allocation for the North American Sales organization.
•    Prepares the annual territory sales plan, in conjunction with business partners that details the financial expectations and the associated activities and expectations for the teams to run an effective selling organization.  
•    Identifies key opinion and thought leaders in the industry.  Collaborates with management to translate ideas to strategies to identify and retain key account relationships.
•    Prepares and defends the justification for investments and other changes to the regional team.
•    Develops and communicates well-defined key performance indicators for staff and ensures they remain current and consistent with company goals and initiatives.
•    Establishes and monitors staff performance and development goals, assigns accountabilities, sets objectives, establishes priorities, and provides continuous feedback and recognition on performance. Identifies high performers to groom for potential succession planning.
•    Promotes a culture of high performance and continuous improvement that values learning and a commitment to quality.
•    Builds and maintains good relationships with key customers, potential customers, and key opinion leaders.
•    Generates and protects a strong customer referral base and utilizes effectively to drive market penetration.
•    Drives territory commitment to customer satisfaction by overseeing the resolution of issues/complaints and, when appropriate, escalates the issues.
•    Drives efficient business processes within the territory including monthly and quarterly country and territory level reviews that result in an action plan to achieve revenue, expense and funnel health targets.
•    Possesses an in-depth and up-to-date knowledge of the current and future market trends, including funding availability, technology trends, customer applications and competitive technology.
•    Ensures compliance with all company, policies, processes and codes of conduct for yourself and your direct reports.

EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS
•    Bachelor’s degree in business administration, life sciences or related field. MBA preferred.
•    A minimum of 12 years of progressively responsible sales management experience in multi-state territories; at least 5 years of senior-level management experience.
•    A solid understanding of the Pharma/Biotech industry and the related academic and research institutions.
•    A sound knowledge of business management, sales management & people management.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES
•    Proven success establishing and nurturing productive relationships with subordinates, peers and executive management as well as key customers.
•    Demonstrated passion for excellence, and proven success delivering to sales/revenue/profit goals.
•    Superior leadership skills with demonstrated knowledge and understanding of staff management practices and processes and the ability to establish accountabilities and expectations and manage performance to achieve results.
•    Energetic, results-driven with excellent organizational and prioritization skills.
•    A high level of confidence, integrity, interpersonal skills, and a professional executive presence for effectively interacting with and influencing others, internal and external to the company, as well as for facilitating meetings and conducting public speaking/presentations.
•    Strong business acumen, negotiation and mediation skills, as well as a demonstrated attention to detail and a focus on achieving quality outcomes.  Ability to build/foster relationships.
•    Excellent judgment and problem-solving skills for identifying problems, drawing conclusions, determining options for resolution, and recommending next steps.
•    Excellent oral and written communication skills, including the ability to communicate effectively and project a professional image when giving and taking information in writing, in person, and through various communication media. The ability to present to varying sized audiences in a manner that influences and drives understanding is critical.
•    Proven ability to implement positive change.
•    Technical proficiency in the use of Microsoft Office (i.e., Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook).
•    Commitment to customer satisfaction.
•    Demonstrated ethics and integrity.
•    Capacity to work effectively both independently and as a member of a team, as well as to provide guidance to others.
•    Attention to detail with a demonstrated commitment to excellence and performance improvement and the drive to deliver quality and value-added results and outcomes.
•    Willing to travel across North America as needed.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS

•    This position requires the ability to communicate and exchange information, utilize equipment necessary to perform the job, and move about the office.

WORK ENVIRONMENT

•    This position is performed in a traditional home office environment.
•    Must be willing and able and able to travel throughout North America – Up to 80% of the time.