Summary
The Director of Commercial Training is responsible for developing, implementing, and overseeing comprehensive and compliant training programs including product, disease state, competitive landscape within Ipsen’s Oncology portfolio. This role will ensure that all customer-facing employees and Ipsen employees are equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills to drive growth. The development of new training strategies will be aligned with overall business objectives to drive consistent sales performance across the Oncology Business Unit. This candidate must have strong leadership skills with the capability to lead the training team and inform senior leadership/stakeholders to drive change and improvement. Strong leadership and team management skills enable you to allocate resources effectively, prioritize tasks and ensure the successful execution of all training programs across the Oncology Business Unit.
Main Responsibilities / Job Expectations
Strategic Training Development:
Design and implement comprehensive training curriculums, including, but not limited to, product knowledge, sales techniques, objection handling, customer relationship building, resource implementation, and market trends.
Develop/build a specific “post” new hire training calendar that ensures appropriate follow-up from the training team and Field Sales Trainers. This will outline specific timelines and deliverables to ensure progress and pull through following onboarding.
Enhance the sales strategy in partnership with sales leadership, the brand, and cross-functional partners.
Assess the current skillset and identify gaps through performance analysis, RBD feedback, field teams and cross-functional business partners.
Training Delivery and Facilitation:
Conduct live and virtual training sessions to sales, sales leadership, CNE, TLL and all commercial customer-facing roles to improve capabilities.
Develop engaging, real world training materials, including, case studies, KOL presentations, role-playing scenarios, and e-learning modules. Achieve leadership expectations through partnership with cross-functional teams on the brand strategies and OBU needs.
Develop an advanced training plan for our Field Sales Team (FST), Regional Business Directors (RBD) and Executive OAS team for development and leadership opportunities.
Oversee the delivery of training programs by internal trainers and external vendors to ensure high quality curriculums and deliverables.
Continue to establish and elevate Oncology Academy by identifying the needs in the field and the execution of deliverables to create a robust training plan built around key events and milestones.
Performance Coaching and Evaluation:
Monitor sales teams’ performance through regular coaching sessions and field observations to identify areas for improvement.
Frequent time in the field to further evaluate field effectiveness, identifying gaps and collect insights on real world usage of promotional materials to identify additional training needs or opportunities for improved resources.
Provide individual feedback and targeted coaching to enhance selling skills, elevate messaging and strategic pull through.
Knowledge, abilities & experience
BA/BS degree is required, an advanced degree would be a plus
At least 10 years biopharma commercial experience, with a minimum of 3 years of experience in Oncology therapeutic area
Extensive experience building and enhancing training curriculum to drive performance
Experience leading and influencing, both directly and indirectly
Sales experience in biotech for min 5 years is required. Prior sales leadership experience preferred
Key Technical Competencies
Strong facilitation & presentation skills
Knowledge of selling principles
Knowledge of adult learning principles is a plus
Background in solid tumor and hematology is strongly preferred
Knowledge of pharmaceutical systems used for sales execution & implementation is strongly preferred (ACTO, Veeva, iEngage)