Director of Sales Training
Location: Princeton, NJ; Hybrid
Position Summary
Responsibilities
Commercial Training Strategy
- Develop and implement the overall sales training strategy aligned with commercial goals.
- Establish annual training plans that support brand objectives, business priorities, and field force effectiveness.
- Identify training needs through partnership with commercial leaders and review of field performance metrics.
- Continuously adapt training programs to align with evolving market conditions, competitive activity, and organizational growth.
New Hire Onboarding
- Design and oversee comprehensive onboarding programs for new sales team members.
- Ensure field personnel achieve competency in disease state knowledge, product knowledge, compliance requirements, and core selling skills.
- Develop onboarding resources, learning pathways, assessments, and certification programs.
Product and Disease State Training
- Lead the creation and delivery of product, therapeutic area, and disease state training initiatives.
- Collaborate with Medical Affairs to ensure scientific content remains accurate, relevant, and compliant.
- Develop training materials supporting product launches, label changes, and competitive positioning.
Sales Excellence and Capability Development
- Deliver training focused on consultative selling, account management, territory planning, clinical discussions, and customer engagement.
- Coach managers on effective field coaching and performance development techniques.
- Implement competency models and learning curricula to improve sales force effectiveness.
- Support career development and capability-building initiatives across the field organization.
Launch Readiness
- Lead training efforts tied to product launches and major commercial milestones.
- Coordinate launch training activities across Sales, Marketing, Medical Affairs, Market Access, and Compliance.
- Develop field certification programs to ensure launch readiness.
Compliance and Regulatory Training
- Ensure all training programs comply with pharmaceutical industry regulations, company policies, and compliance requirements.
- Partner with Legal, Regulatory Affairs, and Compliance teams to review and approve training materials.
- Maintain appropriate training records and documentation.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree required.
- Advanced degree (MBA, PharmD, MS, or related field) preferred.
- 10+ years of experience within the pharmaceutical, biotech, or healthcare industry.
- At least 5 years of commercial training, sales training, or sales leadership experience.
- Experience supporting specialty pharmaceutical or biotech products preferred.
- Product launch experience strongly preferred.
- Experience training sales representatives and frontline sales managers.
- CNS, specialty, rare disease, or hospital-focused commercial experience preferred.
- Strong understanding of pharmaceutical sales environments and healthcare market dynamics.
- Expertise in adult learning methodologies and instructional design.
- Excellent presentation, facilitation, and communication skills.
- Demonstrated ability to influence and collaborate across multiple functions.
- Strong organizational and project management capabilities.
- Experience utilizing learning management systems and training technologies.
- Ability to translate complex scientific concepts into practical field training.
- Proven ability to manage competing priorities in a fast-paced environment.
Travel Requirements
- Approximately 30% to 50% travel, including field ride-alongs, sales meetings, national meetings, and training events.
FAQs
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