Area Manager / Regional Business Manager

Novartis; Hyderabad; On-site; INR 800,000 - 1,500,000; Full time

Job summary

Novartis AG in India is seeking a dynamic pharma sales professional to lead and coach a regional team in dermatology. You will drive in-field coaching, planning, and disciplined execution to hit sales and productivity targets.

You will develop regional business plans, run regular business reviews, and collaborate with Marketing, Medical, Value & Access and Supply to ensure successful product launches and sustained demand in priority accounts and institutions.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Life Sciences, Pharmacy, Business, or related field.
• MBA/PGDM preferred.
• 4–10 years pharma sales experience, with minimum 2 years in Dermatology.
• 2–4 years experience in team handling with leadership and coaching.

Responsibilities

• Lead and coach the team to achieve sales and productivity targets through strong in-field coaching, call planning and disciplined execution.
• Drive effective pre-launch and launch execution for new product, ensuring readiness across teams, customers, and priority accounts.
• Create and execute regional/territory business plans aligned to brand strategy (targeting, coverage, quarterly priorities, cycle plans) and review progress through regular business reviews.
• Drive high-quality, compliant, tailored HCP engagement using evidence-led, value-based selling; strengthen disease/patient pathway understanding and objection handling.
• Use sales and prescription insights, analytics and market intelligence to optimize targeting, improve call effectiveness and implement timely corrective actions.
• Ensure brand plan execution and KPI governance (coverage, call quality, demand drivers, availability) and manage risks across competition, access and supply.
• Partner with Marketing, Medical, Value & Access and Supply to deliver regional initiatives, resolve customer issues and improve patient access where applicable.
• Develop key accounts and KOLs across priority institutions/ clinics to build advocacy and sustain demand.
• Support market access and institutional processes (where applicable) to improve adoption, affordability and continuity of therapy.
• Own forecasting and business hygiene: accurate outlook, budget/expense discipline, and timely reporting/documentation.
• Work with distribution/trade partners to ensure availability, primary–secondary alignment and stock/expiry risk control in priority channels.

Skills

Leadership

Coaching

Team management

Dermatology sales

Education

Bachelor’s degree (Life Sciences/Pharmacy/Business or related)

MBA/PGDM preferred

Job description

Responsibilities

• Lead and coach the team to achieve sales, productivity and performance targets through strong in-field coaching, call planning and disciplined execution
• Drive effective pre-launch and launch execution for new product, ensuring readiness across teams, customers, and priority accounts.
• Create and execute regional/territory business plans aligned to brand strategy (targeting, coverage, quarterly priorities, cycle plans) and review progress through regular business reviews
• Drive high-quality, compliant, tailored HCP engagement using evidence-led, value-based selling; strengthen disease/patient pathway understanding and objection handling
• Use sales and prescription insights, analytics and market intelligence to optimize targeting, improve call effectiveness and implement timely corrective actions.
• Ensure brand plan execution and KPI governance (coverage, call quality, demand drivers, availability) and manage risks across competition, access and supply
• Partner with Marketing, Medical, Value & Access and Supply to deliver regional initiatives, resolve customer issues and improve patient access where applicable
• Develop key accounts and KOLs across priority institutions/ clinics to build advocacy and sustain demand
• Support market access and institutional processes (where applicable) to improve adoption, affordability and continuity of therapy.
• Own forecasting and business hygiene: accurate outlook, budget/expense discipline, and timely reporting/documentation.
• Work with distribution/trade partners to ensure availability, primary–secondary alignment and stock/expiry risk control in priority channels.

Qualification & Expeirence

• Bachelor’s degree (Life Sciences/Pharmacy/Business or related).
• MBA/PGDM preferred.
• 4–10 years pharma sales experience, with minimum 2 years in Dermatology segment
• 2–4 years experience in team handling with strong leadership, coaching and performance management skills