Country Manager at Abbott

In this role, the Country Manager leads and represents our brand in the specified country. The Country Manager job involves working to manage operations, develop business and increase profitability for Abbott Rapid Diagnostics in the assigned country or territory.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Support the Sales and Marketing team at congresses and conferences.
• Achieve and exceed Sales and GP budgets within territories, relevant customer accounts and product budgets.
• New Business Development:  Account focused Marketing Strategies towards achieving and exceeding growth targets.  Develop and implement tactical plans to realize new growth opportunities.
• Implement, monitor and ensure total territorial coverage in South Africa.
• Ensure in-field accompaniment of distributors and provide support with respect to product- and sales knowledge.
• Key Opinion Leader, NGO Funders and Supply Chain Management interaction.
• Prepare RFQ by international key stakeholders (NGOs, Procurement agencies, Supply companies).
• Solve customer queries and complaints.
• Provide customers with relevant product information.
• Effectively following up and concluding long term high value projects.                     
• Comply with required internal processes and reporting to ultimately deliver growth and manage sales performance.                                       
• Manage personal skills development of Sales team to deliver growth.                                   
• Comply with company quality system requirements.
• Interactions with all stakeholders to be in line with business values and code of ethics.
• Organise and manage product evaluations
• Monitor and report on competitive activities
• Conduct product training sessions with customers when necessary through training department
• Responsible for implementing and maintaining the effectiveness of the ARDx Quality System
• The Employee shall advise Company of market and industry trends relevant to the Product within the Region
• Shall assess the current distribution channels of the Company highlighting any strengths and weaknesses.
• Recommend any changes to the Company as they may deem appropriate;
• Prepare an annual business plan to be submitted to and discussed with the Company’s African sales team.
• Conduct market research to identify business and market trends within the Region in conjunction with distributors.
• Ensure Distributors’ complete familiarisation of, and adherence to Compliance policies.
• Facilitate weekly and monthly distributor reviews .
• Attend meetings, seminars, and conferences as appropriate.
• Responsible for implementing and maintaining the effectiveness of the Quality System
• As the in-country manager of the workflow process at the deployed location, you will manage all aspects of local sales and general administration in the territory/country.
• Maintains professional standards of accountability, quality and effectiveness of all personnel on his/her team.
• Provides direction and oversight of day-to-day operations in-country
• Coordinates and manages all in-country personnel and logistical support for in country teams.
• Inspects and supervises all in-country training
• Support New Market Entry Activities
• Works closely with Strategic Planning team to assist with quantitative & qualitative research and in completing Step 2: Feasibility Studies and Step 3: Identify Distributors /Partners processes.
• Gains knowledge of the country culture and laws to work collaboratively with the regional commercial /sales teams to identify areas where processes need to be adapted to meet country needs
• Develops and executes rolling 3-year plan for market development with mutual KPIs in conjunction with the Regional Sales Directors and Managers and related teams.
• Actively participates in planning and future direction of the business
• Drives growth by developing a strong market presence and capabilities
• Utilizes consumer insights and market Intel to help develop an in-country model that meets the local customers and distributors needs through mutually engagement of all partners involved.
• Able to travel local and Nationally
• Responsible for implementing and maintaining the effectiveness of the Abbott Rapid Diagnostics Quality System

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE:

• A Degree in Health Sciences and an Additional Business related qualification.
• Minimum of (five ) years’ sales and marketing experience within East Africa