Job Description

Associate Business Development Director

The Associate Business Development Director is responsible for contributing to a high-performing team environment defined by a culture of commitment, collaboration, learning, and dedication to excellence. They lead by example to demonstrate the importance of team culture and environment to more junior team members. They consistently achieve the net new business target for their assigned territory, with an annual target of US$25m+.

Responsibilities

Team Development Support

The Novotech Business Development team follow a set of principles based on open engagement, transparency, integrity, collaboration, learning, and dedication to excellence. It is an absolute requirement that all team members conduct themselves in the spirit of these principles and always put the interests of the team, clients, the Business Development department, and Novotech before their own interests.

Core responsibilities include

• Lead team meetings, lessons learned sessions, and training.
• Facilitate growth and development opportunities for the team, not only in formal settings, but by listening, engaging and asking questions in all interactions, meetings and 1-2-1s.
• Commit to always delivering work (including emails and formal documentation) you believe to be of the highest possible quality.
• Share knowledge, expertise, insights across the commercial team and broader organization.
• Support more junior team members (including in Client Ops, PBC, other departments, functions) to ensure they understand expectations and help them in meeting them.
• Treat all individuals and parties, both internal and external, with respect and courtesy.
• Always conduct yourself in a professional and cordial manner when representing Novotech and this team.
• Comply with commercial systems and data insight tools (e.g., SF.com, Global Data).
• Embrace open engagement by providing constructive feedback and suggestions regardless of position or seniority.
• Take all available opportunities to share knowledge and offer support to teammates.
• Mentor junior team members as required.
• Support line manager in overall team development initiatives.

Learning & Development

All members of the BD team must develop deep clinical trial and industry knowledge in order to position themselves as ‘clinical development consultants’ to our clients and prospective clients. Business Development Managers must show a more in-depth knowledge across all key areas and ability to use this knowledge to engage and educate clients and prospective clients. They must demonstrate an ability to use all our internal expertise, experience, and services to truly help clients reach their goals, objectives, and milestones.

Business Development Directors will recommend modules, develop content with SMEs and lead training sessions to support learning and development programs for the commercial organization.

Key areas of focus include

• Biotech industry knowledge – BD Training Plan, Industry Newsletters.
• Clinical trial industry knowledge - BD Training Plan, Industry Newsletters, Internal Resources.
• Therapeutic area and modality knowledge across key areas of focus for Novotech – BD Training Plan.
• Asia-Pacific clinical trial landscape – Country Playbook, Marketing Material, Internal Resources.
• Novotech knowledge – BD Training Plan, Marketing Material, Proposals, FAQs, Internal Resources.
• Sales process – BD Playbook.

Sales Funnel Management

Key to meeting annual sales targets is ensuring an adequate funnel of new opportunities. BD Directors should demonstrate an in-depth understanding of their territory / account lists such that they can advise on where they expect to secure repeat business and new RFPs; which accounts they will target, how and why; and if they believe additional resources should be added to capitalize on a given territory.

They will demonstrate their industry knowledge and initiative by providing insight on their territories, conference plans, trends, opportunities and challenges.

Territory / Account Planning

• Work with line manager to develop account list which will focus on high value accounts / targets from a strategic or value perspective – e.g. Phase 3, China, Portfolio.
• Develop an annual territory / account plan that will drive key business priorities and objectives.
• Conduct research (or review if provided by sales enablement team) on assigned accounts to understand funding, investors, board members, team members, therapeutic area, modality, stage of development, development history etc. as per BD Playbook.
• Identify connections and opportunities based on this internal research and plans for client nurturing and engagement.
• Follow prospecting processes and track all activity in SF.com to meet agreed sales funnel (pre-RFP) KPIs.
• Utilize SF.com and industry data sources to capture insights on accounts, pipeline opportunities, and specific deals.
• Report on activity, progress, and challenges to line manager on a weekly basis.
• Work closely marketing to ensure an enough flow of qualified, active accounts are received to meet KPIs and annual targets. Report challenges or concerns to line manager.
• Read industry news regularly to identify market trends and new targets. Share insights with manager, marketing and across the team.

Pre-RFP Client Engagement

• Meet with assigned accounts prior to receipt of any RFP.
• Review previous research and create a client meeting plan in line with BD Playbook with the objective of understanding as much as you can about the account / client including their objectives, plans, preferences etc.
• Educate clients on potential advantages of Asia-Pacific as it relates to their company objectives and clinical development plans.
• Seek continued engagement with available Novotech resources and expertise (Feasibility, BioDesk, Medical).
• Understand key client drivers and decision-making criteria for any forthcoming opportunities.
• Work with marketing to nurture accounts between meetings and receipt of RFP.
• Utilize SF.com to track all calls / meetings, record key client information and review activity and next steps with line manager during regular 1-2-1 meetings.

Marketing Activities

• Review conference plan with marketing and provide insight and recommendations.
• Speak at an industry conference.
• Identify new potential conferences for attendance and/or local events and provide recommendations to marketing.
• Support marketing activities for therapeutically aligned conferences.
• Maximize effectiveness of all marketing campaigns through thorough advance prospecting.
• Report on outcomes and effectiveness of marketing campaigns / events through SF.com and set up or maintain campaigns within SF.com as appropriate.

RFP Management

Once an RFP is received, BD Directors will be the primary point of contact, along with assigned Client Ops, for the client. They will act as the Project Manager or Scrum Master of the process, both internally and externally, to ensure engagement on both sides throughout. They will be responsible for the quality, relevance and timing of the final deliverable to the client and the outcome thereafter. They will take ownership and responsibility for outcomes.

• Review protocol / RFP / other documents received.
• Follow RFP kick off process as outlined in BD Playbook.
• Conduct an internal strategy call (where possible) to provide team with all available qualifying detail and key considerations to win the opportunity and align on next steps.
• Conduct alignment and strategy calls with client as per BD Playbook to guide content and key requirements of proposals.
• Review budgets and proposals in line with BD Playbook and checklists and ensure key messages and content is included and budget is in line with client expectations.
• Manage proposal submissions, client follow up and engagement.
• Prepare for and manage bid defence meetings as per BD Playbook.
• Drive opportunities through resolution – won, lost or deferred.
• Oversee re-costing, follow up, contracting process.
• Handover contracted opportunities to Operations with an enough detail to allow smooth start-up and effective client management.
• Track and manage all stages of the opportunity via SF.com and provide weekly updates with accurate forecast details.

Current Clients

• Keep abreast of developments on studies for current clients, checking in both internally and with client periodically.
• Review status of current clients with Project Director and Customer Portfolio Director / Manager.
• Serve as a point of escalation for client concerns and join calls to address.
• Understand current clients’ company objectives, milestones, plans and priorities across their full pipeline.
• Develop client relationships to position Novotech as their clinical development partner with global regulatory / drug development support and clinical reach.

Company & Departmental Initiatives, Goals and Objectives

In line with the BD team’s ethos and culture, there is an expectation on everyone to take a team first mindset, with increasing expectations at more senior levels. Associate Director / Director level must demonstrate a capacity to support others and progress the team, while also having the capability to manage their own workload and meet their own KPIs. This demonstrates leadership, maturity, and commitment.

Associate Director / Directors must show initiative in not only driving key projects to support overall team and company objectives, but also in providing recommendations on what some of these key projects should be. Areas where Directors may support include:

• Lead team meetings including arranging topics, speakers, lessons learned, etc.
• Lead key team initiatives.
• Lead key cross functional initiatives.
• Mentor junior team members.
• Provide recommendations on process improvements, Novotech positioning, marketing material etc. based on knowledge of industry best practice and competitor intelligence.
• Arrange and run training modules for BD team.
• Provide recommendations and insight on Novotech go to market strategy including gaps or weaknesses in service offering.
• Provide recommendations and insight on global marketing and sales strategy.
• Use industry knowledge, contacts and network to assess trends and gather competitor intelligence. Provide regular feedback on how Novotech can gain market share based on this intel.
• Take ownership of key conferences including working with marketing for planning, managing BD pre-conference effort, preparing the assigned BD attendees, reporting on key metrics and assuming responsibility for outcomes.

Minimum Qualifications & Experience

• Demonstrate collaboration and teamwork across the full BD team to drive process improvement, compliance and skills development.
• Develop territory to consistently meet sales targets and KPIs such that additional BD resources are required to support continued growth.
• Demonstrate in depth understanding of Novotech sales process and importance of compliance, while also providing recommendations and suggestions for improvement.
• Demonstrate an understanding of biotech industry and market trends, clinical trial industry and market trends.
• Demonstrate an understanding of biotech needs / challenges – understand your customers.
• Demonstrate an understanding of key therapeutic areas to facilitate in depth client discussions.
• Demonstrate ability to use increasing industry knowledge and experience to Identify new client targets and develop strategies to engage them, nurture the relationship and successfully secure new RFPs.
• Demonstrate an understanding of clinical trial budgets, proposals and contracts to facilitate both internal client reviews and discussions.
• Demonstrate ability to ascertain and understand client objectives / goals through careful and thorough discovery work.
• Demonstrate in depth understanding of APAC regulatory and clinical landscape and communicate effectively (including at industry conferences).
• Effectively manage internal teams to ensure deliverables are met and proposed strategy aligns with clients’ needs / objectives.
• Demonstrate ability to own all aspects of sales process from initial engagement through contract signatures.
• Demonstrate ability to manage key accounts, generating repeat business with expanding services (e.g. additional countries, additional functions, BioDesk).
• Provide input and suggestions on current sales process and lead initiatives to improve processes.
• Provide input and suggestions on templates and marketing collateral.
• Provide input and suggestions on conference schedule / plans.
• Improve overall effectiveness of the BD team through mentoring of individuals, process improvement, upskilling, training etc.
• Compliance with key commercial systems (e.g., SF.com).