National Sales Head - Distributor Partnerships

Title: National Sales Head (Domestic Generics)

Location: Mumbai

Industry: Pharmaceutical Manufacturing

Experience: 12+ years of experience in the Pharma Industry

OVERVIEW

We seek a seasoned and strategic National Sales Head to lead and scale the Domestic Generics business for pharmaceutical manufacturing operations across India. The ideal candidate will have a strong track record of building, appointing, and managing distributor networks that drive further sales. The role requires strong channel management capability, distributor relationship-building, and the ability to scale a nationwide distribution-led sales organisation.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership

• Develop and execute the national sales strategy for the Domestic Generics business, aligning with organisational growth objectives.
• Drive revenue, profitability, market share expansion, and business development initiatives across India through the distributor channel.
• Identify emerging market and channel opportunities and formulate strategies to strengthen the company's competitive positioning as a generics manufacturer.
• Collaborate with senior leadership to define annual business plans, sales forecasts, and growth targets.

Distributor & Channel Management

• Identify, evaluate, and appoint distributors across target geographies to drive primary, secondary, and tertiary sales of the generics portfolio.
• Build and manage a robust nationwide distributor network, ensuring adequate coverage, credit management, and consistent performance across all regions.
• Monitor and drive distributor performance against sales targets, working closely with them to expand reach into pharmacies, retail chemists, and other trade partners.
• Design and implement distributor engagement programs, incentive structures, and periodic business reviews to strengthen partner relationships and drive mutual growth.
• Ensure appropriate distributor onboarding, agreements, credit terms, and compliance with company policies.
• Continuously evaluate and optimise distributor network structure to improve coverage, efficiency, and profitability.

Sales Management

• Lead and manage nationwide sales operations across multiple regions, zones, and territories through the distributor network.
• Drive achievement of sales targets through effective planning, execution, and performance management at the distributor and field team level.
• Monitor key business metrics including primary/secondary/tertiary sales, distributor productivity, sales velocity, and market penetration.
• Establish robust sales governance frameworks, reporting systems, and performance tracking mechanisms across the distribution chain.

Team Leadership & Development

• Build, mentor, and lead a high-performing sales organisation.
• Foster a culture of accountability, performance excellence, and partner-centricity across the internal team and distributor network.

Market & Trade Development

• Build and strengthen relationships with distributors, stockists, retail chemists/pharmacies, and other trade partners.
• Ensure effective coverage and expansion of the company's generics product portfolio across target markets through the distribution network.
• Monitor competitor activities, market trends, distributor pricing/margins, and trade requirements.
• Drive market and channel intelligence initiatives to support business decisions and product/portfolio strategy.

Business Planning & Commercial Excellence

• Lead annual sales planning, territory and distributor network optimisation, incentive design, and resource allocation.
• Partner closely with cross-functional teams to ensure business alignment and adequate product supply to distributors.
• Optimise distribution and channel sales processes, enhancing field force and distributor effectiveness through data-driven decision-making.
• Ensure efficient management of sales budgets, distributor credit exposure, and trade scheme spends.

Qualifications and Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Pharmacy, Life Sciences, Science, or a related discipline.
• MBA in Marketing, Sales, or General Management preferred.
• Significant experience in Domestic Generics sales within a pharmaceutical manufacturing organisation, with a distributor/channel-led sales background.
• Proven track record of appointing, managing, and scaling distributor networks that drive further sales into pharmacies and retail trade.
• Proven success in leading national or multi-regional distributor-driven sales operations.
• Experience managing large field sales teams across India with a strong focus on channel/distributor management rather than institutional or prescription-based selling.
• Strong understanding of the Indian pharmaceutical distribution ecosystem, trade channels, stockist/distributor economics, and retail pharmacy dynamics.
• Demonstrated track record of consistently delivering ambitious revenue and growth targets through channel partners.