Ashwin Sookdeo

• Generated new sales leads to achieve and exceed monthly sales goals.
• Attended monthly sales meetings and quarterly sales trainings.
• Increased sales with execution of full sales cycle processing from initial lead processing through conversion and closing.
• Prepared merchandise for sales floor by pricing or tagging.
• Assessed customer needs and utilized suggestive selling techniques to drive sales.
• Achieved or exceeded company-defined sales quotas.
• Built diverse and consistent sales portfolio.
• Worked with sales team to collaboratively reach targets, consistently meeting or exceeding personal quotas.
• Set and achieved company defined sales goals.
• Negotiated prices, terms of sales and service agreements.
• Informed customers of promotions to increase sales productivity and volume.
• Maintained calm demeanor and professionally managed issues in busy, high-stress situations.
• Engaged with customers to effectively build rapport and lasting relationships.

SVP (Small Volume Parenterals) Portfolio.

Responsible for the marketing of Anaesthetics, Anti-Infective and Anti-emetic Portfolio for the ICU environment.

I was also integrally involved in the Business Development (Feasibility Studies and liaison with third party manufacturers)

Job Description:

· Development of overall strategy of the SVP portfolio, Brand Plans and tactics to ensure seamless execution of the strategy.

· Managing the entire small volume parenteral basket of Adcock Ingram Critical Care (44 SKU’s) as well as the entire Pharma-Q basket (41 SKU’s) of products.

· Stock control, forecasting, budgeting and expense control.

· Managing of the robust RMA process timeously within the agreed SLA’s

· Preparing Advertising Agency briefs, processing of marketing material and testing marketing concepts in-field

· Regular liaising with third-party manufacturers to ensure adherence to SLA’s and risk mitigation

Product & Therapeutic Area Training at Cycle Meeting; Anaesthetics, Anti-Infectives, Analgesics, Nebsols (nebulising solutions

Responsible for the Chronic Portfolio; Cardiovascular, Central Nervous System & Gastroenterology. Men’s Health products, Female Health products

Job Description

• Concept, Design, Strategy and Execution of Marketing communications of current brands within the chronic portfolio, CVS & CNS
• Briefing of AD Agencies on strategy and concept.Pre-market launch activities of new molecules as well as thorough supply chain management.
• Close liaison with Global Marketing Team to include global best–practices in local marketing communications.
• Close working relationship with Business Development to ensure that leading molecules are sourced to augment current product offerings.
• Regular liaison with Chronic Houses for preferential formulary listing, with value added services.
• Daily monitoring of sales figures and addressing of risks and anomalies.
• Use of TPM/ IMS and Impact Rx to track sales trends and competitor growths or lack thereof.
• Conference & Cycle Meeting Marketing Leadership.
• Judicious Expenditure control in line with organizational imperatives. Tight control of expenses and ROI marketing spend.
• Continue to develop and maintain KOL relationships (Cardiology, Psychiatry & Neurology), to enhance product and organizational brand equity.

Company Name: Solidea

• Preparation of marketing plans and sale tactics in line with Solidea’s growth trajectory and market penetration strategy.
• Channel and Category Management Proposals for Solidea’s range of products for SA market.
• Market Research and market intelligence gathering to validate findings from research.
  

Consultant Product Manager/ Project Manager

Company Name: Sanofi Pasteur

National roll-out of Meningitis Vaccination and Awareness Campaign to all Tertiary and some Secondary institutions in South Africa.

Products

Menomune (polysaccharide meningitis vaccine) &

Menactra (conjugate meningitis vaccine) to be launched by Q3, 2014

• Concept, design, strategy and implementation of marketing strategy to key roll-players in the identified market segment University doctors, nurses and administrators.
• Sales pitches to student healthcare services and university boards regarding mass vaccination of students and healthcare workers against meningitis.
  
  Working closely with Ad Agency (Publicis) and vendors of promo-material, to ensure timeous and professional execution of product strategy.
• Stock management and supply chain liaison, to ensure appropriate stock levels are available for campaign.
• Arranging of frequent exhibitions at tertiary and secondary institutions and involvement in Disease State Management days.

Consultant: Product Manager Cardiovascular & Diabetes

Sanofi (Zentiva Division)

Marketing and Sales Strategy for the following brands;

Arycor, Atorvastatin-Winthrop, Betacor, Clopidogrel-Winthrop, Glamaryl and Irbewin/ Co-Irbewin & Ramiwin

Use of TPM IMS data, to analyse market trends and devise strategies for the above brands.

• Develop overall marketing strategy for the CVS & DIABETES portfolio.
• Manage the development and implementation of marketing plans and tactics consistent with global Zentiva strategy.
• Plan and control local Marketing expenditure and budgets, according to product priorities, ensuring cost-efficiency at all times and particular focus on advertising and promotion and other controllable expenses.
• Identify new business opportunities for offensive and defensive generics
• Develop and maintain key opinion leader contact at various institutions to optimize Sanofi’s (Zentiva’s), performance in the field.
• Worked closely with PUBLICIS and HAVVAS, to ensure relevant strategies, excellent medical copywriting and TOM (top-of-mind) awareness of all the promoted brands to HCP’s.
• Use of the Sanofi and Zentiva brand equity to leverage the value proposition of the clones and generics to the HCP’s, both in state and private sector.
• Worked with third-party companies to prepare market for launch products;
• Pre-Launch Marketing Campaigns done for the following brands Ziabeta (Ziak Clone- Merck Serono), Gitsalat (nifedipine- Bayer) and Storwin (rosuvastatin- Zentiva).

Consultant: to Harambee (Division of Hollard)

Consultant Medical Dental Laboratory Group

• Consulting to the Pharmaceutical/ Pharma-wholesaler/distributor sector
• Up-skilling of entry level: matriculants and graduates from severely indigent backgrounds for the Pharma and Pharma-Wholesaler/Distributor industry.
• Constructing of the learning material on the afore-mentioned sector that covers the spectrum of jobs available for this industry.
• Creating value propositions for the industry, so that the pool of entry level work seekers is increased and that the poaching and churning of the current pool of PDI’s is minimized.
• Meeting with member of the Jobs Fund to update on the current progress in terms of the current mandate.
• Marketing of Harambee to the Pharma industry, which included sales presentations and on-site visits.

• Reduce Funding Barriers, by constant liaison with Funders
• Build economic value arguments, by interrogating cost/benefit analysis
• Co-ordinate price suggestions and develop pricing models for core devices.
• Constantly engage key Funders on re-imbursement impediments and market place innovations.
• Sales and Marketing of Spinal Devices
• Planning and execution of Marketing Strategies in the Spinal surgical area.

Job description

• Managing a National Representative Sales force
• Managing a medical devices and consumables budget of R150 million
• Managing operations in the SADEC countries, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia.
• Daily tracking of sales vs budget in line with company expectations.
• KOL Management in State sector; Neurosurgery
• Marketing communications;
• Aggressive branding on high margin medical devices and consumables.
• ROI based marketing strategies
• Attending MEDICA in Dusseldorf, Germany, and (Nov 2011), to source new products and investigate new therapeutic areas.
• Regular infield customer contact nationally to ensure that sales and marketing strategies are flawlessly implemented and market intelligence optimized.

Sales Services Management:

• Daily monitoring of sales and sales activities of key accounts, which entailed;
• Utilizing the Business Intelligence (BI) system COGNOS to ensure timeous downloads of daily sales and integrity of sales data
• Interrogation of BI dashboards before sales data is communicated to the NSM and RSM’s, ensuring absolute accuracy.
• Communication to Regional Sales Management of Sales & Stock issues, i.e. which SKU’s are below the three-month buffer stockholding.
• Building of sustainable and strategic partnerships with key wholesalers, by having weekly and monthly meetings to discuss ALL the SLA’s and the conformances and deviations thereof.
• Regular contact with key wholesalers to ensure that sales targets are consistently achieved, on a daily basis to minimize non-conformances.
• Timeous intervention in CRM (Customer Return Memo) issues, ensuring that all barriers to sales are minimized or removed.
• Assimilation of Repwise data to create reports on: Call Rates, Call Frequency, Strike rates & Territory Coverage on a monthly basis in conjunction with Impact Rx.
• Monthly assimilation of Market shares (realization index, RI) and evolution index (EI), using Impact Rx data.
• Performing marketing analysis of the company’s products and its competitors, analyzing trends and reporting findings to the marketing and sales personnel.
• Reporting to the OPS team on the market dynamics and the potential risks to the company.
• Constant surveillance of the DOH website/ MPR documents to monitor new products being registered and it impact to Merck Serono’s business.
• Underperforming areas were critically analysed and action reports were sent to the relevant RSM to ensure implementation.

Also responsible for the management of Merck Serono's Distributor, Imperial Health Solutions (IHS) as well as the Representative's Incentive Scheme

In addition to the above, I was closely involved in the Tender Management of Merck's identified products

Managed Healthcare Manager:

• Establishing strategic relationships with key Funders (Medical Insurance), viz, Discovery, Medscheme, Qualsa, Medihelp, Old Mutual, BestMed,
• Creating value propositions on Merck Serono’s core products to ensure optimal re-imbursement.
• Attended Health Economic Modelling Courses, by ISPOR (International Society for Pharma-Economic and Outcomes Research)
• Partnered with Prof. Tienie Stander to create Health Economic Models for Erbitux (Oncology) to present to Funders.
• Presented Pharmaco-Economic data to key Funders to highlight QOLY and QALY for strategic products.
• All key products were fully re-imbursed by all Funders, except for Oncology which attracted a co-payment of 10% and on some options, 20%.
• Dissecting the Medical Aid landscape to understand and advise on formulary inclusions.
• Communicating to all levels of the company issues relevant to re-imbursement and potential risk to Merck Serono.
• Communicating with Merck Serono target audience, on Medical Aid issues, to ensure optimal use of our core products.
• Assisted Marketing with positioning statements in terms of product re-imbursement as well as some Health Economic Data.

Professional Sales Representative

• Sales & Marketing of Beta Blockers (Bisoprolol) &
• Oral Antidiabetics, (Glucovance & Glucophage), to Cardiologists & Physicians in KZN.
• Sales & Marketing of Magnesium Supplements (Slowmag & Diabion) to Gynecologists & Dietitians
• Responsible for the total Specialist business in the KZN region.
• Liaising with all levels of management with regards to business, business potential & marketing intelligence for the KZN area.
• Organizing continuous medical education (CME) programs for relevant doctor groups

Job Description

• Sales and marketing of an antiplatelet agent (Plavix), a low molecular weight heparin Clexane, (Fraxiparine), Aprovel and an anti-epileptic drug (Epilim) – to Specialists in Kwa-Zulu Natal (KZN).
• Marketing of an antihypertensive (Aprovel) to general practitioners in KZN (2002).
• Liaising with all levels of management with respect to marketing intelligence.
• Organizing continuous medical education (CME) programs for relevant doctor groups

Job Description

• Sales and Marketing of an antidepressant (Aropax), Oral Antibiotic (Augmentin), Topical Antibiotic (Bactroban) and an Oral antiviral (Famvir).
• Liaising with all levels of management with respect to marketing intelligence.
• Organising CME programs for general practitioners
• Participate in self development programs organized by the company
• Implement comprehensive sales and marketing strategies to consistently attain stipulated budgets.

Job Description

• Entrusted with the teaching of Physical Science, Biology and Mathematics to Grade 10-12 learners.
• I was deployed to the following schools as the need for science educators became available: Clairwood Secondary, Southlands Secondary and Apollo Secondary
• Chose materials and developed lesson plans to enhance skills for individual students.
• Developed and implemented engaging lesson plans to keep learner attention.
• Built relationships and communicated with parents to provide best learning environment for children.
• Assessed student performance and provided feedback to facilitate student success.