Opportunity
Short Term consultancy for training and development of social marketing sales team and transitioning the team from direct to distributor based system.
Requesting applicants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, or Nepal.
The Sustaining Health Outcomes through the Private Sector (SHOPS) Plus Afghanistan is a five year (January 2016 – September 2020) project to strengthen the impact and sustainability of the Afghan Social Marketing Organization (ASMO). ASMO is a local social marketing organization established with support from USAID. ASMO promotes family planning (FP), diarrhea prevention and management and nutrition by distributing associated products at affordable prices nationally. Social and behavior change communication (SBCC) is ASMO’s primary method of motivating Afghans to use these products.
ASMO’s contribution to health in Afghanistan is significant. More than 22 percent of women using modern contraceptives used products marketed by ASMO. Similarly, between five and 20 percent of users purchased ASMO’s oral rehydration salts (ORS), water treatment solutions, and iron supplement products. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/Afghanistan recognizes ASMO’s contribution to health in Afghanistan, and the potential benefits from applying social marketing techniques to additional priority health areas.
SHOPS Plus has conducted trainings with ASMO on social marketing which enabled the ASMO social marketing team to develop evidence-based sales and marketing plans for various products as well as set annual sales targets, develop briefs for mass media campaigns, and design a variety of SBCC activities. Despite significant improvement in these areas, the actual sales performance of particular ASMO products have been lower than expectations. While sales of contraceptives and IFA were low due to stock disruptions caused by procurement delays and short shelf life, the newly introduced products such as the ORS/Zinc co-pack, zinc stand-alone pack, and Aquatabs sales were also low despite having adequate stock. New products like progestin-only pills (POPs), chlorhexidine gel (for neonatal cord care) and featured condoms (such as dotted and flavored condoms) are scheduled to be launched in the near future. SHOPS Plus plans to address the issue by building capacity in sales planning and implementation in terms of new product introduction, sales target achievement, effective coordination between sales and marketing departments to obtain effective marketing support for sales, and transitioning to third party distribution.
Furthermore, from Oct’18-Sep’19, SHOPS Plus and ASMO engaged an independent consultant to explore the feasibility of appointing a third-party distributor for the pharmaceutical retail chain and select the most appropriate partner for ASMO. Based on the findings of the assessment, SHOPS Plus and ASMO are capable to engaging competent and interested pharmaceutical distributors in various provinces of ASMO’s coverage areas. SHOPS Plus now plans to develop a terms of reference for third-party distributors and contract appropriate distributors. The consultant will help facilitate the pharmaceutical sales and distribution transition to the selected distributors with ASMO’s direct sales team managing reporting from distributors, as well as monitoring and supervising the distributors’ sales team. This transition is expected to have two principal advantages to ASMO:
In order to ensure a smooth and efficient transition, SHOPS Plus will support ASMO to establish and implement standard operating procedures (SOP) for distributor engagement, roles and responsibilities of ASMO and the distributor sales team, orientation and refresher materials for the distributors’ sales team, accurate and timely sales reporting, as well as effective monitoring and supervision of the team.
Given these two distinct needs, SHOPS Plus plans to hire and deploy a sales and distribution consultant with expertise and experience in pharmaceutical and social marketing sales operations to work with ASMO’s sales team, the selected distributors, and ASMO’s senior management for a 6 month period, including 3 trips to Kabul of 10 days each. The consultant will establish and implement the SOP for engaging the distributors, supervise orientation of the distributors’ sales team, design and functionalize the reporting as well as the monitoring and supervision systems. The consultant will also work to address the need gaps within the ASMO sales team and management systems to enable them to achieve sales targets efficiently and effectively.
The consultant will be expected to conduct the need gap assessments, identify effective strategies and plans to address the gaps and work with the ASMO sales and other departmental teams to make the plan implemented effectively. SHOPS Plus will make security, ground transport and accommodation arrangements for the selected consultant in Afghanistan (if s/he is not an Afghan national).
Tasks and Outputs
The selected consultant will conduct the following tasks and submit the respective deliverables.
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Tasks
Activities
Deliverables
Time period
1.
Complete preparatory work and develop and work plan.
· Hold entrance meetings with the SHOPS Plus Afghanistan Chief of Party and appropriate ASMO staff.
· Review assessment reports and conduct internal annual plan review and team assessments
· Inception report submitted with a complete work plan, deliverables and time plan
· Nov 1, 2019
2.
Transition pharma sales to third-party distributors under supervision of ASMO’s sales team.
· Review and finalize the roles and responsibilities of the sales teams of ASMO and the pharma distributors
· Develop and conduct orientation curriculum and program for the sales teams of ASMO and the pharma distributors
· Develop and finalize monitoring plan for assessing performance of the distributor and ASMO sales teams
· Develop and implement standard operating procedure for the pharma distributor
· Launch and monitor third party distribution in the pilot provinces
· Develop scale up plan based on assessments carried out and lessons learned
· Pharma distributor SOP submitted and approved
· Training and orientation package for pharma distributors and ASMO sales team submitted and approved
· Transition completed in pilot provinces.
· Pilot assessments conducted and reports submitted
· Scale up plan submitted
· Nov 15 2019
· Nov 15, 2019
· Nov 29, 2019
· 5th of every
month
· Mar 30, 2020
3.
Develop sales and marketing plan and capacitate the ASMO sales team to meet volume and revenue targets for all products
· Identify sales need-gaps and develop training curriculum covering
o Sales planning and target setting
o Marketing, commodity supply and other support
o Sales monitoring and supervision
o Sales reporting apps
o Sales commission structure and payment
· Conduct sales training
· Action plans for sales and marketing of all products developed
· New products procured and launched
· Performance monitoring
· Training needs assessment report submitted
· Training and orientation package for ASMO sales team submitted and approved
· Sales and Marketing plans for all products including three new products POPs, featured condoms, and chlorhexidine gel submitted and approved
· New products launched
· Sales targets for all products achieved
· Nov 15, 2019
· Nov 15, 2019
· Dec 6, 2019
· TBD
· 5th of every month
4.
Complete exit formalities
· Hold exit meetings with SHOPS Plus and ASMO management
· Submit one final report that includes problems identified, actions taken and further recommendations for future
· Final Power Point presentation deck
· Final report submitted
· End April 2019
· End April 2019
The consultant will be expected to complete the assignment and submit the report in no more than six months of starting work including, travel to Kabul.
Preferred Skills / Prerequisites
For consideration please submit the following to shopsplus1@gmail.com by September 27, 2019 12:00 PM US EST.
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