Five training best practices to improve sales force effectiveness

It seems of late there has been a proliferation of ‘sales force effectiveness’ rallying cries in the pharmaceutical industry. Open your e-mail on any given day and there’s an invitation to attend a two-day conference on the subject. Pick up a recent Pharmaceutical Executive or Focus magazine and there are articles touting its importance. Google the linked words “pharmaceutical+sales+force+effectiveness” and more than two million entries appear in less than 0.20 seconds.

Sales force effectiveness is certainly not a new mantra in the pharmaceutical arena. However, in today’s fast-changing and fiercely competitive environment, it is more critical because of its direct impact on the bottom line.

There are many facets that contribute to sales force effectiveness. Compensation, retention, market dynamics, product penetration, training and readiness all have an impact on the overall success of any company. I believe focusing on the latter has the potential to have the greatest impact on overall success.

Over the course of two years, through our UNISON data-based learning process, I have had the fortunate opportunity to be involved firsthand in several mission critical meetings for many blue-chip pharmaceutical companies. These ranged from POA meetings with 150 managers, to full-scale drug launch meetings with 5000 sales representatives and managers in attendance.

Without divulging proprietary information from any of the CLOs, training directors and managers for whom we’ve worked, I have assembled a selection of best practices that were proven to strengthen training’s impact on sales force effectiveness. The common threads among these five best practices are interactive learning, data mining and data sharing.

Build a bond with marketing and sales

Data is a common language spoken and understood by both marketing and sales. Most mission-critical decisions are made based on data. Trainers can best serve their ‘internal marketing and sales clients’ and strengthen their bond and trust with these groups by presenting data that clearly demonstrates and validates a sales force’s ability to execute according to plan and readiness to sell.

The more data the better. Bad decisions are made when too little data exists. Good decisions are made when clear, real-time data is available that can directly effect the success of field performance.

One pharmaceutical company was able to ward off a market failure based on anecdotal information on the sales representatives lack of readiness to execute on plan. By presenting complete detailed verification reports showing that the sales representatives were not 100 percent ready to execute according to plan, the training department was able to go back and retrain the sales representatives in the specific areas of weakness, and retest them to assure they were ready and able to execute as required.

If the CLO did not have this UNISON-produced data as quickly as he did, no one would have known that the sales representative deficits existed until weeks or even months later. The delay would have been disastrous for the training department as well as for the entire company.

Integrate distance learning with onsite learning

Distance learning works best when it can be blended with onsite certifications and readiness where application learning is verified. UNISON is designed to utilize distance learning content, whether online or classroom. Most of the companies realized a stronger comprehension of learning by incorporating content into onsite learning and certification. They could successfully measure the effectiveness of learning that has taken place six months or more prior to onsite certification.

UNISON enables the knowledge gained from distance learning to be verified and taken to the next level of application-based certification in real time. The challenge that most organizations have had with distance learning is seamlessly linking it to live onsite certifications because of the inability to obtain instant results.

Moreover, UNISON bridges the gap between distance learning, onsite certifications and refresher training. One company was able to successfully certify 5000 sales reps onsite within two hours using distance-learning content and use the results of future refresher training.

Engagement in adult learning

Studies show that adults that are actively engaged in learning comprehend content 5-10 times more than passive learners. Pharmaceutical companies using a combination of interactive and personalized training for onsite meetings are seeing their results pay off.

For a POA meeting, one company was able to bring together 930 national district sales managers (including those fresh from another pharmaceutical maker) for alignment and within two days had them trained and working together on eight new drugs, many of which were newly acquired. The managers were able to create interactive presentations and competitions to enhance their own style of presenting, while meeting the various learning preferences of the audience members. UNISON provided electronic competitions and contests complete with ‘leaderboard’ standings, to promote competition, fuel motivation and measure the sales associates’ comprehension and mastery of the content in an interesting and engaging manner.

Built-in measurement from the get-go

Imagine the day when, as a Chief Learning Officer, you can directly qualify and quantify the impact of your training and readiness of a sales force to more than US$300 million in product sales. Imagine 33 percent of your company’s sales force directly attributing their field performance to their training with another 20 percent ranking it among the highest factors. Imagine a 30-fold return on training investment, representing 30 percent of total sales of a new drug. This day became a reality for one such CLO because of his foresight to build data compilation and measurement into his training process from the get-go. By working closely with the UNISON consulting team, this CLO was able to determine, in advance, how success would be measured. Once the outcomes were established and agreed upon, a variety of UNISON functions were utilized to deliver and measure the comprehension, application and synthesis of the content that was being presented.

While it is not an easy task to undertake, measuring performance and behavior at every level and stage of learning can deliver great dividends in the long run. Kirkpatrick’s is one model that can serve as an ideal guide for measurement. To get to higher levels of three and four, field performance and ultimately sales results need to be measured and tracked over a longer period of time.

Use real-time data for real results

Having the right information at the right time can mean the difference between success and potential failure. Senior management of one pharmaceutical company was able to see in real time the performance and scores of the 220 sales reps at an onsite meeting and address the findings immediately for the next day. Value-rich data generated by UNISON revealed that the ‘disease state’ of a drug was not properly understood, nor were the sales reps presenting it properly during the role-play certification.

To address this, the training team immediately sent out additional backgrounder information packages after the meeting to the entire sales force. This was followed by a revisit with all the regions to retrain the sales representatives and rectify the problem. The immediate capture of certification results, something that only UNISON can provide, offers clients the ability to uncover such problems and address them quickly, rather than waiting for weeks, or sometimes months, of unsuccessful sales efforts before even realizing that a problem exists.

Pinpointing the deficits accurately and immediately offers companies the ability to develop an intervention that can be executed in a very short period of time, saving money, time and effort, while assuring the best qualified sale representatives are in front of the customers and executing according to plan.