Pharmaceutical Executive Europe IMS Sales Training Supplement - May 2008 - (Page 5) Achieving Behavioural Change How do we ensure that training makes a real difference to the attitude and behaviour of your sales force? C an training make a real difference? Yes, it can. Does it always make a difference? No, it does not. That’s the problem. The pharmaceutical industry spends billions of dollars a year on training, but what do they get in return? That’s a very difficult thing to measure. According to the Hay Group, although nearly 40% of companies report plans to conduct ROI analysis on training, only 8% do so and many of those studies are highly imprecise. Other surveys show, though, that operational managers are often very sceptical about the benefits of training outside of new-recruit training. However, training can have an enormous positive benefit. The IMS Health Learning Solutions and Change Management practice has carried out numerous training programmes in which concrete results analysis was done on KPIs such as sales, market share and target coverage, proving a significant and immediate positive impact due to training initiatives. The question is, how can you make sure that the training initiative is going to provide those kinds of results? First, it’s important to remember the objectives. What does good training do for you? It comes down to the old ‘capability vs motivation’ grid. In order to be effective, people must have the capabilities to do their jobs well, and the will to do their jobs well. Different training courses will tend to focus more on one or another side of the equation. On one hand there are pure technical training courses, those that concentrate on the skills or knowledge necessary to do a job. In the extreme, this might consist of a technical manual explaining product features. On the other hand there are motivational or inspirational courses that don’t touch at all on the skills and knowledge that make up capabilities, but focus purely on self-motivation, teamwork, values, etc. The very best training initiatives will do both at the same time; they will address capabilities while increasing motivation. In introductory training this is somewhat easier. New recruits tend to be enthusiastic about their new environment and eager to prove themselves. What’s more, they don’t need to change any behaviours, they just need to adopt the new behaviours that go with a new job. For continuing education, however, it’s a lot more difficult. The openness of the new recruit is replaced with a comfort zone carved out of the bedrock of experience. Once someone has an established set of behaviours, it is far more difficult to try to get them to adopt new ones via training. Training methodologies and retention How to make a difference then? Given the above, and given the objectives of increasing both capabilities and motivation, the first step is to choose training that employs the best possible methodology. Charles Maraia/Getty Images Chad Baker/Getty Images www.pharmexeceurope.com 5 http://www.pharmexeceurope.com
Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Pharmaceutical Executive Europe IMS Supplement - May 2008 Pharmaceutical Executive Europe IMS Supplement - May 2008 Contents Achieving Behavioural Change No Train, No Gain Improving Market Share Pharmaceutical Executive Europe IMS Supplement - May 2008 Pharmaceutical Executive Europe IMS Supplement - May 2008 - Pharmaceutical Executive Europe IMS Supplement - May 2008 (Page 1) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe IMS Supplement - May 2008 - Pharmaceutical Executive Europe IMS Supplement - May 2008 (Page 2) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe IMS Supplement - May 2008 - Contents (Page 3) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe IMS Supplement - May 2008 - Contents (Page 4) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe IMS Supplement - May 2008 - Achieving Behavioural Change (Page 5) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe IMS Supplement - May 2008 - Achieving Behavioural Change (Page 6) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe IMS Supplement - May 2008 - Achieving Behavioural Change (Page 7) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe IMS Supplement - May 2008 - Achieving Behavioural Change (Page 8) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe IMS Supplement - May 2008 - Achieving Behavioural Change (Page 9) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe IMS Supplement - May 2008 - No Train, No Gain (Page 10) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe IMS Supplement - May 2008 - No Train, No Gain (Page 11) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe IMS Supplement - May 2008 - Improving Market Share (Page 12)
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