Pharmaceutical Executive Europe IMS Sales Training Supplement - May 2008 - (Page 7) SALES TRAINING out of the field for a couple days(!) wants to know whether it was all worth it. But how can you prove this? It’s not easy. The effects of training are often long-term, and as such they might not be immediately felt. But then, if all this talk about simulationbased training as a change vector is true, shouldn’t you see some effect immediately? To paraphrase a great American philosopher, “darned tootin’ you should.” And you do. Effects are most immediately evident when using simulations to train field forces. Why? Because you can measure field force performance using solid KPIs, and because many field force initiatives deal with targeting, and a shift to better targeting will give you better results pretty quickly. So let’s take a look at the results of four initiatives, each in very different companies and very different countries, using different programmes, but all of which employed simulation-based sales force training, at either the rep or first-line manager level — or both. effort across the deciles of prescriber potential (Figure 4). Reps were left a degree of freedom in determining nontarget doctors to visit, and the company wanted to make sure that this was used to perfect the list, not circumvent it. After the workshop, the results show a clear difference in the coverage of target doctors pre- and post training. That is not all, however. In terms of the second KPI, we see that the efforts of the reps within the pilot group clearly shifted from a relatively flat coverage across doctors of different potentials, to a much clearer focus on high-potential prescriber deciles. Furthermore, the need for this kind of focus is evident, since up until then, the company’s market share was flat, or even greater with low-potential deciles, indicating a chronic long-term targeting problem in the past. training leads to better results? The answer is obvious, of course, because you’d hardly expect me to ask the question if we couldn’t. You may be surprised, though, at just how thoroughly we can answer it… Targeting is all well and good, but it’s a means to an end, and the end in question is ‘results.’ Result Impact! Targeting is all well and good, but it’s a means to an end, and the end in question is ‘results.’ Can we prove that First, let’s consider the case of a client in Spain. This client has a very large sales force in the country, and wanted to carry out training for the first line sales managers. In this particular case, we didn’t even deal with the reps themselves (yet), but focused on providing training for their managers. Targeting Impact! First, let’s consider an example from the Polish market. In this case, a client invested in a training initiative for reps and managers to help them focus their targeting on the right doctors. Before the course was run, the relevant KPI was identified and measured. Did the initiative work? Look at the impact graph (Figure 2) and judge for yourself. The graph shows the targeting KPI (an estimate of the average potential of doctors visited), as measured by the client, for the quarters preceding and succeeding the course. There were no organisational or systems changes that could otherwise explain the jump in this targeting KPI — it was simply that the sales force had changed their behaviour. So is it a Polish thing? How about this example, from the UK. In this case, a client wanted to test the course by not only following KPIs, but also by running the initiative with a small pilot area of the sales force in the UK, then compare their performance to the country average. In this case, two KPIs were covered: First, coverage of target doctors (Figure 3). The company, voicing a frustration that is too common in the industry, explained that while they had a good target list, the reps weren’t covering it appropriately. Second, call Figure 3: Coverage of target doctors. 90% 85% 80% 75% 70% 65% 60% Pre workshop Post workshop Coverage Pilot salesforce Rest of the country Figure 4: Call effort across the deciles of prescriber potential. % of sales & % of P1E effort by decile 40% Call effort %s before workshop 30% Call effort after workshop Market share of brand by decile before workshop – flat, reflecting flat call effort 38% 38% 38% 38% 20% 39% 38% 0% D1 D2 D3 D4 Brand D5 Market D6 38% 38% 40% 45% D7 D8 D9 D10 www.pharmexeceurope.com 7 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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