Improving Sales Force Effectiveness with Digital Technology Part 1: e-Learning
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Pharmaceutical companies depend on their sales force to build strong relationships with Physicians. However, a Forrester report stated that traditional detailing has ‘reached the end of its rope’. The report stated that Doctors generally don’t trust sales reps and are increasingly not seeing them. In contrast, the total US sales force of the top 40 Pharmaceutical companies has approximately doubled in the last 5 years to around 63,000 (1999 fi gures), which is in stark contrast to the 15% growth in traditional detail visits, according to the report.
The confl icting sales force growth and contraction of sales force time spend with customers is accentuated by the increasing number of products to detail. Companies have to prioritize their products and ensure that key messages differentiate their products in the limited and decreasing time that sales reps spend with Physicians. This has resulted in forward-thinking Pharmaceutical companies investigating new ways of assisting the sales reps to gain access to Physicians, to infl uence Physicians in a fair and balanced way and increase prescriptions. There are several ways that new technology is being used to infl uence these areas. The most popular current areas are:
• e-Learning
• e-Detailing
• e-CRM
• e-CME
• Mobile applications
This series of articles will examine one of these areas each month. It will assess the important considerations when implementing these systems as well as outlining a recent Pharmaceutical case study and typical results obtained utilizing these systems.
This month, the focus is e-Learning.
Part 1: e-Learning
It is not unusual for a large Pharmaceutical company to employ around 5000 sales reps. The turnover and
replacement costs are high – annual turnover rates are around 15% and annual sales training costs approximately
$100,000 per new sales representative, with an average replacement period of 8 weeks. In their fi rst year, a sales
rep will often spend 6 weeks in training. Further training is required to keep sales reps up-to-date with new product
launches and learning about new detailing pieces. This is all time away from detailing to customers, which means
lost revenue. Increased effi ciency in sales force training is rapidly becoming a top priority. The ever-increasing
complexity of new products and powerful competitive launches underscore the need for new training methods and
tools for sales reps to enable them to compete more effectively.
e-Learning is showing impressive results: sales force time out of the fi eld is reduced signifi cantly (20-30%)
and time to sales effectiveness is also signifi cantly increased (40-50%), thereby reducing time to peak sales.
e-Learning can also assist CRM, in addition to reducing the costs of launches and ‘plan of action’ meetings. It
also guarantees that the sales force has immediate access to all information requirements to stay up-to-date
and competitive.
So, what is e-Learning? e-Learning is using Internet-enabled technologies to equip the sales force with new
knowledge in the fastest and most effective way. It is often in the form of an interactive portal for geographically
dispersed sales reps to plan product learning, have help from tutors online and interact and learn – either
individually or as a group. These types of systems can be housed on the Pharmaceutical company Intranet or be
hosted on an external portal using an application service provider (ASP) model, thereby bypassing any requirements
for additional internal software and technology infrastructure.
The e-Learning sessions can be many variations of two basic formats. The fi rst is independent of place and occur
interactively (input from both trainer and sales force individuals with video links) in real time over the Internet
or Intranet. This format usually has voice-over IP, high-quality picture quality as well as recording ability. The
second format allows the training to be independent of both time and place. The sales force can train at times
that suit them best. Discussion boards can be part of the package allowing opportunities to motivate information
interchange. Online tutors, also known as ‘e-Mentors’, are also used to facilitate and moderate group discussions,
help users, summarize salient points and manage online documents.
Professor Sa’ad Medhat, Vice President, e-Learning and Knowledge Management, FutureMedia, Visiting
Professor at Bournemouth University, and Guest Professor at Bath University’s School of Management,
suggested a checklist for companies to consider when planning effective e-Learning systems:
• Provide personalized learning plans for each learner
• Ensure certifi cation or confi rmation of study is available
• Combine real time interactive and independent learning facilities
• Allow scheduling of learning resources and e-Mentors time
• Ensure ability to enrol and register individuals
• Provide means of measuring competency levels
• Provide skills gaps analysis on training requirement against job function
• Include ability for task planning and notifi cation
• Provide ability to deliver security with privilege access levels
• Ensure compliance to AICC, SCORM e-Learning industry standards
• Make the portal customized and branded to give the Pharmaceutical company brand image
• Integrate it with existing applications such as enterprise resource profi ling, HR and CRM systems.
In a recent e-Learning deployment in a large global Pharmaceutical company, the R & D, product development teams and sales force were involved in the use of a system simultaneously. Information from clinical trials was disseminated to product development teams to ensure direct communication with the clinical trial teams as well as to the sales force to help their understanding of the product features and benefi ts over time and, therefore, be more effective in communicating the product attributes to their Physicians at product launch. This e-Learning system signifi cantly reduced the sales reps time out of the fi eld and accelerated the time to sales effectiveness, thereby reducing the time to peak sales and increasing revenue.
Before the implementation of this e-Learning system, the sales force would not have received information in the
pre-launch phases, only immediately prior to the launch. Therefore, they would not have product ‘ownership’ and
the time to become thoroughly familiar with the product would have been lengthened.
e-Learning is assisting Pharmaceutical companies’ business objectives including:
• Decreased time for new sales rep training (and can be linked to staff performance systems)
• Geographically dispersed learning
• Improved logistics of training sessions (travel time, accommodation)
• Decreased costs
• Rapid dissemination of information and individualized help throughout the company
• Well organized supervision of training
• Integration of training with other company systems
• A variety of different learning styles (auditory, visual, kinesthetic)
• Improved sales force enthusiasm and morale
• Rapidly disseminate changing market information and needs.
Conclusions
e-Learning systems are providing real business benefi ts to Pharmaceutical companies that provide bottom line
improvements. However, it is not a quick fi x despite the impressive (and rapid) results being seen. It is important
to conduct training needs analysis prior to implementing these types of systems to ensure that the culture,
previous training focus, level of empowerment and responsibility are all aligned to the new approach for maximum
effectiveness. Also, it is critical to ensure that the sales force has buy-in prior to implementation to ensure success
of the system.
For more information on this topic, please contact the author,
Dr. Andrée K Bates at:
Eularis
Tel: +44 (0)20 7403 5378
Fax: +44 (0)20 7900 2086
http://www.eularis.com
Email: abates@eularis.com
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