Virtual reality can yield concrete results, as 40 sales reps at a key pharmaceutical company in Sweden found using IMS Learning Solutions & Change Management’s sales simulation tool. Participants agreed it was realistic, results driven and very down-to-earth.
“I can already see the concrete effect it has had in how I prioritize my visits,” said a senior sales rep in the company’s cardiovascular business unit. “It gave me practical strategies that I can use in my daily work.”
IMS LS&CM delivers real benefits
The additional market share and revenues sales reps can generate by planning their sales more strategically can be significant. A major pharmaceutical company's business unit director and training initiator said: “Sales reps have to make district plans in July, deciding which areas and doctors they will prioritize over the next five months. We specifically scheduled the training for June to help reps plan more strategically, to look at their district in detail, examine its overall potential and ask themselves, ‘where is most of my potential, where are my high-prescribing doctors, and where will I benefit most from focusing?’”
Result-driven
IMS’s unique sales training course uses a simulation tool that enables participants to see the specific results of their decisions. “With typical sales management training you get advice on which strategies to use, but you don’t see exactly what happens when you choose one strategy over another," said a participant. “With IMS, the simulation tool shows reps the results of their choices straightaway so they can immediately evaluate their strategies and work out how to improve their performance.”
From the big picture to the tiny details
During a full-day session, 40 sales reps are divided into eight groups of five. The training is presented in two parts. The first deals with how reps can best organize their regions; the second is focused on how to prioritize doctor visits. A senior sales rep in the CNS/internal medicine business unit said: “The training was good at focusing on both the big picture and the details; it helped you sharpen your focus on your overall region and your specific doctor visits.”
The Strategy Challenge
In virtual reality, as in reality, tough competition gives participants a strong incentive to evaluate and improve their performances. In the simulation exercise, each team receives a large-scale map of a hypothetical geographic region. Clicking on certain districts reveals information on prescription statistics, the volume of specific drugs used in that area, and the total number of doctors. Using this information, the team develops a sales strategy for the region. The simulation tool then determines which strategies are most successful by giving each team its sales results.
“One of the most enjoyable aspects of the training was the team game playing. It was interesting that
teams that did poorly in the first simulation often did much better in the following rounds. A poor sales result in the first simulation made them re-evaluate their choices and strategies, forcing them to ask themselves if they had really made the right decisions.”
Prioritizing Doctor Visits
The second part of the training focuses on how reps can best prioritize doctor visits. Each team is given the names of 20 hypothetical doctors in the region, and then is asked to organize them into three groups according to strategic importance. “The teams get information on how the rep before them prioritized his or her visits, but they aren’t informed why, so strategically they are still on their own,” said a participant.
Some teams choose to place seven or eight doctors in their priority-A group, but when they realize that a rep needs to schedule at least seven or eight meetings a year with priority-A doctors, they quickly realize that calling on that many doctors at that frequency is unrealistic.
A senior sales participant said: “In reality I have a hundred doctors on my visit list. The training helped me realize I should try to visit them about four times a year, but visit my most important, priority-A doctors at least seven or eight times a year.”
Teams also must decide the most productive activities to carry out with each doctor, choosing from day calls, evening visits, invitations to participate in clinical trials and invitations to attend symposia.
Positive Results
The decision to invest in IMS training for the Swedish sales team was influenced by the positive training experiences of the pharma company’s sales team in Germany. “The German Sales Manager told me how IMS training directly impacted sales results there. The 80 German sales reps who took the training generally achieved increased sales results, compared with those who didn’t. We have already seen a positive change in how participants plan their sales visits following the training. I hope we see a similar growth in sales and market share here in Sweden; it is now up to participants to keep up the stimulus and knowledge the course gave us all.”
(Source "Nordic News")