Pharma Sales Training Program Released by Total Learning
September 05, 2008
Total Learning Concepts, a training content company, has introduced an interactive training guide - Introduction to Pharmaceutical Sales - for sales representatives who are new to the pharmaceutical and biotech industry.
Introduction to Pharmaceutical Sales: A Guide to Selling Within The Pharmaceutical Industry "provides a comprehensive primer for understanding and selling within the biopharmaceutical marketplace," company officials say, adding that the learning suite "includes two interactive modules that use Total Learning Concepts' serious-gaming technology platform: The U.S. Pharmaceutical Industry and Pharmaceutical Sales Overview."
"The biopharma industry has its own unique language and culture," said Dr. Glen Low, Director of e-Learning Strategies for Total Learning Concepts. "It is a different kind of sell from other business-to-business or customer-based selling. New hires from outside the industry need to be able to communicate at an expert level to healthcare providers with years of education in a highly specialized field."
Sales representatives new to the biopharma industry "need to be assertive in an environment where physicians are busy with patients," added Dr. Low. "They also must be aware of managed care prescribing decisions, and limitations physicians may have in selecting treatments and products."
Learners compete in a "fun, engaging Challenge Arena" at their own pace and according to their individual availability for training. Each learning initiative can be monitored by managers, sales trainers, and the marketing department with the system's QDashboard learner analytics engine.
The company has developed customized training materials used to launch more than 90 pharmaceutical products worldwide.
In July, sales force effectiveness in the global pharmaceutical industry was the subject of Eularis's report "Pharmaceutical Sales Force Effectiveness Metrics: Are You Measuring the Wrong Things?"
The report finds that while sales forces represent the largest spend in pharma sales and marketing, "return on this investment has declined sharply in recent years."
Written for CEOs, marketing executives and sales executives, this research project examines market data and case studies and reports that "the very metrics currently being used to assess sales force effectiveness are in fact the ones causing its decline."
Focusing on the pharmaceutical industries in the United States, Europe and Japan, the report dissects these current metrics and their limitations, and then offers updated metrics which, according to the report's authors, "can help solve the declining effectiveness crisis."
A pharmaceutical organization's spending on sales force is second only to research and development, said the author of the report, Dr. Andree K. Bates, president of Eularis: "Better metrics must be used to measure both the effectiveness and financial impact of this very significant budget element because the current measurements used by most top pharma today actually contribute to the decline in effectiveness of the field force."
David Sims is a contributing editor for ContactCenterSolutions. To read more of David's articles, please visit his columnist page. He also blogs for ContactCenterSolutions here.Edited by
Stefania Viscusi
