Focus - Summer 2012 - 29

eLEARNING

Training that Doesn’t Break the Bank
I By Jaime Danielson and Peter Pisarri So, how can sales and training leaders support their sales forces without breaking the bank? ey can put new emphasis on an old-school solution, the video/teleconference. graphic locations. As a general rule, the more hypothetical and less speci c the subject matter, the greater the opportunity for audience members to succumb to attention dri . Video/teleconference should be designed to support reps in a single therapeutic area confronting, for example, competitive counter detailing that is creating noise in their channel.

Five Keys to Effective, Strategic Video/ Teleconferences

t the macro level, pharmaceutical companies, pressured by loss of patent protection and pricing constraints, are responding to slowing sales growth by reining in spending. At the micro level, business unit and training and development heads are watching their budgets shrink like party balloons losing air. As those numbers shrink, the challenge grows for these leaders. ey still need to equip representatives to sell e ectively in a marketplace frequently dened by the erceness of its competition. Reps regularly report back to their managers about speci c competitive attacks they say they can’t combat with their selling skills. ese reps need application-based training, but classroom delivery isn’t in the budget and an eLearning solution, while o en less expensive, will not allow reps to address all the variables of the competitive threat.
FOCUS | SUMMER 2012 | www.spbt.org

e video/teleconference is • Link to Core Skills what one might call the doubleIn addition to being application-foedged sword of learning delivcused, video/teleconferences should ery. Done right, these be built on a skills foundation. Deinteractions can engage and cresigners and facilitators must recogate value for an audience. Done nize these engagements represent an wrong, as they most frequently opportunity to reinforce core selling are, they can disengage and deskills via discussion and analysis of motivate an audience. To drive results, real-world challenges. If this reintoday’s video/teleconference must be forcement is not hard-wired into the built on a strategic learning design foundation. PharmaTo drive results, today’s of these ceutical and biotechvideo/teleconference video/teleconnology companies ferences, the must be built on a must design these entemptation for strategic foundation gagements to be both facilitator and application exercises participant alike and skill refreshers for sales representawill be to develop and debate the strategy without making speci c tives facing speci c competitive challinkages to core skills. lenges. And if these rms want to develop video/teleconferences that are • Use an Experienced Facilitator relevant, sought-a er, and cost-e ecStrategic video/teleconferences retive training solutions, they must enquire experienced facilitators who sure their video/teleconferences: have a deep understanding of the in• Do Real-World Work e cardinal sin of video/teleconference learning design is to focus solely on generic or theory-based subject matter. Such conceptual content lacks the immediacy necessary to captivate audience members participating from di erent geodustry and, if not already versed in the product, can rapidly absorb and process information about it and its marketplace. eir acumen ensures the value and relevance of the engagement. In addition, facilitators must have the dexterity to o er a robust focus on application while, at

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Focus - Summer 2012

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