Imagine the daunting challenge faced by a multi-billion-dollar pharmaceutical company to completely revamp its sales process to accommodate its growing sales force of over 300 field reps and 35 leaders. This was the case for a long-standing client of Performance Development Group (PDG), who turned to PDG to develop a new selling framework that would help supercharge their performance.
To kick off the project, PDG started with a comprehensive discovery process to analyze the pharma company’s existing sales model, including what was working well and the challenges, gaps, and areas needing improvement. We also evaluated previous sales models to ensure we understood the significant issues of each.
Despite the company adopting various sales models in the past, none really stuck due to their complexity and other contributing factors.
PDG discovered four mission-critical components the new selling framework would require to be successful:
After our comprehensive analysis of the division’s current sales practices, the next step was to incorporate the learnings from our discovery process to provide a clear path for internal alignment with our pharma client. We looked at sales leadership, sales enablement systems, and the broader company ecosystem to understand the dependencies at play.
To ensure widespread buy-in and alignment, PDG engaged key stakeholders from all the company’s brands to foster a sense of unity and consensus, understand which components of the old model were still valuable, and identify any gaps.
PDG realized that to be successful, the new framework needed to be simple, repeatable, easy to follow, and capable of consistently driving the desired future state of the business.
The new selling framework included the following:
The new framework centered on creating a streamlined and highly effective approach to selling, which we distilled into three easy steps:
The rollout of the new framework began with sales leaders learning how to coach it to their teams. This included role-play exercises and a discussion of the importance of “mindsets” as a critical success factor.
Next, the field force was introduced to a tool that helps with account diagnostics, portfolio analysis, strategic planning, pre-call preparations, engaging with HCPs, brand transitions, and defining desired actions at the end of each interaction.
To ensure ongoing support and reinforcement, PDG rolled out a post-implementation plan that included a continuous improvement model and sharing of best practices among the field force and sales leaders.
The division surpassed expectations, reporting a nearly 130% increase in performance compared to the prior reporting period. This impressive performance improvement encompassed two sectors, with almost 115% of the budget plan achieved.
Overall, the results achieved through the new selling framework demonstrate its effectiveness in driving business impact, increasing HCP engagement, and fostering knowledge growth. Here are numbers in just under four months of launching the new framework.
Other Leading Indicators:
Future Use
Due to its unprecedented success, the implementation of the new selling framework is set to roll out within other divisions within the company. This universal methodology of preparing, engaging, and assessing applies to every sales representative, making it an easily adaptable framework for various therapeutic areas.
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