Client Overview

A new early-stage company lead by seasoned pharmaceutical executives brings proven experience and thoughtful solutions to challenging therapeutic products and patients.

The Project

Create a comprehensive learning experience for sales representatives hired to sell a newly acquired pharmaceutical product indicated for three disease states.

Background

The company acquired the rights from a major pharmaceutical firm to distribute an oncology product in both U.S. and Canada. The plan was to recruit, train and certify a new sales team in less than 90 days to promote and support the product.

The Challenge

This company just licensed its first product to market in the U.S, and Canada. There were many challenges in launching a new product while building a new company:

• Introduced in 1989, the product had not been promoted or supported for 10 years
• U.S. market share had deteriorated to 5 percent from the peak of 12 percent
• The most-prescribed drug dominates the market with 72 percent share; the No. 2 drug has 17 percent share in the U.S.
• There was no existing sales force and no full-time training staff

The Objectives

• Design and implement a new sales training experience to onboard a new team of experienced sales executives and equip them to hit the ground running
• Achieve basic mastery of three unique disease states
• Learn the product insert, science and current trends in clinical practice
• Understand the new go-to-market strategy and sales tactics
• Certify every member of the sales team and develop a short-term action plan to accelerate sales activity

The Solution

By collaborating with marketing and sales leadership, IMS designed a comprehensive, highly-interactive training experience that included:

• Self-study content on disease states and product details
• Classroom training on disease states, product details, go-to-market strategy, selling approach and sales certification
• Interactive activities such as developing account strategies, self-study exercises, role playing, knowledge checks, and Q & A

The Results

The sales teams were on-boarded in record time and calling on existing customers within 30 to 45 days. They came away energized, ready to protect the existing install base, and begin to grow market share in the months ahead.

" The feedback from the new reps was the training was outstanding! We hit the mark on this program. Our senior management team is very impressed with our speed to market." -Client