Factors That Drive Results for Biopharmaceutical Sales Training Programs

Industries Profiled:
Biotech; Pharmaceutical; Medical Device; Manufacturing; Consumer Products; Diagnostic; Chemical; Health Care; Biopharmaceutical; Clinical Research; Laboratories; Professional Services


Companies Profiled:
Allergan; Arbor; Astellas; AstraZeneca; Avion Pharmaceuticals; LLC; Baxter Healthcare; Bayer; Biogen; Celgene; Dr Reddy's Laboratories; Eisai; Eli Lilly; EMD Serono; EryDel; Genentech; Grifols; Ipsen; Janssen; Jazz Pharmaceuticals; Johnson & Johnson; Lundbeck; Merck; Novartis; OTSUKA; Pernix Therapeutics; Pfizer; Sanofi; Shire; Strategic Outcomes; Sunovion; Takeda Pharmaceuticals; Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd; UCB Pharma; Valeant; Verastem Oncology; Zydus Cadila

Study Snapshot

Best Practices, LLC engaged 56 sales training leaders from 36 pharmaceutical and biotech companies through a benchmarking survey. Research analysts also conducted six deep-dive executive interviews with selected benchmark participants.

Key topics covered in this report include:

• Sales training budget and resources management
• Formal sales training curriculum
• Sales training collaboration with various stakeholder groups
• Sales training content development and delivery by internal staff and vendors
• Technologies used to deliver training
• Trends in sales training

• Training via mobile devices is gaining popularity: Learning management systems (LMS) with e-learning portals are mostly used by training departments. However, mobile devices deliveries are claimed to be more effective for pushing out sales training with nearly 80% of the companies either currently using or planning to deploy the technology within the next year.

• Sales training budget averaged $5.2M: Total sales training budget for participated companies averaged $5.16 million (US) in 2018. Participants allocate an average of 37% of the budget to train new talents and 25% for ad hoc training and POA meetings.

• Patient centricity is the top training concern: Over two-third of participants rated patient centricity as the major issue in sales training. Around 60% of the participants expected to focus on building sales force business acumen and developing programs for post-training reinforcement in a coming year.

I.	Executive Summary	3
	Research Overview
	Hallmarks of Excellence
	Key Metrics at a Glance
	Key Trends at a Glance
	Benchmark Findings
II.	Sales Training Program Operations & Models	12
III.	Sales Training Content, Delivery & Development	26
IV.	Technology Issues & Applications	39
V.	Sales Training Budget & Resources	50
VI.	Organizational Structure & Scope	61
VII.	Trends in Pharmaceutical Sales Training	67
VIII.	Best Practices of the Benchmark Class	72
IX.	Participant Demographics	81
X.	Appendix	85

• Extent to which sales training function focuses its efforts on training each of the listed employee groups
• Attributes of sales training program
• Level of collaboration that the sales training function has with each stakeholder group
• Case study: Training model driving full stakeholder partnerships
• Interview narrative: Train the training team to build empowered partnerships
• Sales training function's performance measurement process
• Aligning program with corporate objectives and values
• Leader-led sales training model
• Sales training leaders sharing their viewpoint on management development
• Learning development continuum as a sales training framework
• Interview narrative: Continuous learning maximizes investment in sales force
• Effective metrics for evaluating the quality of the sales training function
• Percentage of sales rep trainees achieving their first-year sales goals

• Kinds of sales training included in an organization's formal curriculum
• Understanding physicians and patients to improve future engagements
• Voices from the field: Developing team skills by advanced training
• Percentage of formal (scheduled) sales training content developed and delivered by internal staff, external vendors, internal partners & SMEs, and external co-promotion partners
• Interview narrative: Internal content development
• Training delivery approaches
• Best practice from interview narrative on determining the best channels for different types of training
• Additional effective sales training approaches
• Drivers and challenges of virtual classroom usage
• Lessons learned in virtual classroom training
• Venue used for sales training
• Percentage of total time typically allotted for sales training at annual and regional meetings (such as POA)

• Applications of technology currently in use or to be deployed within the next year to deliver sales training
• Interview narrative on adoption of emerging technologies
• Interview narratives on innovating to fully exploit existing technologies
• Effectiveness of each of the technologies currently in use or to be deployed within the next year for delivering or pushing out training
• Effectiveness of each of the technologies currently in use or to be deployed within the next year as a pull-through training tool
• Interview narratives on online modules
• Percentage of core training delivered by iPad or mobile devices, and the successful use of mobile training applications
• Interview narratives on the rising interest in gamification
• Best use, pros and cons of different types of training technologies
• Interview narratives on sales training’s relationship with IT

• Anticipated change in company’s sales training budget over the next two years
• Successful or innovative practices used to stretch the sales training budget in times of flat or reduced corporate funding
• Sales training budget per $1M in revenue, sales training budget per rep trained, and sales training budget per new hire
• Total number of FTEs working in the sales training function (including contractors who report to the head of sales training)
• Sales training budget for recent fiscal year (USD); and percentage of total sales training budget allocated to training new hires, outsourcing training services, and ad hoc training and POA meetings
• Percentage of all sales training devoted to products
• Average number of days of sales training provided per employee
• Number of training days required per rep for a new product launch
• Total number of employees who received sales training during most recently completed fiscal year
• Average number of products carried per rep

• Organizational structure of sales training
• Job titles of the persons heading the sales training function within benchmarked companies and the persons to whom the heads of sales training report
• Global regions covered by sales forces
• Proximity of sales training team to marketing
• Interview narrative on building strong internal partnerships

• Level of attention to be paid to sales training issues in the year ahead
• Interview narratives on reinforcement training
• Interview narratives on the challenges faced in measuring the impact of sales training

• Best practices of benchmark participants for effective sales training - Alignment and engagement
• Best Practice: Training focuses on needs of learners and internal partners
• Best practices of benchmark participants for effective sales training - Reinforcement and effective models
• Interview narrative on video practice sessions
• Best practices of benchmark participants for effective sales training - Management effectiveness, curriculum and customer focus
• Interview narrative on acting on external feedback to make improvements to training
• Best practices of benchmark participants for effective sales training - Measurement, continuous learning and technology
• Interview narrative on continuing education

• Job title of benchmark participants
• Therapeutic areas covered by the sales force(s) of benchmark companies
• Revenue and products supported by benchmark companies’ sales force