ideahaus : creative + intelligence

“This strategy helped us to address our greatest communication challenges, and project a return on our investment within the first year.” - Director of Medical Sales Training, GlaxoSmithKline

Situation: We worked with the Director of Training within an international consumer healthcare manufacturer that develops and markets consumer healthcare products.

Critical Business Issue: It was taking one-to-two years for the company to realize their return on investment of new sales representativest. Twenty percent of new sales reps were never meeting their sales potential. Fifty percent of existing sales representatives were not meeting annual sales projections. Morale issues were affecting productivity and promoting rapid turnover.

Reasons: The Training Department was slow to market with new sales representatives. Training courses were delivered only once enough people were signed up. Some sales reps had to wait up to six months to receive a specific training program. In addition, training programs were expensive because they were delivered on site and the company incurred travel and lodging expenses for each attendee. The Training Departments slow distribution of sales information reduced the effectiveness of the sales rep, reducing the value of their customer relationships.

Sales reps are field based and have no sense of community, limiting their support base for decision making to phone and voice-mail support from managers. This arrangement was having a negative impact the sales reps’ growth rate and effectiveness.

Vision: What they told us they needed was a way to get new sales reps into the market faster, reduce the cost of training programs, increase training offerings and improve new sales rep productivity.

They also told us they needed to expedite distribution of sales information, to improve Sales Reps effectiveness, to increase the value of their relationship in the customers eyes, and to develop a sense of community among the sales reps.

Capabilities Provided: Ideahaus enabled the company to reach these objectives by developing a secured web site, which included;

• A news and calendar information to help keep division equally informed
• A Community section featuring text-based chat, message boards, and an open Q&A forum for the Division Vice President
• A Products section, featuring downloadable Manuals, Sales Aids, Marketing Schedules and Clinical Reviews
• A Training section featuring information on all programs, program registration and online program delivery and testing.
• A Directory section featuring Sales, management and Administrative contact information,
• An Administrative section featuring current policies, procedures, surveys and downloadable forms.

Ideahaus also designed a new division identity, including assets for re-packaging all intellectual assets.
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Results: As a result of these new capabilities, the Company projects a return on new sales rep investment 50% faster, and a 25% increase in new rep sales. The number of existing sales representatives not meeting annual sales projections has been reduced by 50%. Managers report steady increases in sales rep morale and turnover has been reduced 15%.

Studio Notes: This was the biggest department web site GSK had every developed. We even created a mobile version of the site for an HP handheld. It used the same database but the interface had to be shrunk to 400 pixels wide. A Manager could actually go on a sales call with a Rep, then pull down the appropriate training video from the site (as needed) afterwards for immediate training. Hey, in 2002 this was cool ;-) - kp