Effective Launch Training Practices for District Managers: Timing, Topics & Delivery

STUDY OVERVIEW

The competitive landscape for the biopharmaceutical industry has made new product launches even more important. Thus the role of the District Manager (DM) has become even more critical to launch success because it's the DM who oversees launch-related sales activities in the field.

This study identifies the pre-launch training sequence for the sales force, what delivery approaches are most effective, the ideal curriculum and the success factors for preparing district managers. Sales leaders can use this study to compare their approach to sales force launch training with peer companies in the biopharmaceutical industry.


KEY TOPICS

• Effective Training Approaches & Timing
• Narratives from Executive Interviews
• Success Factors

• Effectiveness rating of approaches for delivering launch training
• Timing for starting sales force training for a new product launch
• Percentage of total pre-launch training allocated to each key launch training topics
• Three key success factors that training should focus on when preparing district managers for a new product launch
• What would you do differently to better prepare district managers for launch success?
  

• Many High Value Training Topics for Sales Team are Delivered 2-4 Weeks Prior to Launch: The two time periods that were most popular for presenting launch training for the sales force were 2-4 weeks prior to launch and 1-4 months prior to launch. Training topics around Understanding Customers and Payer Issues often take place 2-4 weeks prior to launch. Meanwhile, training topics around Product Information and Selling Skills often take place 1-4 months prior to launch.
• Product Information and Selling Skills Identified as Topics that Should Get Most Focus in Training: Almost 40% of launch training should focus on product information (16%), advanced selling skills (12%), and disease state awareness (11%), participants said.

Best Practices, LLC engaged 20 sales leaders from 20 biopharmaceutical companies for this study. The methodology included a benchmarking survey and executive interviews with four participants.

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