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 Join PDG and Pfizer at the ATD International Conference

When you work in the life sciences industry, change is a constant. And when you're one of the largest companies in that industry, change must be part of your strategy. That's exactly what was keeping the marketing excellence team at Pfizer up at night. In a world that shifts constantly, how do you keep the skills of your marketing team fresh and relevant? And how do you craft your message so it is practical and implementable for your marketing teams in nearly 100 countries worldwide?

 In this Association for Talent Development (ATD) Conference session, you will learn how Pfizer created a global performance initiative to address these challenges, using key strategies such as bringing together top subject matter experts and finding ways to get them to create a cohesive and focused curriculum, using global learning archetypes to design for multiple global audiences, aligning the effort to Pfizer's business goals, and tying the curriculum to Pfizer's performance management strategy.

Application on the Job:

• Determine the types of global market changes that require constant re-evaluation of employee skills and knowledge.

• Identify how those changes can be translated into a flexible curriculum that addresses not only today's needs but needs for years to come.
  
  
• Discuss strategies for bringing together a diverse team of stakeholders, subject matter experts, and learning professionals to create a consistent curriculum that can be deployed globally.
  
  

Is it difficult to get new behaviors from an experienced sales team? The tenured sales force responsible for Genzyme’s Multiple Sclerosis product (AUBAGIO®) had seen it all. The Genzyme learning team knew they needed to find an engaging, time-effective way of spreading best practices across the sales team to drive continued performance. Learn how Genzyme used both cutting-edge and well established methods to create a blended approach that feels fresh and new.

Using best practices from high performers with the greatest market share, Genzyme and their partner PDG created three methods for delivery of best practice: podcasts, graphic novels, and articles, all of which shared a similar look and feel.

Learning Objectives:

• Determine how to motivate and grow a mature and high-performing sales force
• Define the steps necessary to evaluate and benchmark best practices to drive up performance of all team members
• Identify how to create a vibrant blended approach to gain and hold sales force attention.

There’s no denying that changes in the world economy are having an effect on every industry. And the Life Sciences industry is feeling the effect like everybody else. As budgets for learning and development get battered from all sides, the savviest Life Sciences learning organizations have realized a simple truth: it isn’t about doing more with less, it’s about fundamentally rethinking the way learning and development gets done.

_{Stott & Mesch, 2015}

PDG’s Ann Stott and Rich Mesch recently published an article in Focus Magazine, the journal of the Life Sciences Training & Educators Network. Titled Learning in Changing Times: 5 Trends in Life Sciences Learning, the article focuses on how changes in the Life Sciences industry are changing the requirements of an effective learning function. The learning trends covered include:

1. Rethinking Product Launches

2. A Return to Shared Services

3. Demand Planning and Flexible Learning Resources

4. Building Long-Term Sales Team Success

5. Increased Focus on Informal Learning

Click here to read the article for free online. For more insight into the changing world of Life Sciences learning, read Ann Stott’s series on The Changing Face of Life Science Product Launch:

The Changing Face of Life Science Product Launch

The Changing Face of Life Science Product Launch, Part 2: The Launch Toolkit

The Changing Face of Life Science Product Launch, Part 3: The Role of the Learning Team

Ann Stott is the Vice President, Global Accounts at Performance Development Group. She leads the life sciences practices, focusing on pharmaceuticals, health care, biotechnology, and medical devices. Her extensive consulting experience is used to grow the PDG advisory services capabilities. Ann is an accomplished, respected, and energetic leader with more than twenty years of experience in the corporate training environment.

Rich Mesch is Vice President, Customer Engagement at Performance Development Group. A frequent contributor to industry events and publications, his most recent article was Taming the Learning Demand Curve: Using Supply Chain Methods to Manage Your Learning Function for Training Industry's online magazine.

In this series, PDG’s Ann Stott, a 20+ year veteran of the Life Science industry, shares her perspective on how to become more strategic in product launch planning. In the previous installment, Ann discussed how a Launch Toolkit can drive success in managing a product launch portfolio. In this final entry, Ann talks about the role of the Learning Team in product launch.

Q: How are learning teams responding to the changes in life science product launches?

AS: What we have started to see from our clients are requests for Launch Toolkits. A launch toolkit puts a step by step process in place for product launches. This gives consistency to the product launch process. You can use the Launch Toolkit to capture a history of product launches so that the process is in place for new employees to the department. 

I think it’s a great first step. Learning teams are also starting to look at their entire launch portfolio over a longer time period, and doing strategic resource planning. They look at their product launch portfolio for 18 months to three years to determine how to distribute their resources over multiple launches. I see the requests coming in from our clients to look at that broader portfolio. This is smart, as with a greater number of product launches the dynamic has changed.

Q: How do successful learning teams support product launch?

AS: To support a successful launch I think it is important to take an overall look at how you deliver the training pieces as well as review how your representatives are best able to learn and access information. Then assess how you are currently providing launch support. Revisit how you deliver your training and ask questions. How accessible is training to staff in the field? Can they find information quickly? Would it be beneficial to create smaller pieces of information that can be used on your sales staff’s mobile devices? Is social learning appropriate for your organization?

Q: What else have you found helpful in developing product launch training?

At PDG we use a diagnostic tool to help our clients prepare for upcoming product launches.  This tool helps us to identify the key strategic drivers. We gather preliminary information and then bring the sales and marketing teams together for a one-day workshop to walk through the diagnostic tool and gain consensus. Then we can determine the type of launches for each individual product and develop a launch strategy, launch template, and a repeatable process for the client that can be used over multiple launches.

Q: What is important to keep in mind when developing product launches?

One size does not fit all! You can’t do the same launch for all products, and doing so could be a costly mistake. It is wiser to look at each product individually and customize a launch plan appropriate to the product.  By being more strategic about product launch planning, organizations can have more effective learning for each product and set their sales team up for success.

For more information about PDG's Life Science offerings click here. 

Ann Stott is the Vice President, Advisory Services at Performance Development Group. She leads the life sciences practices, focusing on pharmaceuticals, health care, biotechnology, and medical devices. Her extensive consulting experience is used to grow the PDG advisory services capabilities. Ann is an accomplished, respected, and energetic leader with more than twenty years of experience in the corporate training environment.

PDG's Marcus Hswe will co-present with Keith Willis, the Associate Director, Cardiovascular Training for Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) for an exciting new webinar presented by the Life Sciences Trainers & Educators Network (LTEN) on January 9, 2015. 

Benchmarking Your Best: Using Your Top Talent to Grow Your Salesforce

Friday, January 9, 2015 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM EST

Many of us are challenged by salesforce turnover, and the need to constantly onboard new talent. But the Cardiovascular team at Bristol-Myers Squibb had a more intriguing challenge. BMS built and nurtured an extremely high-performing team, one that experienced very little turnover. How do you grow a great sales team and make them even better? How do you change the behavior of a team that’s had great success with the “old” behaviors?

Attend this lively and practical LTEN webinar to learn how BMS uncovered the differentiating behaviors of their top performers and created a series of best practices and benchmarks to help raise the performance of the entire team.

In this session, participants will learn:

• How to motivate and grow a mature and high-performing salesforce.
• How to evaluate and benchmark best practices to drive up performance of all team members.
• How learning needs to be approached differently for an experienced audience.

Our Presenters:

		Keith Willis Associate Director Cardiovascular Training Bristol-Myers Squibb Keith Willis has 22 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry where he has honed his sales management and sales training skills with companies like Johnson and Johnson and Pfizer Pharmaceuticals and Otsuka. Keith is currently Associate Director for Sales and Access Learning at Bristol-Myers Squibb responsible for Cardiovascular Training. Throughout his career he has won several sales awards, launched numerous products as a district manager, operations manager and training manager and developed several training curriculums.
		Marcus Hswe Consultant Performance Development Group Marcus Hswe is an Associate Vice President, Business Development with Performance Development Group (PDG) of Malvern, PA. He has over 10 years of experience in design, development, and management of enterprise training initiatives. With a concentration in the life sciences arena, Marcus works directly with senior executives to determine effective and efficient solutions to their business issues.

For more information, or to register for the webinar, click here.