CASE STUDY

OBJECTIVE: To shorten the sales cycle and increase sales in an increasigly challenging selling environment.

Purdue Pharma L.P., is a privately held pharmaceutical company founded by phy-sicians and now headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut. It is a member of a network of independent associated companies engaged in the research, development, pro-duction and marketing of prescription and over-the-counter medicines and healthcare products. An industry leader in pain medication research, Purdue is distinguished by its pioneering research, products and medical programs directed toward alleviating pain

In a selling environment that hinges on making a quick connection, Purdue Phar-ma recognizes that every second a sales representative spends with the healthcare practitioner is critical. But from gatekeepers limiting who can meet with the physician to the increased number of physicians working within hospitals or integrated health systems that have strict administrative dictates on how doctors spend their time, mak-ing those quick connections has become both more challenging and more important.

Adding to the pressure, each Purdue representative now has a larger geography to cover than ever before. To continue to increase sales, Purdue needed a way to help its sales representatives quickly engage, educate and move their customers to a decision so everyone’s time is spent productively.

CASE STUDY: INCREASING AND ACCELERATING SALES IN A CHALLENGING SELLING ENVIRONMENT.

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How Purdue Pharma’s sales representatives are apply-ing thinking-based tools and skills to make every second with their customers count.

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CHALLENGE:Find a way to help sales representatives quickly engage, educate and move their customers to a decision so everyone’s time is spent productively.

Like many sales organizations, Purdue Pharma’s sales team operates in a chal-lenging, ever-evolving environment. The world of pharmaceutical sales has been rocked by a series of changes—both internal and external—over the past decade. In the boom years, the ranks of the profession had swelled into the hundreds of thou-sands, creating not only more competition but also a somewhat inevitable customer backlash—as they grew tired of being inundated with sales calls and visits, many phy-sicians began giving their gatekeepers strict instructions about who could see them and for how long.

Eventually, the market retracted and the numbers of reps began to shrink consid-erably, but the pattern was set: Doctors now had a routine response to pharmaceuti-cal sales professionals: “I’m busy. I don’t have time to see you today.”

Today, Purdue recognizes that radical changes in the healthcare industry are only making this tough selling environment even tougher. With more group practices and a larger number of physicians working within hospitals or integrated health systems, even if the doctors want to talk to the salesperson, there are strict administrative dic-tates on how they spend their time.

In looking at how she could help set the sales team up for success in this chal-lenging environment, Tiffany McMacken, Purdue’s Senior Manager of Sales Training Development, says she focused in on two overarching questions:

• How can we assist our representatives in making better connections withtheir customers to generate appropriate prescriptions and improve sales?

• What do we need to change in order to consistently gain time and create atwo-way dialogue with healthcare practitioners, office staff and pharmacies?

SOLUTION:Give people the tools and skills to recognize and adapt to their customers’ thinking preferences for faster, more productive and more targeted discussions.

Looking at how someone thinks goes deeper than their outward behaviors and per-sonality to the thought processes that drive their communications and buying deci-sions.

The company realized that staying competitive in this new environment would require a sophisticated yet practical method their sales professionals could easily apply to prepare for their calls, quickly connect with their customers and make the most of every interaction.

McMacken explains that to help them make those connections, they first needed to understand how their sales professionals approach selling and communications.

“The first question we asked ourselves was, ‘Where are our reps—how do they think and communicate and approach the job?’ And then the next question that came was, ‘Where are our customers? And how are we going to link these two together?’ It’s very expensive to send a salesperson out to meet with the customer so we need to really capitalize on every interaction that occurs.”

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That discussion led them to Whole Brain® Thinking. The company had embraced the Whole Brain® System, including the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument® (HBDI®) assessment, in the late 1990s as a way of helping sales representatives and their managers better understand themselves, the physicians they work with and even their co-workers. In light of new challenges in the marketplace, McMacken saw an opportunity to take the thinking-based approach even further, explaining:

“We wanted to give representatives an awareness of their own self but also teach them how to identify the preferences of their customers: How do they make deci-sions, how do they communicate and what makes it easiest for them to take what you’re giving them, accept it and then take action?”

The brain-based premise of the HBDI® and Whole Brain® Model was appealing, she adds, because thinking preferences impact how someone behaves, focuses their attention and makes decisions. Looking at how someone thinks goes deeper than their outward behaviors and personality—which may be affected by external factors—to the thought processes that drive their communications and buying decisions.

But just as important, because the model represents preferences not competen-cies, it shows that we all have the ability to think across the thinking quadrants. As a result, a sales professional can learn not only how to be more mindful of their own preferences, but also how to spot clues about the customer’s thinking and then adapt their communications and selling approach to that person’s preferences. McMacken says Purdue found this approach would enable their sales representatives to consis-tently have more productive discussions and to present in the most effective way for each person who may be involved in the process, from the office staff to the nurse to the physician.

“It gives the sales representative the ability to connect with a person in a very short amount of time,” McMacken explains. “They can ‘speak their language’ so the whole process goes faster.”

Selling on a Foundation of Thinking“The goal is to create a two-way dialogue that’s as efficient as possible. Otherwise the customer feels it’s a waste of their time.” –Tiffany McMacken, Senior Manager of Sales Training Development, Purdue Pharma

Making Whole Brain® Thinking an integral part of the Purdue sales approach be-came a priority. All Purdue sales representatives now take the HBDI® assessment upon initial hire. They then go through training that includes learning about the Whole Brain® Model as well as a debrief of their own HBDI® Profile.

“Right away they begin to identify previous customers they’ve called on, ones who they’ve had great success with, and when you ask them why, most of the time it’s because they were coming from the same mental space,” McMacken says. “And then they think of those they never got anywhere with. You ask them why, and they’ll say things like, ‘Every time we had an interaction, I was communicating with an interper-sonal, feelings-based focus and they were coming at it from a more critical, analytical perspective—and I was never able to connect with them.’”

In addition to learning about different thinking preferences, the sales representa-tives learn specific thinking-based skills to help them apply the concepts in practice so they can quickly benefit from them. A key part of the process is looking for clues that will help them uncover the customer’s thinking preferences.

“Signs are everywhere,” McMacken points out. The representatives learn how to scan the environment and office. For example, is it warm and inviting, with coffee available and plenty of comfortable chairs? Or is it more sterile and clinical, with few

personal touches? How do they like to schedule meetings? What can the people who work with them reveal about how they like to learn and what information they need to make a decision? All of these come together to help paint a picture of that individual’s preferences.

“You can’t make assumptions just on one clue or interaction,” McMacken notes. “We encourage them to have at least four or five visits before they come to a conclu-sion.”

In fact, McMacken says one of the benefits of the thinking-based approach is that it doesn’t pigeonhole people. Doctors, for example, are trained to be more analytical, especially in residency, but most people have varying degrees of preference for the four quadrants of thinking, so it’s important for the sales representatives to be adapt-able and flexible in their thinking.

Once the preferences are identified, the sales representatives then focus on what matters most to that person and what he or she will need to make a decision. For example, someone with a strong A quadrant thinking preference will need to know all of the facts in order to make a decision. A person with a strong B quadrant prefer-ence will likely want the details and assurance they will have complete control. For a person with a high preference for C quadrant thinking, the most important factors will be people issues, such as how the patient will be affected, while a D-quadrant thinker will be more interested in the big picture and seeing all of the possibilities.

“The goal is to create a two-way dialogue that’s as efficient as possible,” McMack-en says. “Otherwise the customer feels it’s a waste of their time.”

Because efficient and effective communication is essential within the company as well, the sales representatives aren’t the only ones who learn about their preferenc-es. Managers also complete the HBDI® assessment and use the information to com-municate more productively with their team members. Additionally, Purdue compiles HBDI® Team Profiles of the sales teams to give their managers a clear picture of the thinking strengths of the team and where there might be gaps or mental “blind spots.”

Bringing Thinking Into the Field“Knowing how to connect based on thinking preference can be the difference—the factor that extends a two- to three-minute meeting to five to seven minutes. And that can be critical.” –Tiffany McMacken, Senior Manager of Sales Training Development, Purdue Pharma

The Whole Brain® Model and a variety of thinking-based tools are now incorpo-rated into the territory management app that every salesperson has on their iPad and uses regularly throughout the day. For each contact, the sales representative is asked to identify the customer’s preferences, again, based on at least four or five interac-tions. The tool is then populated with several models, including the Whole Brain® De-cision Making Model, which shows what that quadrant focuses on most when faced with a decision. Additional information is added to support the interaction, such as information about what types of communication will appeal to the customer and even word choices to incorporate into the discussion.

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As a result, every time a sales representative looks up a physician’s profile on their iPad, the data is there to support a more productive and efficient discussion. They have the information they need to speak to the person in their “language,” appeal to their decision-making style and focus the discussion on what matters most to them. They use this approach not just with the physicians, but with receptionists, nurses, office staff and others. McMacken says it reinforces the application of Whole Brain® Thinking and allows them to formulate a plan on the spot—for example, whether they should use a more direct approach, more conceptual, more patient-centered, etc.

“You may only get two minutes with the physician, so you need to be able to quickly figure out what’s going to drive a decision,” she adds. “Knowing how to con-nect based on thinking preference can be the difference—the factor that extends a two- to three-minute meeting to five to seven minutes. And that can be critical.”

RESULTS:Building stronger relationships, shortening the sales cycle and increasing overall sales results with a prescription for smarter selling

“Sales representatives are finding they can connect with a customer they’ve been up against a wall with for years.” –Tiffany McMacken, Senior Manager of Sales Training Devel-opment, Purdue Pharma

More than 2,000 people at Purdue, including the entire sales force, district man-agers, regional managers and area managers, have now completed the HBDI® as-sessment and subsequent training. McMacken says the sales organization is report-ing a significant increase in their effectiveness since they began applying a Whole Brain® approach to selling, specifically by:

• Making the most of each interaction

• Increasing the amount of time the healthcare practitioner is willing to spendwith the sales representative

• Shortening the selling cycle

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• Improving overall sales results

Because the entire sales organization is applying Whole Brain® Thinking, theyhave also seen improved internal communication between the sales representatives and their managers, and between managers and their team.

“Instead of speaking to everyone in the same style,” McMacken explains, “people now tailor their communications to what’s going to connect fastest with that person. Sales representatives are finding they can connect with a customer they’ve been up against a wall with for years.”

At a strategic level, the Whole Brain® Model is embedded into Purdue’s sales model, and continues to be integral to their selling strategy moving forward. The com-pany recently rolled out the Challenger Sales Model and discussed how Whole Brain® Thinking and the HBDI® work within it, because, as McMacken observes, regardless of the selling technique or process being used, “You have to be mindful of how the person is receiving the information and whether you’re delivering it in a way they can receive it. If I’m talking about interpersonal, C-quadrant aspects and the customer is focused on the A-quadrant, analytical issues, it doesn’t matter what I say—I won’t be able to make the connection and get the decision.”

And for those who may be resistant to trying something new, McMacken recom-mends starting with their own assessment. “When they see right away how accurate it is, it resonates. They buy into it. They realize that tailoring their style to the physician’s is going to get them further than a one-size-fits-all approach.”

UNLEASH THINKING POTENTIALHerrmann International combines powerful psychometric tools with learning pro-grams to prepare your workforce for a complex and volatile environment. Learn more about our assessment tools, explore our learning programs, or talk to a Whole Brain® Specialist today.

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