Leveraging Information and Communication Technology for Sales Training: Two Short Cases

In 2007, when Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals Inc (Bayer HealthCare) reported a significant growth in the sales of Betaseron, its drug for the treatment of Multiple Sclerosis (MS), analysts attributed the growth largely to a new communication campaign for the brand targeting the doctors that was implemented by the company’s sales force. And what was noteworthy was that the sales force had been trained through an online video game sales tool. According to Ken Begasse, Jr. (Begasse), COO, Concentric Healthcare Advertising , who developed the simulation game called Rep Race: The Battle for Office Supremacy for Bayer, “We wanted to make it [Rep Race] fun but at the same time communicate the marketing challenges and goals of the team… You have feedback mechanisms already built into the game and you can start to add quantitative measurements. We can link the rep’s performance on the gaming platform with their performance in the field. We know we’ve done better in message recall and message retention since this program has been out there.”....