Building National Sales Meeting momentum with creative workshops propelled by competition
Reimagined National Sales Meeting (NSM) workshops as cohesive, energized events that motivate teams to elevate their game.
Our client’s challenge
Our clients asked us to create a “pulling-it-all-together” workshop as part of their NSM that would generate excitement, competition, and get the sales force up and moving around. The key brand objective was to navigate through the customer landscape by tailoring core messages based on healthcare professional (HCP) specialty.
Our insight
Heading into the planning stage for this meeting, we already had a multi-year relationship with our client through curricula design and development, ongoing management of new hire training assets, and training initiatives for market events and new indications. In addition, we had previously partnered with this client to design and produce many workshops for launch and NSM meetings. Our established, trusted relationship with the client ensured strong collaboration across training, sales leadership, brand, medical affairs, market access, and field teams to design our approach and strategies.
Our approach
Armed with the direction to create “something exciting that gets the reps up and moving around,” as well as the knowledge that a key brand objective for the sales meeting was to upskill the sales force in tailoring their messaging based on HCP specialty, the idea of having teams “travel to various destinations” was sparked. As we were tasked with developing three other workshops that would come before this culminating event, we planned to strategically weave the “expedition” theme throughout the entire meeting, beginning at registration and concluding with the announcement of winning teams at the closing reception. We wanted to emphasize team spirit whilst also tapping into the competitive nature of the sales force. We needed a solution that was inspiring, valuable, and fun.
Our solution
“The Amazing Expedition,” inspired by the TV reality show “The Amazing Race,” was a team competition in which small groups travelled to multiple destinations to earn points through stakeholder interactions. Beginning at registration, sales representatives were given a supply bag, travel journal, passport, and team swag. In addition, they were given coordinates in order to reveal their team’s name and locate other members of their team.
From there, The Amazing Expedition was woven through all workshops by pulling in the idea that the sales representatives were “preparing for their journey,” gathering insights about each destination and mapping out a plan for responding to customer questions and concerns. As part of the preparation, teams were able to earn competitive advantage cards. Each card could be used for a specific purpose during the expedition itself and they were able to store these cards in their passport.
Finally, after an energizing “hype” video, the expedition began. Teams had 30 minutes per destination to earn as many points as possible. Information about the destination was revealed when teams entered the room. They were then asked to complete a series of activities focused on strategizing and, ultimately, executing a stakeholder interaction. Importantly, successful completion of the destination required pull through of knowledge and skills reviewed during prior workshops. Points were earned based on a destination scorecard and then entered into a custom-built app. The leaderboard was displayed in real-time so teams could see their standing as they were moving between destinations, generating excitement and competition.
The results
The feedback from sales leadership, district managers, oncology territory managers (sales representatives), and the brand team was overwhelmingly positive. The field teams were energized by all facets of the meeting and were more prepared than ever to execute on brand objectives. The engagement level remained high right through to the very end of the meeting. The original “Amazing Expedition” was so well received that sales leadership insisted it be pulled through to the next meeting cycle, which we called “The Amazing Expedition 2.0.” We were able to use the same basic format but revamped the content to keep it “fresh” and make sure it aligned with a new set of brand objectives. Importantly, the enthusiasm remained high throughout both meetings.