Sharing Solutions: LTEN Field Training Scholarship Winners
SPECIAL GUESTS – By Tim Sosbe
Julie Fassel
Regional Training Specialist
AstraZeneca
Being a field representative, as well as a regional training specialist (RTS), offers a unique insight to customers. During my tenure as RTS, I noticed several customers, specifically the advanced practice providers, were asking questions around adverse event management of oral oncolytic therapies. The questions they asked were very thoughtful and caring, with the intent of managing their patients and keeping them on therapy for the best therapeutic outcome.
After hearing similar questions from multiple providers, I realized there was an unmet need in this specific oncology space.
During my time at a previous company, they utilized a platform to address nursing needs with the development of a nursing-specific speakers bureau. Based on this previous experience, I presented a proposal with the foundation of the program from my previous company with a few alterations.
Leadership was open to the idea, and within weeks, we were moving forward with presentation development and speaker training. We started with a small group of nurse practitioners and physician assistants and trained them on all clinical trial protocols for adverse event management.
Since these healthcare professionals have daily clinic experience, along with the training on the specific drug, these programs became a huge success across the country. They truly provided a solution to an unmet need for patient care.
The best part of watching this program develop, was how nimble and open the company was to making changes and improvements as the program was rolled out and gained feedback from customers. The RTS team was a vital part of collecting the feedback and providing applicable solutions to ensure the program provided the best presentation and value to meet our customer and patient needs.
Rosa Hanks
Territory Manager, Contraceptives Business Unit
CooperSurgical
Plan of Action (POA) meetings are essential to sales organizations. The importance of making them memorable and engaging is critical. Often, however, these meetings can feel forced and repetitive for the learners. Creating a dynamic and engaging day can be particularly challenging when there is a tenured sales team, such as the Contraceptive Division at CooperSurgical.
During the 2019 Fall POA meeting, the training team was tasked with both launching a new core visual aid and getting the learners to role-play as many times as possible. The desire to create an engaging, knowledgeretaining meeting led to the development of the “Be a Star” theme.
That fun, relatable theme tied to some of the core components of sales acumen and allowed for a creative and productive POA meeting. The feedback was unanimously positive. The learners left feeling energized and confident in their knowledge and selling skills. Sales leadership felt that their teams were more engaged, motivated and had improved their sales acumen as well as mastered the new visual aid.
Creating an immersive experience can help change the way learners interact with their customers. In the end we created learning that was fun, memorable and engaging.
Editor’s Note: Earlier this year, the LTEN Field Training Committee kicked off the first LTEN field training scholarship program. Two winners were selected among applicants, with the winners earning scholarships to attend LTEN workshops and conferences.
The two winners, Julie Fassel of AstraZeneca and Rosa Hanks of CooperSurgical, were able to join their LTEN colleagues for the LTEN Connect virtual training forum, where their scholarships were announced during the Excellence Awards ceremony.
We asked Rosa and Julie to tell us more about their scholarship-worthy work.
Tim Sosbe is editorial director for LTEN. Email Tim at tsosbe@L-TEN.org.
