The Business Challenge
Post Covid-19, the Oncology Division of a leading pharmaceutical company, faced a critical dip in product market share. Though the product had strong clinical backing and competitive advantages, it was not gaining traction in key hospitals and with prescribing oncologists. The sales teams reported:
- Low engagement levels during customer calls
- Transactional conversations rather than insight-led dialogues
- Difficulty differentiating the product in a highly competitive market
- Reduced attention span from decision-makers due to pandemic fatigue
The team needed to shift from a product-push approach to a more strategic, customer-centric engagement style to reestablish credibility and drive influence.
The Unique Components That Affected Them
By early 2021, the client faced a two-fold dilemma:
- Disengaged Sales Teams
Sales Teams felt robotic, reciting molecule structures and dosage regimens only to hear “We’ll circle back later” from overwhelmed hospital buyers. - Siloed Collaboration
Clinical-affairs experts and supply planners remained on the sidelines, so real patient-care constraints and production challenges never surfaced in sales conversations.
Our Approach: Embedding Consultative Selling as a Mindset and Skillset: We partnered with the Oncology Division leadership to implement a customized Consultative Selling Capability Program, anchored on these core principles:
1. Understanding Customer Context:
We trained the sales teams to conduct pre-call research and customer profiling to understand clinical, emotional, and institutional drivers of decision-making.
2. Framing Conversations around Value
Sales reps learned to frame product benefits in terms of patient outcomes, departmental KPIs, and hospital strategy, instead of features and efficacy alone.
3. Using the Discovery Model
We equipped the team with a Insight-Led Discovery Engagement framework, enabling them to:
- Present unique insights aligned to oncologists’ patient management goals
- Ask meaningful Situation and Problem questions
- Unearth deeper needs and implications
4. Building Trust through Dialogue, Not Monologue
We emphasized listening, empathy, and co-creating solutions with stakeholders , making each conversation collaborative rather than persuasive.
5. Practical Simulation-Based Learning
The team participated in live simulations, dealing with scenarios such as:
- Gaining access to decision-makers
- Re-engaging cold accounts
- Managing tough objections
Results & Business Impact (within 120 days post program)
- 11% improvement in conversion rates for the oncology product in target territories
- Higher doctor engagement, with field force reporting longer and more meaningful conversations
- Re-entry into 4 key hospitals where the product was previously deprioritized
- Shift in mindset: Sales reps reported higher confidence in navigating complex clinical and stakeholder discussions
Client Feedback
“Edify’s training program was a transformation in how our team sees their role. We’ve moved from product selling to becoming trusted advisors in Onco care delivery. The impact is visible in numbers and relationships.”
– Business Unit Head, Oncology
Reinforcement That Makes Change Stick
Edify layered in low-friction follow-up to cement habits:
- Online Refresher (6–8 Weeks Later): A one-hour virtual session replayed top workshop highlights, surfaced lingering obstacles through live polling, and re-anchored core frameworks.
- Micro-Learning Quizzes: Short, scenario-based questions delivered via mobile tested recall (“How would you reframe a budget objection?”), with aggregate results shared in a simple leadership dashboard.
- Leadership Reinforcement Briefs: Custom two-page “cheat sheets” summarizing key questioning models and empathy prompts armed regional heads to keep consultative practices alive in weekly huddles.
Measurable Results and Human Stories
By the end of quarter two, the transformation was unmistakable:
- Pipelines Unfreeze: Senior management reported a 35 percent uptick in qualified follow-up meetings. Hospital buyers said refreshed conversations felt “less like a sales pitch, more like problem-solving.”
- Cross-Functional Engagement Rises: Sales reps began collaborating regularly with clinical-affairs and supply-chain experts, finally weaving essential expertise into customer discussions.
- Confidence Under Pressure: When a fresh supply-chain snag hit, teams applied practiced VUCA-readiness drills to convene rapid “what-if” huddles and deliver composed updates that preserved trust.
- Cultural Shift: Engagement surveys showed marked rises in “I feel empowered to ask tough questions” and “My manager supports my development.”
But the most vivid proof lay in personal reflections:
“I walked into a key account meeting expecting the usual pushback,” said one territory manager. “Instead, I asked about their patient-throughput data, and they invited me to co-design a pilot launch. It was a complete shift.”
“Our supply lead actually asked our rep more questions than vice versa,” laughed a regional director. “That’s because we’re finally speaking each other’s language.”
By focusing squarely on consultative selling, bolstered subtly by change-management insights, leadership skill training, managerial effectiveness, communication finesse, habit-change rituals, growth-mindset prompts, and VUCA resilience, Edify helped this pharmaceutical leader rediscover its human touch. If your teams are craving more meaningful client partnerships, a focused, fully customized three-day deep dive could be the spark you need.
