Case Study
Becton Dickinson Conducts Better Customer Conversations
September 2016 was the best of times and most challenging of times for Joe Baker, Sales Development and Training Manager for Becton Dickinson, a global medical technology company. On the plus side, Baker’s business unit was enjoying rapid growth and gearing up for two new product launches.
On the minus side, “Our capabilities and support were really stretched thin,” he said. “It was just me and six managers supporting 55 people in the field. We were asking ourselves, ‘Are we getting the most [training] bang for our buck? How do we increase the efficiency of our training and reinforcement?’”
The Solution
To answer these questions, Baker’s team adopted the Allego sales learning and coaching platform.
The first product launch occurred before Allego was adopted, “So we did the classroom training, with extensive role play and scoring and quizzes.” Afterward, Baker and his team needed to validate whether reps were ready to sell, “So six to eight of us went into the field for about two months to coach people … It was the right thing to do, but … it was very taxing [and expensive].”
Supported by Allego, the second product launch was a different story.
- The sales force enjoyed ongoing just-in-time access to training videos, best practice videos and Flash Drills® adaptive reinforcement exercises whenever and wherever they needed them.
- In addition, “We put together certification videos for our folks and sent them out so they could reply with a video and recertify themselves. This time around, we knew they could articulate the message.”
- Baker’s team also used Allego to develop fast and effective responses to customer objections. “We sent objections to the reps and said, ‘How do you handle this? Get back to us with a video.’ With this crowdsourcing technique, they developed responses that could be instantly disseminated across the sales force.
Allego basically paid for itself in the first year.
Results
Baker and his team trained reps for the launch at lower cost with less hassle.
In terms of the ROI that Allego drove for Becton Dickinson, “It was the quickest math I ever did,” said Baker. “Allego basically paid for itself in the first year.”
Sales reps now conduct better customer conversations with the ability to practice in private on video using field-tested messaging that works.