Customer expectations for field reps are higher than ever, as healthcare providers seek more effective and impactful interactions with sales reps beyond what they receive through digital means. But providing effective training to sales forces (through role-play) to help them meet the challenge can be manual, time consuming and costly. Training can also be hard to retain or apply after the session is over, making it difficult to change behaviors. Experts have long known that the ability to practice on demand and with focus and vulnerability ties to higher effectiveness. Here’s how one company infused AI-powered technology to fill a critical gap in today’s training approach.

Sales success comes with experience and repetition, but getting that experience can be challenging. No one wants to practice on real customers, and practicing with other salespeople or the boss can be time-consuming and awkward. This was the challenge for one pharmaceutical company that wanted to invest in a highly trained and effective sales force. The company wanted an innovative way to help salespeople practice their customer conversational skills.

To help the company’s sales force practice having in-depth conversations at their convenience, ZS created a virtual sales rep training simulator. Designed for sales reps, account managers, medical liaisons or any user who has direct interactions with customers, the interactive platform is powered by a large language model that is custom trained to mimic specific segments of providers and present common objections that reps would have to respond to. It allows users to role-play with a selection of customer profiles and respond to AI-generated replies. The platform then uses key criteria customized to the specific brand and market to assess the rep’s conversational skills and gives them evaluations and scores based on the interaction. Reps also get detailed feedback on areas where they need improvement.

The platform incorporates a range of scenarios to simulate real-world interactions, as well as varying levels of difficulty for users to challenge themselves and make the virtual customer more in line with the one they’re envisioning. It also offers sales reps a way to practice on their own without tying up other reps or practicing on real customers. Reps can use the platform for pre-call practice and direct coaching feedback loops with first-line managers.
 

To build the tool, the ZS team conducted extensive testing with the pharma company’s sales teams to understand their needs and any potential issues. The team also developed customer profiles that were finely tuned to meet the needs of the sales force.
 

In addition to getting the sales team on board, the ZS team also worked extensively and iteratively with the pharma company’s compliance team. They ensured that the product’s responses were appropriate, the right disclosures were added and appropriate evaluation criteria were incorporated. As a result, the model is able to successfully detect more than 20 different types of compliance issues that could arise as part of the conversation​. The compliance team can review new conversations before they’re incorporated into the tool​. The AI can also be programmed to detect specific noncompliant behaviors. It has built-in accountability controls, oversight controls and retention controls.

To test the virtual trainer, the pharma company’s field leaders and trainers tested the product and gave the ZS team their feedback. The leaders saw it as a strong complement to their existing sales training activities, amplifying them significantly versus replacing them. The sales team saw it as a useful tool because of the unmet need to practice conversations and overcome objections to prepare for sales calls.

“The platform forces us not to just be prepared with materials, but if you follow the flow, it forces you to use every single item as a resource,” said a first-line sales manager. “It forces you to use specifics—numbers, percentages and comparisons. It also tells you what you missed and what materials you should have used, so it’s a complete tool.”

In addition to giving positive feedback about the platform’s capabilities, the pharma company is mapping out the integration of the new tool into its sales training activities and eventually to the broader sales organization.

The virtual trainer helps reps be at their best at every single meeting, instead of searching for words to say or having to practice with real customers. ZS continues to invest considerably to develop the training platform as a comprehensive and connected solution, with many planned enhancements as the AI landscape evolves. Clients will serve as cocreation partners on this journey. ZS is also on a journey to continue enhancing the product for better simulation through more realistic profiles, AI avatars, detailed n=1 customizations and better user experience. We believe AI role-play is a core capability for every field force, and realism and believability are at the heart of what we strive for in our solution.