AstraZeneca’s (AZ) Field Sales team in the US was unhappy with the tools they had to do their jobs and wasted significant time per week navigating complex tools, workflows, and doing manual data manipulation. The individual solutions worked well when implemented several years ago, but over time business and technology needs evolved.
Tom Valerio, Executive Director of US Strategy and Business, AstraZeneca, emphasized, “We have a motivated, top tier sales team. Complex tools and workflows made it difficult for them to make the impact we knew they were capable of.”
The Lextech team partnered with AZ Executive, Sales, IT, and Commercial Operations leadership to create a common vision for the sales force. We then collaborated with the field sales managers and representatives to uncover friction in their workflows, identifying where time was being spent and wasted.
“We have a lot of data, but it’s not telling me a story. There’s so much disjointed stuff; it’s just an overload of data and not focused on what I really need to know,” said one District Sales Manager.
After identifying the core friction points, we applied our user-focused agile process to rapidly create and test solutions. The amount of time saved for the sales force was our key success metric for each iteration. AZ’s leadership wanted to empower the field sales team to shift the time they saved with the new solution to higher value work.
“This initiative [with Lextech] is the single most important thing we will do to reach our sales goals in the next 3 years.” - Mike Hartman, Executive Business Director.
The simplified experience incorporated coaching, territory and district management, and call planning. It also brought the sales team closer together as there was a consistent view of data for all sales managers and representatives. We integrated data from multiple backend systems into a simple user experience that fits how the field sales team works and feels seamless, like using a single app.
After rolling out part of the solution, one sales manager shared, “I scheduled a review with a sales representative. [Based on past experience with these meetings] She put 3 hours on the calendar to get it done. We used the apps and went through everything in about 20 minutes!”
AstraZeneca has been able to save a day a week for sales managers and representatives since the launch of the program. But, more importantly, recent engagement scores have jumped for those that are using the new tools. Those results help to support one of AZ’s key goals of “being a great place to work”.
“The key to the success of our strategic partnership with AstraZeneca has been to help them focus on ‘$100 million’ problems, problems that matter. The solutions created don’t replace the large investment in platforms such as Veeva, but rather optimize them by providing a streamlined experience that fits the way the field needs to work,” highlighted Alex Bratton, CEO and Chief Geek of Lextech.
