March 25, 2024 | Sales Best Practices

Fighting the Forgetting Curve in Medical Sales Training

Medical sales companies have to deal with a lot of regulations in how they communicate with their sales prospects. On top of that, they need to keep their sales reps up to date with the latest sales tips and tricks to maintain a competitive edge over other businesses in this highly competitive market.

However, one of the mistakes that some companies make all too frequently is treating medical sales training as a “one and done” process—they have their sales team do an online training course or go to a seminar, pass a single test, and declare “mission accomplished!” Ironically, these companies have forgotten about one thing: The forgetting curve.

What Is the Forgetting Curve?

The forgetting curve is a visual representation of how much information is lost over time after learning it. It is attributed to a German psychologist named Hermann Ebbinghaus. As noted by Mindtools.com, Ebbinghaus “wanted to understand more about why we forget things and how to prevent it.”

To put it simply, the forgetting curve states that the more time elapses after we learn something, the less of that information we’ll retain. Other factors can affect information retention as well—for example:

  • How important or meaningful a given memory or piece of information is will affect retention.
  • The way information is organized and presented can make it easier or harder to retain.
  • A learner’s state of mind can affect retention.
  • A learner’s health can impact retention.

Consider it this way: Which are you more likely to remember, a long, rambling lecture where the info is irrelevant to you, you’re distracted, and you’re not feeling well or a concise, easily-digested report full of information you need to know after you’ve had a full night’s rest and are in good health?

Odds are that, for the rambling lecture, you’re mostly only going to remember that there was a rambling lecture and that you really didn’t want to be there for it rather than the actual contents of the lecture. Meanwhile, the report will be easier to remember—especially if you get the chance to interject and ask questions about it.

However, in both cases, it is likely that you will forget most of the specifics over time.

Why Does the Forgetting Curve Matter for Medical Sales Training?

So, why is the forgetting curve an important thing to remember for medical sales training? The major reason is that, if steps aren’t taken to counter the loss of information, it can lead to sales reps underperforming or making mistakes that can cost the company dearly.

For example, let’s say that your company conducted Federal Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) training for its sales team. However, the training was just a lecture by some random trainer and there were never any supplemental lessons or roleplay sessions done. Because of this, the sales team doesn’t really internalize the information about what they can or cannot offer as gifts to doctors or other decision-makers in the healthcare industry.

The Result? After a few months, a sales rep gets caught providing an expensive lunch to a physician, then a prosecutor decides to press charges for violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1320a-7b, which has possible penalties of fines, jail time, and being excluded from Medicaid and Medicare program business.

These penalties, plus the bad press that regulatory violations can bring, could have a severe negative impact on any company, regardless of size. Just as a means of minimizing the risk of a violation, finding ways to combat the loss of information after training is a must.

Additionally, improving sales reps’ ability to remember key lessons from other training content can help to improve their sales performance. When a sales rep remembers their training, they’re more likely to put it into practice—which can help grow sales.

Tips for Fighting the Forgetting Curve in Sales Training

So, how can you fight the forgetting curve and improve knowledge retention for your sales team? Here are a few ideas for making training information last longer:

1. Make Training Interactive

Passive learning methods, such as non-interactive lectures, may be less engaging than active learning methods (such as role playing sessions and discussions). Relying on passive and non-interactive learning can increase the likelihood of learners forgetting training materials soon after the training ends.

As noted by eLearning Industry, “People learn better when they’re actively involved than when they’re just passive observers. If you don’t give your learners and opportunity to interact with the content, they’ll just drift off and lose concentration.” By making lessons more interactive, sales reps undergoing training will be more engaged with training content—and thus more likely to retain that information later.

Some ways you could make training content more interactive include:

  • Holding Roleplay Sessions. Have sales reps break out into pairs (with each other or with trainers) to act through situations relevant to the training. For example, they could try to act out a script for selling products in a certain way.
  • Encouraging Discussions and Q&As with Trainers. When undergoing training, being able to ask questions or even just have a discussion with the subject matter expert doing the training can have a major impact on information retention. Of course, it isn’t enough to just offer the opportunity—it’s important to incentivize people to participate. For example, you could offer a gift card to the person who asks the best question in training or provide a little “training MVP” trophy to employees who contribute the most to the training session.
  • Collecting Anonymous Feedback. Have employees who might be too shy to provide direct feedback during training? Consider setting up an anonymous feedback system and asking for what different members of the team did or didn’t like about the training—this could be invaluable for improving future training sessions and your skills as a sales manager. It also encourages sales reps to think more about the training itself and can help improve information retention.

2. Hold Reminder Lessons and Pop Quizzes

Training should never be treated as a “one and done” solution. Even extremely knowledgeable and competent people can, over time, forget necessary information. Sources such as the previously-cited Mindtools article note that “the biggest drop in retention happens soon after learning,” usually in the first two days post-training.

Because of this fact, one of the best ways to combat the forgetting curve is to hold reminder lessons or put people through little pop quizzes every few days. This helps to reinforce the lessons learned in training and lets you see which pieces of information are being forgotten.

With enough repetition, the lesson is much more likely to stick and the sales rep is more likely to remember to put training lessons into practice.

3. Showcase How Training Is Relevant

If employees are of the opinion that the training they’re doing isn’t really relevant to their job role, it’s highly likely that they’ll either try to avoid the training or won’t pay attention when in training. This can make it incredibly difficult to get them to retain the information provided in these lessons.

The most effective way to get people to pay attention is often to make sure that they know exactly how the training lessons apply to them and their job function. For example, in a lesson about the AKS, you could highlight how violations could result in fines and jail time—providing a strong bit of negative reinforcement.

On a more positive note, you could showcase how other sales reps applying lessons learned in training to improve their sales numbers. For example, if reps who stick to the training tend to close 20% more deals per month than they did before the training, that could demonstrate how the training is important to their success. This information could encourage people to take the training program more seriously.

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