How Did Johnson & Johnson Improve Competitive Objection Handling with Al?

Johnson & Johnson, a leading life sciences company, needed to train 240 sales reps in competitive objection handling. Despite extensive training, reps didn’t always address objections from HCPs effectively, often resorting to focusing on features which had limited impact on the HCP. Translating their product knowledge into impactful conversations with HCPs proved challenging.

“SmartWinnr Al Coaching is helping our sales teams to transfer product knowledge into meaningful conversations with HCPs. The biggest impact is in competitive objection handling.
SmartWinnr saves a lot of our time, and at the same time ensures that our sales teams get the practice that they need. The best part is that it takes only 30 minutes to get all information to create a role play scenario.”

Johnson&Johnson

MedTech

Hrs Trainer's time saved

Completion Rate

0 %

Mins Trainer's time needed

Improvement

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Challenges

Before rolling out SmartWinnr, Johnson & Johnson was up against a series of challenges:

Difficulty in Handling Competitive Objections
Sales reps often struggled to tackle objections from HCPs about competitors’ products. Instead of linking the features and benefits to patient outcomes, they tended to focus on features, which failed to address the HCP’s concerns.
Face-to-face Role Plays are Time-consuming
It would take approximately 400 hours for the trainer to conduct face-to-face role plays to train all the sales reps on handling competitive objections for all their products. This amount of time cannot be regularly invested.
Limited Number of Face to face Role Plays
Without regular face-to-face role plays, sales reps defaulted to discussing product features, lacking the skills to effectively address HCPs’ concerns and objections.

SmartWinnr Solution

Key products were identified, and competitive objection handling scenarios were developed. Launched at the J&J National Sales Training Meet, SmartWinnr Al Coaching was implemented to help sales reps improve their competitive objection handling skills.

Establishing the Correct Talk Track through Al
Each of the 240 reps was assigned an Al video coaching assignment. Where sales reps completed interactive role-plays on objection handling following this talk track:
- Acknowledge the challenge the HCP is facing
- Identify the reason for the challenge
- Offer a solution to the challenge, discussing the benefits for both the HCP and the patient, and how it mitigates the HCP’s challenge
- Share relevant clinical evidence
- Close with an ask for commitment or action
Customized Evaluation Rubric
- Product Knowledge:
  How good product knowledge does the rep have?
- Benefits to Patient and Surgery:
  Did the rep focus on the patient and surgical needs before diving into product features?
- Clinical Validation:
  Did the rep talk about the correct clinical evidence to support the claims?
- Presentation:
  How was the presentation?

Impact and Benefits

Successfully Identifying Gaps
After all 240 sales reps completed the first scenario, trainers identified gaps in their talk tracks. They recorded a best-case scenario and shared it with the reps for practice.
Consistent Improvement in Objection Handling
The sales reps demonstrated a 70% improvement in their ability to handle competitive objections effectively.
Efficient Scenario Creation
SmartWinnr streamlined the creation of role-play and simulation scenarios. Trainers were able to generate realistic scenarios tailored to specific challenges in just 30 minutes.