L&M Blog

For decades, Pharmaceutical company sales organizations have made the financial and logistical commitment to gather together hundreds of company executives, sales representatives, managers, and marketers for the annual Company National Sales Meeting (NSM).

These huge events are carefully planned to allow for team building, a morale boost, motivation, training and recognition for a job well done.  And everyone will have a lot of fun in the process.   I recall a huge 3-day NSM I attended in the early 90’s for a major pharmaceutical company that I worked for that featured top performers at that time appearing live on-site to give mini concerts every day between meeting events.  Think Natalie Cole, the Count Basie Orchestra, and for the grand finale on the final night, a full length concert by Huey Lewis and the News.  It was a blast.  And I’m sure it cost a fortune.

The National Sales Meeting remains an important way to keep the sales organization feeling appreciated, educated and motivated to achieve its goals. 

So how do you pull off a NSM in the age of Covid-19 restrictions on travel and gathering?

For most organizations in 2020, they simply had to cancel all plans for a NSM.  Others made a hasty switch to some sort of virtual event on a Zoom-style platform with mixed results. Now, in 2021, many companies continue to struggle to identify the most effective way to gather the sales organization together virtually in a compelling and engaging event. Here’s an example of a recent virtual NSM that was a tremendous success.

In mid-April of this year, one major biotech company hosted a full, multi-day virtual NSM for over 500 attendees in partnership with L&M Healthcare Communications.  Using the L&M 3-D Virtual Studio platform and the full technical and logistical expertise offered by L&M, the meeting featured a full agenda of Executive talks, interviews, product sales training, update sessions and a sales representative awards program.   Any meeting segment that you might consider in a live event can be brought to life virtually. 

Here’s a list of what L&M delivered over three days of live programming:

• CEO Corporate address and company update
• CEO/CFO Fireside Chat
• CCO Commercial Update
• Marketing Strategy Overview
• Clinical Expert presentations
• New Product Training
• Sales Management Regional Breakout Sessions
• Black Tie Awards Ceremony with winner speeches and music

Each of these sessions was delivered in a custom virtual 3D environment allowing multiple remote speakers to appear in the same space at the same time regardless of where they were in the world. 

As for cost, a virtual NSM held over multiple days allowed for significant cost savings vs. a live meeting.  Just calculate in your head the savings by not having the enormous expenses of airfare, hotels, food and beverage, entertainment and other related expenses multiplied by hundreds of personnel.  The NSM described above was completed at approximately one-quarter or less of the estimated cost of a live meeting.

If you are anxious to gather your sales organization in 2021, the L&M Healthcare Communications 3-D Virtual Studio can deliver a wonderfully engaging meeting of any size and duration at a fraction of the cost of a live event

So don’t skip your NSM this year.   L&M Healthcare Communications can help you start designing your virtual NSM immediately with full meeting design, development and technical support.

Please feel free to contact L&M for a demo and see for yourself!

Thanks for reading!

Adam Margolis, CEO