In the past 20 years, Echelon has analyzed more than 75,000 coaching conversations and field coaching reports from the pharma and life sciences industry. All that research has helped us identify four coaching practices that consistently work.
When coaching reflects these four best practices, there is a greater than 90% chance that the manager providing that coaching is recognized as a top performer by his or her organization.
But here's the kicker: Fewer than 15% of managers in any given field team provide effective coaching on a consistent basis.
That gap? That's your opportunity.
Whether you lead sales directly or support it through L&D, Commercial Excellence, or HR, these four practices are the connective tissue that translate your strategy into field execution.
Top-performing managers stand out because they consistently apply these four best practices wherever they coach.
Too many coaching conversations drift toward reviewing metrics, performance dashboards, or competency checklists; all valuable, but not coaching.
When managers spend field time dissecting call reports, reach-and-frequency stats, or pipeline numbers, they're managing activity. When they check boxes on generic competency assessments, they're documenting compliance.
To be clear, these are important tasks when it comes to being an effective field sales leader. But they’re not making your team better or laying the foundation for sustained sales success.
Real coaching zeroes in on skill; the observable behaviors that drive performance and strategy forward.
In Echelon's 2025 analysis of what makes exceptional managers tick, we found that 72% of coaching from top-performing managers focused on skills directly aligned with commercial strategy. For average managers? Only 44%.
That's a 64% difference.
Strategies evolve, but coaching skills-centric coaching is a proven force multiplier.
The “skills that matter” will always be driven by your team’s and your leadership’s strategy. But, in reviewing coaching reports and coaching conversations, we find that top-performing managers tend to focus their coaching on skills that fall into three buckets.
1. Customer engagement skills (selling fundamentals). Top managers know (because they have been top-performing reps at some point) that the ability to influence customers in the moment is critical to success. Even in organizations that don’t have a formal selling model or robust competency model, top managers focus on skills that foster customer engagement. Top skills here: the use of questions to extend calls, which gains commitment.
2. Brand strategy execution (messaging, visual aids, market access). Top managers adhere to marketing strategy. They know that brand teams are continually working to research and refine core messages, designing the most effective messaging strategy and gaining access for the brand wherever they can. Top managers internalize these strategies and focus on the skills their team needs to drive these messages home. Top skill: fluency with clinical resources.
3. Planning (business planning, territory strategy). Top managers want their people to think strategically. They know the most precious resource for all their reps is time. They focus their coaching in large part on how to maximize this resource and have the biggest impact across accounts. Top skill: planning (call, account and territory).
FUN FACT: More than half (55%) of top managers' coaching reports included feedback on clinical engagement. Among average managers? Less than 20%.
Skills compound. Metrics tell you where you've been; skills determine where you're going.
You can review dashboards in a conference call. You can't develop clinical fluency or closing skills without observation, feedback, and practice.
When coaching focuses on the skills that drive strategy, managers become force multipliers. When it focuses on scorecards and spreadsheets, they become performance reporters.
Think about your last field coaching report. Did you coach:
"Groundhog Day Coaching." The same field visit, different month, little variation.
Sometimes field sales coaching can fall into this trap. A lot of managers have been in their roles for five, ten, even 20+ years. In that time, it’s easy to get into a “comfort zone” with team members. When this happens we like to say that a manager’s relationship capital has outstripped their development capital. And it can happen to even the best of field sales leaders.
In an ideal world, every coaching interaction will connect to the previous one and set up the next. In this approach, there is momentum in skill development. When a manager sets a long-term skill development goal, it's impossible for today's field visit to look and sound just like last month's or last quarter's. These goals can be short and simple:
“Ed, over the next four months, our focus will be on moving from level 2 in active listening to level 5. This will enhance your engagement with HCPs and demonstrate to them that you’re keen to learn more about their practice and the way they manage appropriate patients.”
Now, to be fair, you just can’t spring this goal on Ed. you need to align with Ed on the goal-setting process. You want to talk about how specific skills will help Ed build his face-to-face presence and result in the kind of HCP relationships Ed needs to develop his territory.
After that, every field visit, every coaching interaction needs its own short-term goal. This sounds like:
“Ed, as you know we’re working to get to level five in active listening. For today, I'd like to see you incorporate some of the methods we practiced last time during your lunch at Mercy Medical. Let’s see if we can extend the duration of your interactions by 25% today.”
FUN FACT: Top managers were twice as likely to reinforce long-term skill goals and three times as likely to include a development goal in their coaching plan. They focus on one or two skills until proficiency improves, then connect that goal to each field visit. Among average managers? Nearly 25% made no reference to long-term goals. More than half had no stated goal for the visit.
Why This Creates Momentum
When you create visible growth pathways through connected coaching moments, something shifts: your team stops seeing coaching as something done to them and starts seeing it as development they own.
Goals make development tangible. Momentum keeps both manager and team member accountable and engaged.
Action Item:
Coaching to people doesn't work. Creating a sense of shared ownership does.
The coaching cycle isn't manager-led theater. It's a collaboration.
Highly effective managers were more than four times as likely to engage team members throughout the coaching process, from goal-setting to follow-through.
When we use the word “coaching” most people will think of two people engaged in developmental dialogue.
To be fair, effective developmental dialogue is a cornerstone of effective coaching. But it’s not the be-all-end-all. Effective coaching is made up of four distinct phases, each of which offers a unique opportunity to invite your team member to take an ownership stake in his or her development.
1. PLAN:
As a manager, ask yourself: "When I ride in the field with this team member, what skill are we focusing on, and why does it matter?"
Think about how many times you’ve heard about the importance of territory planning and call planning as a rep. Hundreds, maybe thousands of times.
The same principle holds true for managers and coaching. As a rep, a cardinal sin is to go into a day in the field or any call without a goal and a plan. If you’re a manager about to spend a day in the field with a member of your team, you must have a goal. And, when it comes to coaching, your rep needs to have their own goal as well.
Let that sink in. Your reps need to show up to your field day with the mindset of which skills they want and need to be coached on.
This type of shift doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Engage your rep in pre-call planning. Don't just tell them what you'll observe. Ask them what they want to work on and why it connects to their development goals. Ask them directly - what opportunities have you created for me to observe you leverage this skill?
2. OBSERVE:
Real-time, real specifics.
One subtle shift that can help supercharge your coaching is to hone your ability in the role of Observer. Let’s be real - in some cases, you need to be actively involved in customer engagement, both in good times and when the train is going off the rails.
But, in 80% of customer engagement settings, managers can enhance their coaching by focusing on their team member’s skill execution and the impact it has on the outcome of that call. Sometimes you might need to intervene, but your time is better spent collecting specific examples of skill execution.
As a manager, your ability to observe is every bit as vital to your coaching as having a developmental dialogue. As much as we like to engage with customers and support reps when they’re selling, we need to purposefully adopt the role of Observer in Chief during our time with customers.
Our observations - the specific examples of real-time execution and impact - are the backbone of coaching. They are the foundation of skill goals and help your team members get an exact read as to where they stand when it comes to the skill or skills they’re working on.
At the end of a call, a day, or a multi-day field visit, your observations are key to answering:
• What skills were observed?
• When? In which calls and and with which practitioners?
• How did that level of skill execution impact the outcome of the call?
• Where do we go from here? What does the next level of proficiency look like?
3. DIALOGUE:
Co-construct insights (don’t deliver verdicts).
We could produce an entire e-book just on developmental dialogue. In lieu of that, here are two quick tips to facilitate deeper face-to-face engagement:
1. Lead with questions, not observations. Actively engage your team members and draw them into the dialogue.
2. Listen. Put away your phone. Drop your agenda and be the sounding board that your team needs. Be the expert. If your team member is struggling with a skill, be prepared to model that skill the way you want. If you want Ed to be at Level 5 in active listening, what better way to create that vision for him than modeling that behavior?
4. FOLLOW-UP:
They own the next steps.
Top managers don't let coaching die in the field coaching report. They ensure that team members take ownership for their own development by assigning skill-building exercises to each team member at the end of a field ride.
We call this Actionable Coaching. And it sounds like this:
"Sarah, given the complexity of treating conditions like coronary artery disease with comorbid conditions such as congestive heart failure, it's crucial to engage deeply with healthcare professionals about their treatment strategies. For our next visit with Dr. Mitchell, I want you to prepare three open-ended questions that explore his current approaches."
This puts the onus of development on Sarah. Where it should be.
For extra points, put the onus of scheduling a follow-up on Sarah as well.
“Find a time on our calendars that works for both of us and send me a meeting. We can review your questions then.”
Autonomy + accountability = engagement.
Development isn't something you do to someone. They have to earn it. When you make them active participants, vs. passive recipients, they lean in.
Not all coaching creates lift. Some just creates confusion.
You can coach frequently and still get nowhere if the quality isn't there.
For nearly 20 years, Echelon has identified and refined six criteria associated with effective coaching quality. These criteria, known as the BASICS, separate coaching that drives performance from coaching that just fills out forms.
These six criteria form the backbone of high-quality coaching. When managers use them consistently, they transform everyday field interactions into development moments that actually move skills, confidence, and business performance forward.
In a world full of noise, policy changes, market shifts, access challenges, organizational updates, the BASICS help managers stay grounded in what truly grows people.
Practical Definition:
Balanced coaching paints a clear picture of where a representative is today and what “better” looks like. It contrasts current proficiency with the desired state in a way that’s honest, fair, and focused on growth, not judgment.
Real-World Example:
A manager rides along with a top-performing rep who has strong relationships but tends to rush through clinical explanations. Rather than generalizing (“your details are good”), the manager acknowledges the rep’s strengths while calmly pointing out the moments where clarity slipped. The rep leaves understanding what they’re doing well and what they could sharpen to elevate conversations even further.
What Good Looks Like (Integrated):
During a recent field visit, a manager noted that the rep responded confidently to Dr. A’s questions but delivered the information so quickly that the message became hard to follow. The manager explained that deeper provider engagement relies on clear, digestible communication and suggested slowing the cadence to create space for reflection and dialogue. The rep walked away knowing exactly how improving this one skill could strengthen future interactions.
Coaching Prompt:
“What did I observe today, and what would ‘one level higher’ look like in this same skill?”
Practical Definition:
Actionable coaching gives reps clear, doable next steps they can take on their own time, not vague encouragement or administrative tasks. It turns feedback into practice.
Real-World Example:
Instead of saying, “Work on asking better questions,” a manager might help the rep identify one specific situation coming up this week and set a concrete task: write three probing questions tailored to a key provider. The rep leaves with direction, ownership, and something they know how to execute.
What Good Looks Like (Integrated):
A manager notices that Sarah often moves too quickly past opportunities to probe. After a few similar calls, the manager asks her to draft three open-ended questions that explore one physician’s challenges with identifying appropriate patients. Sarah is asked to send them in advance so they can review together. The task is simple, specific, and builds a habit that can easily transfer to future discussions.
Coaching Prompt:
“What is one specific action this rep can take in the next week that builds the skill we talked about today?”
Practical Definition:
Specific coaching zeroes in on observable behavior: what was said, how it was delivered, and how it affected the interaction. It avoids generalities (“good call”) and instead highlights precise moments that the rep can repeat or refine.
Real-World Example:
Rather than telling a rep, “Nice job getting the commitment,” a manager recalls the exact phrasing the rep used and shows how it opened the door for a deeper clinical dialogue. This level of detail helps the rep understand why the moment worked and how to recreate it.
What Good Looks Like (Integrated):
One morning, a manager watched a rep secure a commitment from Dr. S to attend an educational program. By reinforcing the specific behaviors, a clear, confident invitation tied to value for the provider. The manager highlighted why the approach landed so well. They encouraged the rep to keep using that exact technique when engaging multiple providers within the same practice.
Coaching Prompt:
“What exactly did I see or hear that mattered, and how did it change the call?”
Practical Definition:
Impact coaching connects a skill to its outcome. It explains why a behavior matters and how it influences access, prescribing, understanding, or provider engagement. When reps understand the “why,” they’re more motivated to build the “how.”
Real-World Example:
During a call, a rep asks a thoughtful question about how a physician’s treatment approach has evolved with new therapies. The manager later shows how this single question changed the physician’s tone, opened a richer conversation, and positioned the rep as a strategic partner. The rep sees not just the skill but the effect.
What Good Looks Like (Integrated):
A manager observed a rep ask Dr. H about her experiences navigating new treatment options. The question immediately shifted the conversation. The doctor became more animated, shared patient stories, and asked for more clinical depth. The manager highlighted how open-ended, experience-centered questions deepen trust and create space for higher-value discussions.
Coaching Prompt:
“How did this skill affect the outcome of the call, and what future impact could improving it have?”
Practical Definition:
Continuity ensures that coaching builds over time. It links today’s discussion to what was coached last month and reinforces progress with follow-through. It prevents coaching from becoming a series of isolated conversations.
Real-World Example:
Before field visits, a manager reviews past coaching notes and checks in on agreed-upon skill goals. When the manager notices progress, even small wins, they reinforce it, and when gaps remain, they refine the plan. The rep sees consistency and a sense of forward motion.
What Good Looks Like (Integrated):
A manager who previously coached a rep on improving long-term treatment discussions saw meaningful improvement during a recent visit with Dr. A. The rep connected clinical study data to patient care decisions, and the physician responded with interest. The manager reinforced this progress and encouraged continued focus on framing discussions around the provider’s top concerns.
Coaching Prompt:
“What did we work on last time, and how am I helping us move that same skill forward today?”
Practical Definition:
Supportive coaching ties today’s feedback to a rep’s long-term goals: skill mastery, professional growth, career aspirations. It situates the coaching in a meaningful personal context.
Real-World Example:
A manager remembers that a rep wants to become a field trainer. During a coaching session, the manager links a feedback point, improving clinical storytelling, to the rep’s goal of guiding others. The rep sees how today’s improvement supports tomorrow’s opportunities.
What Good Looks Like (Integrated):
Knowing a rep aims to strengthen patient-centric conversations, a manager acknowledges how effectively they humanized the therapy message in a discussion with Dr. C. The manager connects this to both their professional aspirations and the value it brings to providers and their patients, reinforcing why developing this skill matters in the bigger picture.
Coaching Prompt:
“How does this feedback connect to what this rep wants to become, not just what they need to fix?”
Managers and reps face constant noise; shifting policies, market complexity, endless demands on attention. The BASICS help cut through all of it. They refocus coaching on the few things that actually drive performance: clarity, consistency, relevance, intentional practice, and meaningful connection to goals.
When managers coach with the BASICS, they create development conversations that stand out from the clutter; conversations that reps remember, act on, and grow from. The result is coaching that doesn’t just check a box, but builds capability, confidence, and business impact over time.
These four coaching best practices aren't theoretical. They're field-tested across pharmaceutical and biotech sales teams facing real competitive pressure, market disruption, and the constant challenge of doing more with less.
The Situation:
Jason had always been a solid performer, but early in 2025, his manager Elena noticed a shift. Between calls, he was glued to his phone, scrolling nonstop through headlines about policy changes, tariffs, regulatory shifts, and reimbursement risk. The constant stream of updates followed him into offices. He referenced industry news in conversations with physicians, and calls drifted off course. Engagement dropped. Commitments evaporated.
Jason wasn’t disengaged. He was overwhelmed. The noise was pulling his attention away from the fundamentals.
The Coaching Move:
Instead of lecturing him about screen time or staying “focused,” Elena asked a simple question:
“When you walk into a call, what’s the one thing you can control that makes the biggest difference?”
Jason thought for a moment.
“Asking better questions.”
Together, they set a long-term target:
By the end of Q2, Jason would consistently perform at Level 5 in diagnostic questioning, uncovering unmet needs in every call.
Then Elena broke the goal into one short-term commitment for their next field ride:
Two diagnostic questions per call. Real questions that invite the physician to talk about clinical challenges.
Over the next eight weeks, Elena coached to that single skill. She asked Jason to self-assess after each call. She shared specific observations. She modeled examples. She wove the goal into emails, one-on-ones, and team meetings. The repetition wasn’t nagging. It created momentum.
The Mini-Scene:
Midway through their second coaching day, Jason sat down with a provider who had been quiet and rushed on recent visits. After listening to her describe a complicated patient, Jason asked:
“What’s been your biggest challenge in identifying the right patients lately?”
The physician paused, leaned back, and then talked for nearly four minutes outlining diagnostic barriers, patient misconceptions, insurance hurdles, and where she was hesitating clinically.
Elena watched the shift happen in real time: the room opened up, the energy changed, and Jason finally got the insight he’d been missing for months.
The Result:
• Call quality scores increased 18% in four weeks
• Jason said he felt “more in control” despite the external chaos
• His mindset shifted from reactive to strategic
• And, most importantly, Jason could articulate the change:
Jason described the shift:
“I used to walk into calls wondering what the physician was going to throw at me.
Now I walk in knowing I’m going to learn something.”
The Challenge:
A specialty metabolic product was one year post-launch. Market share was rising, but nowhere near forecast. The brand had everything going for it: strong clinical data, crisp messaging, solid payer support, refreshed resources. Yet the execution felt flat.
When the VP of Marketing reviewed field coaching reports, the gap became obvious.
• Only 41% of reports referenced clinical messaging
• The “total office call” strategy appeared in fewer than 20%
• Coaching on closing or gaining commitment was almost nonexistent
Her conclusion was blunt:“We have a great strategy, but it isn’t reaching the field.”
The Solution:
Echelon conducted a full analysis of coaching reports across the entire sales force and uncovered two issues:
• Managers weren’t aligned on the specific skills that drove the brand’s strategy.
• Coaching was inconsistent, often limited to general encouragement rather than skill development.
To fix this, Echelon partnered with leadership to implement the four high-performance coaching practices, anchored in clear behaviors rather than abstract concepts.
What Changed:
• The team identified four strategic skills essential for execution:
• Duration-of-benefit messaging
• MOA differentiation
• Co-pay card utilization
• Closing/gaining commitment
• Managers were trained on what each skill looked like in the real world. The exact questions, transitions, and clinical moments that signal mastery.
• Leaders learned to set long-term goals with reps while reinforcing short-term wins, creating visible progress.
• Coaching extended beyond field rides into emails, weekly one-on-ones, and team calls, creating continuity and accountability.
• Progress was measured every month for 18 months using Echelon’s BASICS framework.
The Results (8 Months Post-Training):
• 112% increase in coaching that focused on strategic skills
• 97% increase in “total office call” coaching (reimbursement, nursing staff, support teams)
• 83% increase in coaching to closing/gaining commitment
• 57% improvement in overall coaching quality (per the BASICS criteria)
• Meaningful gains in brand growth and share retention, even as new competitors entered the market
The VP of Marketing summed it up:
“We always knew coaching mattered. But we had never seen it quantified this way. Once we saw the impact of coaching on execution, it was game on.”
When Echelon clients implement these four practices, something shifts within six months. Sales representative productivity climbs an average of 19% in goal attainment. Field sales managers see their team productivity jump by 16%.
But the gains don't stop at the numbers. Organizations notice their best salespeople stop looking for the exit. Retention improves. Employee engagement scores rise, not because of another survey initiative, but because reps feel like their managers are actually investing in their growth. Even McKinsey Organizational Health Index scores improve, particularly in manager accountability and leadership effectiveness.
Coaching quality itself improves by an average of 57% within 18 months when measured against the BASICS framework. More importantly, those improvements don't fade. Echelon has tracked clients where results have sustained for seven years and beyond.
These improvements aren't theoretical. They're what happens when organizations shift from coaching as activity to coaching as strategy, from lagging indicators to leading ones.
Pick one practice. Try it once.
• Practice #1: Coach one skill tied to your commercial strategy (not the news)
• Practice #2: Set one short-term + one long-term skill goal with a rep
• Practice #3: Engage a member of your team before, during and after a field visit
• Practice #4: Use high quality coaching when you’re face to face and in your field coaching reports
String them together. Make the four practices your operating system.
Measure what changes. Not just in coaching; in performance, engagement, and retention.
If you want to know where your coaching stands today, Echelon can help. We analyze field coaching reports to give you an objective, data-backed snapshot of:
• Focus: Are managers coaching to strategy-aligned skills?
• Quality: How does your coaching measure up on the BASICS?
• Gaps: Where are your highest-leverage opportunities for improvement?
Your reps are checking their phones 96 times a day. News feeds are refreshing between calls. Slack channels are lighting up with the latest industry bombshell. Regulatory shifts. Tariffs. AI-generated call plans. The noise isn't going away.
Your team isn't ignoring you. You're being out-competed for attention.
That's why the four practices matter. They don't add to the noise. They cut through it.
When you coach one skill instead of six, you give your team something to hold onto. When you set clear goals that connect across field visits, you create momentum they can see and feel. When you engage them in their own development, they stop being passive recipients of information and start owning their growth. And when you create a coaching biome where the same skill shows up in emails, texts, one-on-ones, and team calls, you become the consistent signal in a world of static.
Your team doesn't need you to be louder. They need you to be clearer. More focused. More disciplined.
The four practices aren't sexy. They're not new. But they work.
And when everything's on fire, "works" is the highest compliment you can pay a framework.
In a world of infinite distractions, your team needs you to be the signal.
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