For most pharmaceutical commercial teams, coaching is embedded in the operating model. First-line managers coach. Field visits happen. Coaching reports are completed.
What is far less common is certainty.
Certainty that coaching is consistent across regions. Certainty that managers are developing the right skills. Certainty that coaching effort is translating into performance in a way leaders can see, measure, and sustain.
That uncertainty is what one global pharmaceutical organization set out to address and it started with a simple premise: putting their managers - and a manager’s ability to coach - first
When Coaching Is Present, but Impact Is Unclear
The team in question was very similar to a lot of teams Echelon works with: experienced and talented sales leaders, a strong sales culture, and a long-standing belief in the value of coaching. Yet performance varied across regions, in some cases wildly. And leadership lacked a clear line of sight into why.
Commercial leaders did what they could to identify root causes. Learning and development was tasked with reviewing a handful of field coaching reports. What they saw was that field coaching reports - and probably coaching - varied by region, if not by manager. Written documentation did not consistently reflect what they had hoped - a clear understanding of commercial strategy and coaching that supported it. .
Some managers focused on messaging while others didn’t mention it. Some focused on call planning and territory management while others focused on metrics and results. The consensus was: there was no consensus as to what first-line managers needed to focus their time and energy on.
A Manager-First Shift
The partnership with Echelon Performance began with a simple premise: if coaching is going to power results and develop our people, we need to get clear on two things:
- What first-line managers need to focus on, and
- What “good looks like” when it comes to key aspects of coaching. .
That required looking beyond activity and into the dynamics of coaching itself. It meant understanding a manager’s mindset: how they were planning for field visits, how they observed skills, how they engaged team members in the process, and more.
By walking a mile in their field managers’ shows, it became clear that the solution to helping managers enhance their coaching wasn’t a coaching model or another round of Situational Leadership. It was mapping the flow of coaching and helping managers upskill their ability across each and every facet.
Avoiding the One-and-Done Approach
In addition to putting first-line managers at the center of this model, another key to success was taking a long-term approach. Seasoned man agers have been around the block. More than once. They are tired of having coaching and leadership programs that start with a bang and then peter out.
This client was meticulous. They planned for the long-term and looked for ways to engage field leaders in multiple ways. Over time, the organization committed to strengthening manager coaching capability and reinforcing expectations through measurement and feedback.
As the system matured, leadership began to see meaningful shifts. Coaching conversations became more focused. Documentation became more useful. Reps engaged differently with feedback. And leaders gained a clearer view of coaching effectiveness across teams and regions.
The impact was measurable. Coaching quality improved. Skill development accelerated. Performance outcomes followed.
Why This Case Is Worth Your Time
Our new case study outlining these powerful results does not present a single tactic or tool. It shows what becomes possible when coaching is treated as a long-term leadership capability rather than a compliance requirement.
For life sciences leaders navigating global complexity and increasing pressure to execute, it offers a grounded look at how manager-first coaching can produce provable results at scale.
Read the full case study to see how this organization approached manager development, what they measured, and what it delivered over time.
