When a better-funded rival comes in with three times your field force, “work harder” isn’t a strategy. In pharma sales, access is tighter, prior auth eats your day, and HCPs are splitting prescriptions between old habits and shiny new entrants. If your team is still “representing” instead of selling, the erosion starts quietly, and shows up loudly in your next business review.
This is the moment where effective coaching, not activity, decides who wins.
We just published a case study on a small biotech that faced exactly this scenario in migraine. Bigger competitor. Dual-product launch. All signs pointed to a share hit. Instead, they held their ground, and then moved the needle.
The difference wasn’t a new slogan or another workshop. It was a system: aligning selling skills to strategy, and holding managers accountable for how they coach, not how many days they’re in the car.
If you’re feeling these pain points, this case is for you
- “We do field days…but nothing sticks.” Coaching happens, momentum doesn’t.
- “Our message is solid; execution isn’t.” Reps recite, HCPs don’t move.
- “Access is the choke point.” Prior auth friction and hub services are afterthoughts, not part of the call.
- “My managers overrate the team.” Skill proficiency is generous on paper and inconsistent in reality. (This one…it hurts)
- “We can’t prove coaching impact.” Activity gets tracked; effectiveness gets guessed.
PREVIEW: What this team did differently (and what most teams skip)
1) Tied skills to strategy, not just slides.
Messaging was updated by HCP adoption segment and market access realities (“total office call” wasn’t a buzzword, it was the plan).
2) Measured coaching quality, not just mileage.
In the first 90 days, leadership didn’t count ride-alongs, they evaluated the coaching that followed them. Thousands of lines of written feedback became a mirror for managers: Were they coaching to strategy-critical skills? Was the guidance balanced, specific, actionable, and continued over time?
3) Re-leveled the bar on proficiency.
A pattern emerged: many FLMs were rating reps higher than the field reality. That gap explained stalled behavior change. The fix wasn’t punitive, it was precision: calibrate what “good” actually looks like and coach to it.
4) Built a rhythm beyond the ride-along.
Plan → Observe → Coach → Follow-up. Brief virtual touchpoints, targeted microlearning, and purpose-built pre/post-call coaching turned coaching from an event into a discipline.
Proof that coaching quality moves markets
You’ll see the details in the case study, but here’s the headline: districts with high strategy alignment and effective coaching materially outperformed their peers. Teams that only partially aligned to the new strategy, but still coached skills well, also beat the field.
And when the much larger competitor finally launched? Market share didn’t slide. It moved up.
“We have representatives. What we need are salespeople.” VP, Sales (biotech)
Why this matters to you (right now)
- Activity metrics are lagging indicators. Field days and visit duration don’t predict execution. Coaching quality does.
- Your best reps want coaching that respects their time. Specific, strategy-aligned feedback with clear next steps beats vague encouragement every day of the week.
- Leaders need a way to defend investments. When coaching is scored against quality criteria and tied to intermediate KPIs, it stops being “soft.”
What’s in this case study (and what we’re not giving away here)
- The early-cycle analytics approach that separated activity from impact using real field coaching reports.
- The training cadence for FLMs that moved managers from “encouragers” to coaches, and how it scaled without stealing selling time.
- The performance pattern districts showed when coaching truly aligned with strategy (with the numbers you’ll want to screenshot for your next SLT).
- What happened to market share post-launch, and the downstream business outcome no one predicted.
If you’re planning 2026, prepping your next POA, or staring down a bigger rival, this read will save you time, budget, and credibility.
Ready to coach what actually changes outcomes?
Read the case study: Growing Market Share Through More Effective Sales Coaching
See how a focused team used strategy-aligned coaching to protect access, sharpen execution, and grow share, without adding headcount.
If you want a quick debrief on how to apply the same approach to your regions, I’m happy to talk through it.
