The best rep in the district gets promoted. Six months later, they are exhausted and the team has gone quiet.
I have seen this many times, and I have felt some of it myself.
The problem is not talent. It is that the habits that made you the top rep do not transfer.
As a rep, success came from your own calls. As a manager, it comes from reps doing good calls when you are not there.
As a rep, when a call went wrong, you fixed it on the spot. As a manager, the same reflex means you take over the call and the rep learns nothing. The better move is to ask what they would change.
As a rep, your day was doctors and pharmacies. As a manager, it is double visits, coaching and one-to-ones. It can feel like you are not working, because nothing closes in front of you.
And the hardest change of all: what feels like a win. It used to be a great call you made yourself. Now it is a rep doing it well without you.
That shift takes time. Nobody makes it in the first month, and that is fine.
“Stop being the best rep. Start building better ones.”
Lesson 1 of 5 in Step 1: Becoming a manager, with the full guide and a checklist for this week.