Most managers coach by telling. You watch the call, you see the problem in the first minute, and in the debrief you say it. The rep nods, the next call improves a little, and a month later the same rep is waiting for you to fix the next one.
Coaching turns field days into better calls, and it's the first thing cancelled when the month gets busy. Done well, it's small, regular and mostly questions.
Step 4 of the Pharma Career Ladder for first-line managers is coaching: what to ask, what to watch, and how to make a skill stick.
The debrief in the car
The 10-minute debrief follows GROW, published by Sir John Whitmore in Coaching for Performance in 1992: Goal, Reality, Options, Will. Goal: what did you want to leave that clinic with? Reality: what actually happened? Then stay quiet, because what the rep leaves out is usually the coaching point. Options: ask for 3, since the third is the one worth having. Will: 1 action for the next call, in the rep's words, said out loud. Ten minutes, before the engine starts.
Most of us jump straight to Options because telling is faster. That's why I ask before I tell. When I tell, the rep takes away my answer for 1 doctor on 1 day. When I ask, the rep takes away a way of looking at any call. Michael Bungay Stanier's The Coaching Habit puts it simply: stay curious a little longer, and give advice a little more slowly. A leading question is still telling, though. And if the rep couldn't see it, say it. Just ask first.
One skill, said precisely, written down
The longest debriefs often change the least. Coach one skill at a time: agree it in the car park, watch only that skill all day, follow it up on the next visit, and repeat until the rep does it without thinking. The hardest part is saying nothing about the other 4 things you noticed.
For feedback that changes behaviour, I use SBI from the Center for Creative Leadership: situation, behaviour, impact. "In the cardiologist's call, when she asked about side effects, you paused, asked which patients worried her, then answered. She stopped glancing at the clock." Then stop. Leave out "always" and "never". A rep can argue with your opinion. It's hard to argue with what you both saw.
Use it for good calls too. One of the 12 questions in Gallup's engagement survey asks whether you've received recognition or praise for good work in the last 7 days. Praise that means something is specific, timely and named: the behaviour, the same day, in the car park. A result can be luck. A behaviour can be repeated.
Keep a coaching log with the rep: the skill in focus, what went well, 1 thing to try, and whether it was seen next visit. One visit is a snapshot. A month of lines is the picture. The development plan that is used is just as small: 1 skill chosen by the rep, what good looks like, where to practise, and a review date. The rep writes it in their own words, and you open it at every double visit.
Different reps need different coaching
Your strongest rep is probably the one you coach least, and a strong rep needs stretch rather than correction. Give them a harder account, let them teach, and agree the outcome while leaving the method to them. Hersey and Blanchard's situational leadership says it well: as a rep's ability and willingness grow, the manager moves from telling towards delegating.
The same model helps with a struggling rep. Readiness has 2 parts, which in field language are skill and will. A skill gap needs showing and practice. A will gap needs a real conversation about what has changed. Ask before you decide which it is. When it's a bit of both, I start with the will.
Some reps don't want coaching. Pushing harder turns resistance into silence. Ask how the field days are working for them, and listen for the fear of being judged. Let the rep choose the skill and the doctors, keep the first visit light, and keep your word.
On weeks you can't be there, coach by phone. The rep chooses 1 call, you ask for the doctor's words as close as they remember, and you end on 1 action. Same evening slot, 15 minutes.
Coaching the call, part by part
Most managers were promoted for being good with doctors, so modelling the call yourself is tempting. Watch first. Agree in the car park which call you'll lead and why, model 1 part only, then hand it back and debrief the rep's attempt.
If I could coach only 1 part of a call, I'd coach the opening. On some days I watch nothing else, then ask the rep to repeat the opening word for word and we build a better one together.
Many reps have a questioning problem more than a pitching one. Neil Rackham's research, published as SPIN Selling, found that successful sellers asked more about problems and their consequences, while background questions did little on their own. Coach 3 moves: ask about the problem, ask what it costs, and let the doctor name the value. Don't hand out a script.
For objection handling, rehearsal beats advice. Collect the real objections from the rep's own calls, shape the answer together with approved data, and say it out loud until it sounds natural. The same care applies to role play without humiliation: groups of 3, a real doctor type, 1 strength and 1 change, then run it again. Go first yourself, and never score reps in front of their peers.
Making it stick
The car park is where coaching is agreed. Whether anything changes is decided in the 7 days after. The next morning the rep sends 1 line: the skill and 1 doctor to try it with. Mid-week, a short call: "Did you get to try it?" A week on, see it again. Praise the attempt, even when it went badly.
Coach across the cycle, too. Taking 3 months as an example, month 1 is the message, month 2 is the conversation and the objections, and month 3 is the commitment: a trial with a named patient type. The calendar stays the same. What you watch changes.
In a cycle meeting, pick the gap you saw on most double visits, let a rep who does it well demonstrate, and have everyone practise in pairs at the same time. Every rep names 1 action for next week.
Then measure whether coaching worked. Sessions held measure your diary. What matters is whether you saw the skill used on later calls without a prompt, and how the doctor responded. Count the behaviour you saw, not the sessions you held.
The coach's own habits
Coach yourself the same way. Ten quiet minutes in the car: where did my time go, did I coach or take over, what did I promise, and which rep haven't I spoken to properly this week?
Some conversations are about attitude, and nobody wants to have them. Describe, don't label: "late to the last 3 meetings" is a fact, "bad attitude" is a verdict. In private, share what you saw, ask for their view, listen for the cause, and agree 1 change with a date.
Finally, build the habit. Charles Duhigg's The Power of Habit describes a loop of cue, routine and reward. Fix the double visit day at the start of the cycle. Use the car door closing as the cue for the debrief. Keep the routine small: 3 questions, 1 skill, 1 line in the log. Open every visit with what the rep changed since the last one.
Your checklist for this week
- Run your next debrief with the 4 GROW questions, before the engine starts
- Agree 1 skill per rep and say nothing about the rest
- Give 1 piece of SBI feedback on something that went well
- Start a shared coaching log with each rep
- Call mid-week and ask about the skill you agreed
- Rehearse 1 real objection out loud with a rep
- Fix the same day each week for double visits this cycle
- Take 10 minutes in the car tonight to debrief your own day
That's Step 4. Next week Step 5 begins: motivating and building the team, starting with why the first-line manager decides whether a team is engaged.