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In short: pharma sales coaching is what a first-line manager does on a ride-along to help one rep sell better in real calls. It is not training, not inspection, and not the manager doing the call. The cycle is simple: plan the day with the rep, observe without taking over, debrief after each call, agree one development point, and check it on the next visit. Ask questions before you give answers, make feedback specific and about behaviour, and judge coaching by whether the rep’s behaviour changes, always inside approved claims and the SFDA code.
In more than twenty years of marketing medicines and consumer health products in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, I have watched many first-line managers spend a day in the field with a rep. Some of those days changed how the rep worked for years. Others were a pleasant drive, a few calls in which the manager did most of the talking, and a form filled in at the end. The difference was never the manager’s seniority or product knowledge. It was whether the manager knew how to coach.
This guide is for first-line and regional managers of medical and pharmacy rep teams, Rx and OTC, and for reps who want to become managers. It focuses on the ride-along, because that is where most field coaching happens. If you are new to managing a team, the guide to the first-line pharma sales manager covers the whole role; this guide goes deep on the part of it that does the most for your reps.
What Is Sales Coaching, and What Is It Not?
Short answer: sales coaching is regular, one-to-one work that helps a rep improve specific behaviours in real calls, mostly by helping the rep see and decide for themselves. It is not training, not inspection, and not the manager doing the call for the rep.
Managers often use the word coaching for anything they do with a rep. It helps to separate four activities that look similar from the outside but do different jobs.
| Activity | Purpose | Where it happens | Who does most of the thinking |
|---|---|---|---|
| Training | Teach knowledge and skills the rep does not yet have | Classroom, workshop, e-learning, role-play | The trainer, at first |
| Coaching | Improve how the rep applies those skills with real customers | Ride-alongs, debriefs, regular one-to-ones | The rep, guided by questions |
| Inspection | Check that rules, plans and targets are met | CRM reviews, audits, sample and expense checks | The manager |
| Doing the call | Win a single outcome with a single customer | In front of the customer | The manager, while the rep watches |
All four have a place. A new rep needs pharmaceutical sales rep training before coaching can do much. Inspection protects patients, the company and the rep. A manager may occasionally lead a call to model a skill, as long as it is agreed beforehand and labelled as a demonstration. The trouble starts when a manager believes they are coaching while actually inspecting, or while doing the rep’s job for them. The rep then learns either to fear the ride-along or to wait for the manager to rescue them.
John Whitmore, in Coaching for Performance (1992), described the aim of coaching as building awareness and responsibility in the person being coached. That is a useful test for any ride-along. At the end of the day, does the rep see their own calls more clearly, and do they own a decision about what to do differently? If the manager is the one with all the insight and all the decisions, it was not coaching.
Why Is Field Coaching the Manager’s Highest-Value Activity?
Short answer: a first-line manager sells through other people. Most of a rep’s working week happens away from the manager, so the only way to raise the quality of thousands of calls is to change how each rep plans, asks, listens and closes. Coaching is the activity that does that.
A first-line manager has many competing demands: reports, meetings, key accounts, recruitment, launches, and an inbox that never empties. Most of those tasks feel urgent. Coaching rarely does, so it is the first thing to be cancelled. Yet when you look at where a manager’s effort actually reaches the customer, coaching is the main route. A report changes nothing in a clinic. A rep who has learned to ask a better question changes every call they make after that.
Daniel Goleman’s article “Leadership That Gets Results” in the Harvard Business Review (2000) described six leadership styles drawn from research on a large sample of executives. One of them was the coaching style: helping people find their strengths and weaknesses and tying them to their goals. Goleman reported that coaching was the style leaders used least, often because they felt they did not have time for it, even though it had a positive effect on the working climate and on performance. He also noted that coaching works best with people who want to improve, which is worth remembering when you plan who to coach and how.
There is a second reason coaching matters in pharma specifically. A rep’s skill is not only commercial. Every call involves claims that must match approved product information, conversations about patients, and sometimes reports of side effects. A manager who sees real calls is the company’s best early warning that a rep is drifting from approved messages, long before a complaint or an audit finds it.
What Is the Coaching Cycle on a Ride-Along?
Short answer: five steps, repeated every visit: plan the day with the rep, observe real calls, debrief after each call, agree one development point at the end of the day, and follow it up before and during the next ride-along.
The cycle matters more than any single day. A brilliant debrief that is never followed up fades within a week. A modest debrief that is checked on the next visit, and the visit after that, changes habits.
| Step | When | What the manager does | What the rep does |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Plan the day | Before the first call, or the evening before | Reviews the last development point, the call list and CRM notes; asks what the rep wants to work on | Shares the route, the objective for each call, and the skill they want feedback on |
| 2. Observe | During each call | Watches and listens; notes specific words and actions; stays out of the conversation | Leads the call as they normally would |
| 3. Debrief | Straight after each call, in the car or corridor | Asks the rep to assess the call first, then adds one or two specific observations | Reflects on the objective, what happened, and what they would change |
| 4. Agree one point | End of the day | Helps the rep choose the single most useful development point and a concrete action | Commits to the action and how they will practise it |
| 5. Follow up | Between visits and on the next ride-along | Checks call notes, asks how practice is going, observes the point first on the next visit | Practises on every call and notes what happened |
Step 1: Plan the day with the rep
Planning together turns the ride-along from an inspection into a shared project. Ask the rep to send the route and call objectives in advance, and spend ten minutes before the first call agreeing three things: which calls you will attend, what the rep wants feedback on, and how you will be introduced. Start with the development point from last time. “Last visit you were going to ask a need-payoff question before presenting. Which calls today are good chances to do that?” This one question tells the rep that coaching is continuous and that you remember.
Check the call objectives at this stage. If a rep’s objective is “detail Brand A”, you already have something to coach before you reach the first clinic. The guide to pharma selling skills sets out what a specific, customer-centred call objective looks like.
Step 2: Observe
Observation is a skill in its own right, and the next section covers it in detail. The short version: let the rep lead, stay quiet, and write down what was actually said and done rather than your verdict on it.
Step 3: Debrief after each call
Debrief straight after each call, while both of you remember the details, and keep it short: a few minutes in the car is enough. Always ask the rep to go first. “How did that go against your objective?” Most reps, given the chance, will name the main issue themselves. When they do, your job is to agree and help them decide what to do about it. When they do not, ask a narrower question before you tell them.
Step 4: Agree one development point
At the end of the day, resist the urge to list everything you saw. Agree one development point, two at most, with a concrete action. “Improve questioning” is a topic. “On every call to a priority doctor this month, ask at least one implication question before opening the visual aid” is an action the rep can practise and you can observe.
Step 5: Follow up
Follow-up is where most coaching fails. Put a reminder in your calendar for a short call a week or two after the ride-along, read a few of the rep’s call notes for evidence of the new behaviour, and on the next ride-along, look for the agreed point first. If it is now a habit, say so and move on. If it is not, find out why before choosing a new one.
How Do You Observe a Call Without Taking Over?
Short answer: agree the rules before you walk in, let the rep introduce you briefly, position yourself slightly back, keep quiet unless the customer addresses you directly, and step in only for a compliance or patient safety issue.
The most common coaching mistake I have seen is the manager who cannot stay silent. The doctor asks a question, the rep hesitates for a second, and the manager answers. From that moment the doctor talks to the manager. The rep loses standing with a customer they will see alone for the rest of the year, and the manager has nothing left to observe. It feels helpful. It is the opposite.
A few practical rules make silent observation work:
- Agree the introduction. The rep introduces you as a colleague joining for the day, in a sentence. In Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, a courteous greeting to the doctor or pharmacist is expected and right; keep it warm and brief, then hand the conversation back to the rep with your body language.
- Sit or stand slightly back. If you sit beside the rep facing the customer, the customer will split their attention. A half step back keeps the rep at the centre.
- Redirect questions politely. If the customer asks you something the rep can answer, a short “My colleague knows your patients better than I do” hands it back without awkwardness.
- Take brief notes, or none in the room. Some customers dislike seeing notes taken during a call. Write immediately after the call instead, before the debrief.
- Note words and actions, not verdicts. “Opened the visual aid at page one before asking any question” is useful in a debrief. “Poor opening” is not.
- Step in only for compliance or safety. If the rep makes a claim outside the approved product information, or a doctor mentions a possible adverse event and the rep does not respond correctly, you must address it there and then, politely, and follow your company’s procedures.
If you want to demonstrate a skill, agree it beforehand and tell the rep exactly what to watch for: “On the third call I will lead, and I want you to notice how I handle the price objection.” Then debrief your own call the same way you would debrief theirs. Labelled demonstrations are useful, especially for new reps. Unplanned takeovers are not.
How Should a Manager Give Feedback After a Call?
Short answer: make it specific, about behaviour rather than the person, and balanced between what worked and what to change. Ask the rep first, keep it to one or two points, and end with what the rep will do next time.
Feedback is not automatically helpful. Avraham Kluger and Angelo DeNisi published a large meta-analysis of feedback research in the Psychological Bulletin (1996). They found that while feedback improved performance on average, in a substantial share of the studies it actually made performance worse. Their explanation was that feedback helps most when it keeps attention on the task and how to do it better, and tends to backfire when it pulls attention onto the person and their self-image. For a field manager, the lesson is direct: talk about what the rep did in the call, not about what kind of rep they are.
| Unhelpful feedback | Specific, behavioural feedback |
|---|---|
| “You talk too much.” | “After the doctor mentioned elderly patients, you went straight to page three of the aid. What might you have asked at that point?” |
| “Good call.” | “Your summary before presenting was clear, and the doctor corrected one detail. That is exactly what a summary is for. Keep doing it.” |
| “You need to be more confident.” | “When the pharmacist asked about margin, you looked at me. Next time, what answer would you give from the trade terms you have?” |
| “Your close was weak.” | “The call ended with ‘please think about it’. What specific step could you have asked for, given where this doctor is with the product?” |
Balance does not mean a mechanical “praise, criticise, praise” sandwich, which reps quickly learn to see through. It means being as specific about what worked as about what did not. Reps need to know which behaviours to keep, and specific recognition of a good question or a clean commitment does more for confidence than general praise.
Choose the setting with care. Feedback belongs in private, never in front of the customer and never in front of colleagues. In the Gulf, where respect and face matter in professional relationships, correcting a rep in public can damage both trust and motivation for a long time. A quiet conversation in the car does the same work without the cost.
Which Coaching Questions Make a Rep Think?
Short answer: open questions that move from the call objective, to what actually happened, to options, to a firm next step. The GROW model gives you that sequence and stops a debrief turning into a lecture.
The GROW model, which Whitmore set out in Coaching for Performance, stands for Goal, Reality, Options and Will. It fits a car-park debrief almost perfectly, because each call already has a goal (the call objective), a reality (what happened), options (what else the rep could have done) and a next step (what they will do on the next call).
| Stage | What it explores | Sample questions after a call |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | What the rep wanted from the call | “What was your objective for this call?” “What did you want the doctor to agree to?” |
| Reality | What actually happened, in facts | “What did the doctor say when you asked about her patients?” “At what point did the call change direction?” “How close did you get to your objective?” |
| Options | What the rep could do differently | “What else could you have asked at that moment?” “What would a smaller commitment have looked like?” “If you had the call again, what would you change?” |
| Will | A firm, specific next step | “What will you do on your next call with this doctor?” “How will you practise that this week?” “How will we both know it happened?” |
A few more questions that work well in pharma debriefs:
- “What do you now know about this doctor’s patients that you did not know before the call?”
- “Who talked more in that call, you or the pharmacist?”
- “Which part of the call are you most pleased with, and why?”
- “Which claim did you make, and where is it in the approved material?”
- “What objection did you hear, and what was really behind it?”
- “What will you write in your call notes?”
Questions are not a trick to make the rep guess the answer you have in mind. If the rep cannot see the issue after two or three honest questions, tell them clearly and specifically, then go back to questions for the options and the next step. Pure questioning with a rep who lacks a skill is frustrating; pure telling with a rep who has the skill is wasteful. Good coaches move between the two.
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What Should a Field Coaching Form Look Like?
Short answer: one page, completed with the rep at the end of the day: the last development point and whether it was applied, a few call skills with specific observations, what went well, one new development point with an action, and a date to check it.
Many companies have their own form, and you should use it. If yours is long, scored on twenty items and filled in alone after the visit, consider keeping a short working version like the one below and transferring the essentials. The form exists to support the coaching conversation and its follow-up, not to produce a score.
| Section | What to record | Example (fictional rep and brand) |
|---|---|---|
| Rep, date, area | Basic details and calls attended | Rep 1, North area, six calls attended: four clinics, two pharmacies |
| Last development point | The point agreed on the previous ride-along | Ask one implication question before opening the visual aid |
| Applied today? | Evidence from observed calls | Yes in three of four clinic calls; skipped it when the doctor was short of time |
| Planning and objective | Was there a specific, customer-centred objective? | Written objectives for all calls; two were activities (“detail Brand A”), not commitments |
| Questioning and listening | Questions asked, summaries, who talked more | Good problem questions; summarised before presenting in clinic calls, not in pharmacy calls |
| Presenting and claims | Benefits linked to need; claims within approved material | Used the right page of the approved aid; all claims within approved information |
| Objections | How objections were clarified and answered | Answered the dosing concern well; answered the price concern before clarifying it |
| Commitment and notes | Specific commitment asked for; notes logged | Specific commitments in two calls; vague close in four |
| What went well | Specific behaviours to keep | Implication questions now feel natural; the pharmacist asked for a staff briefing |
| Development point agreed | One point, chosen with the rep | Close every call with one specific, measurable commitment |
| Action and practice | What the rep will do, and how | Write the commitment to ask for in each call objective; review in notes each evening |
| Follow-up | When and how it will be checked | Phone review of call notes in two weeks; observe first on next ride-along |
| Agreed by | Manager and rep | Both, at the end of the day |
Two habits make the form far more useful. First, fill it in together. A form the rep sees for the first time in a system a week later feels like a report card. Second, open the last form before every ride-along. The development history of a rep, one point at a time, is the best record you have of their growth, and it makes annual reviews far easier and fairer.
How Do You Coach Different Reps: New, Experienced, Struggling and Star?
Short answer: adjust how much you tell versus ask, how often you ride along, and what you coach on. New reps need more instruction and structure; experienced reps need challenge; struggling reps need a clear plan; stars need stretch and responsibility.
One coaching style for the whole team is the easiest approach and one of the least effective. The same rep can also be at different levels in different skills: strong at opening, weak at closing. Match your approach to the rep and the skill.
| Rep | What they usually need | Coaching approach | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| New rep | Basic skills, product confidence, structure | More frequent ride-alongs; more telling and labelled demonstrations; small, clear development points | Overloading them with feedback; coaching skills they were never trained in |
| Experienced rep | Fresh challenge, recognition of their expertise | Mostly questions; let them choose the focus; coach on harder accounts or new customer types | Skipping them because they are “fine”; habits that have drifted from approved messages |
| Struggling rep | A clear diagnosis and a written plan | Find the cause first (skill, will, territory or personal); agree a short plan with dated checkpoints | Confusing coaching with a disciplinary process; changing the point every visit |
| Star rep | Stretch, visibility, a next step | Coach on skills for the next role; involve them in peer coaching or onboarding new reps | Ignoring them because results are good; letting results excuse compliance shortcuts |
For new reps, coaching and onboarding run together. The medical rep 30-60-90 day plan gives you a structure to coach against in the first three months, and each ride-along can check one milestone from it.
For struggling reps, separate coaching from performance management. Coaching assumes the rep can improve with help and wants to. If the problem is willingness, or a pattern of rule breaking, that is a different conversation that follows company HR procedures. Mixing the two makes reps distrust every ride-along.
Anders Ericsson, Ralf Krampe and Clemens Tesch-Römer’s paper on deliberate practice in the Psychological Review (1993) is useful for stars as well as beginners. Their research on expert performers found that improvement came from deliberate practice: effortful activity aimed at a specific weakness, with feedback, usually designed with the help of a teacher or coach, not from simply repeating the activity. A rep with ten years in the field has not necessarily had ten years of deliberate practice. Even a strong rep improves when someone helps them pick one element and work on it on purpose.
OTC and consumer health teams add another layer. Your reps may lead promoters and merchandisers in pharmacies and retail branches. Coaching a rep then includes coaching how they brief and support those people. The guide to selling at the pharmacy counter describes the counter skills a rep should be able to pass on.
How Do You Coach Remotely Using CRM Data and Call Notes?
Short answer: use CRM data to choose what to coach, and call notes to coach it. A short phone or video review of a few notes, with GROW questions about one customer, keeps the cycle going between ride-alongs. It supports field coaching but does not replace it.
Large territories, which are common in Saudi Arabia where a team can cover several cities, make frequent ride-alongs hard. Remote coaching fills the gaps. The CRM gives you three kinds of signal.
- Coverage and frequency. Is the rep seeing the right customers as often as the plan says? The rep call-plan calculator helps you and the rep agree what a realistic plan is, so the gap you discuss is a fair one.
- Call objectives. Are pre-call objectives specific commitments, or activities like “detail product”?
- Call notes. Do the notes record the customer’s need, the objection, the commitment and the next objective? Notes that read “doctor positive” on every call tell you the conversation itself may be thin.
A simple remote session takes twenty to thirty minutes. Pick one priority customer, read the last three notes together, and ask: “What is this doctor’s main need? What commitment did you ask for last time? Was it kept? What will you ask for next?” Agree one action and log it, as you would on a ride-along.
Two cautions. First, data shows what happened, not why. A low call rate might be a lazy week or a territory with long distances and closed clinics; ask before you judge. Second, remote coaching cannot show you how the rep speaks, listens or handles an objection. Use it to keep momentum and choose your next ride-along focus, not as a substitute for being in the room.
How Do You Coach on Compliance and Approved Claims?
Short answer: treat compliance as part of every coaching conversation, not a separate audit. Ask the rep where each claim sits in the approved material, correct any breach at once, and never coach a rep toward results by stretching claims or using incentives the SFDA code and company policy do not allow.
In Saudi Arabia, promotion of medicines to healthcare professionals is governed by the Saudi Food and Drug Authority’s code, and other GCC regulators have codes along similar lines. Company policies usually add stricter rules. A manager on a ride-along is often the only person who hears what a rep actually says to a doctor, which makes field coaching a central part of compliance.
Build compliance into the cycle:
- In planning: ask which approved materials the rep will use and which claims they plan to make.
- In observation: listen for claims beyond the approved product information, comparisons the approved material does not make, off-label suggestions, and how the rep responds to any mention of a side effect.
- In the debrief: ask “Where is that claim in the approved aid?” as routinely as you ask about the objective. It makes checking claims a habit rather than an accusation.
- On the form: record that claims were within approved material, or what was corrected and how.
Coaching pressure can also create compliance risk. If a manager pushes hard on a number in every debrief, a rep may start bending claims, offering hospitality outside the rules, or hinting at off-label uses to get there. Coach the behaviours that lead to legitimate results, and make it clear that no target justifies a breach. The same applies to rewards: a sales incentive plan must never reward prescribing outside the approved indication, and if you model payouts with the sales incentive calculator, check the plan design with compliance first. The SFDA marketing compliance checklist sets out the points field teams need, and you should always check the current code rather than relying on memory.
How Do You Measure Whether Coaching Works?
Short answer: look first for behaviour change on the next ride-along and in call notes, then for changes in the customers the rep worked on, and only then for sales results, which move later and for many reasons.
Managers are often asked to prove that coaching pays off, and it is tempting to quote dramatic percentages. Be careful with any figure you cannot trace to a named study. The honest measure is closer to home and easier to check.
| Level | What to look for | Where you see it | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Behaviour on the next ride-along | The agreed point now happens without prompting | Observed calls; the coaching form | Next visit |
| 2. Behaviour between visits | Objectives and notes show the change | CRM call objectives and notes | Weeks |
| 3. Customer response | Commitments kept, products stocked, staff briefed, follow-up meetings agreed | Call notes, pharmacy checks, account reviews | Weeks to months |
| 4. Results | Movement in the rep’s priority customers or products | Sales or market data the company already uses | Months, alongside many other factors |
Track your own coaching too. How many ride-alongs did you complete against plan? How many ended with one agreed point? How many points did you follow up? How many became habits? A manager who can answer those four questions for each rep has a coaching practice, not just a travel schedule.
What Are the Most Common Coaching Mistakes Managers Make?
- Taking over the call. The doctor starts dealing with the manager, and the rep loses face and the chance to learn.
- Inspecting and calling it coaching. The day becomes a check of samples, expenses and CRM entries, and the rep learns to fear ride-alongs.
- Too many points. A list of ten things to fix changes nothing; one point practised for a month changes a habit.
- Talking instead of asking. The manager delivers a lecture after each call, and the rep never builds the habit of assessing their own calls.
- Vague feedback. “Be more confident” or “good call” gives the rep nothing to repeat or change.
- Feedback about the person. Comments on character rather than behaviour trigger defensiveness and, as Kluger and DeNisi’s review suggests, can lower performance.
- Correcting in public. In front of a customer or colleagues, even a fair point damages trust.
- No follow-up. The agreed point is forgotten until the next ride-along months later.
- Coaching only the strugglers, or only the stars. Every rep deserves a regular cycle, and steady experienced reps are the most often skipped.
- Pushing results past the rules. Coaching that implies “get the number however you can” leads reps toward claims and incentives outside the SFDA code and company policy.
- Cancelling ride-alongs for office work. Coaching is always the easiest meeting to move and the one that matters most to the team’s calls.
Key Takeaways
- Sales coaching helps one rep improve specific behaviours in real calls; it is not training, inspection or doing the call
- For a first-line manager, coaching is the main route by which effort reaches the customer
- Run the same five-step cycle every time: plan, observe, debrief, agree one point, follow up
- Observe silently, let the rep lead, and step in only for compliance or patient safety
- Give specific, behavioural, balanced feedback in private, and ask the rep to assess the call first
- Use GROW questions (Goal, Reality, Options, Will) to structure debriefs
- Keep a one-page coaching form, fill it in with the rep, and open it before every ride-along
- Adapt to the rep: more telling for new reps, more challenge for experienced ones, a plan for strugglers, stretch for stars
- Use CRM data and call notes to coach between visits, not to replace them
- Build approved claims and the SFDA code into every coaching conversation
- Judge coaching by behaviour change first and sales results last
Frequently Asked Questions
What is pharma sales coaching?
Pharma sales coaching is the regular, structured work a first-line manager does with each medical or pharmacy rep to improve how that rep sells in real calls. It usually happens on a ride-along, also called a double call or field visit: the manager plans the day with the rep, watches real calls, debriefs after each one, agrees one development point and follows it up on the next visit. It is different from training, which teaches knowledge and skills in a classroom, and from inspection, which checks whether rules and targets are met.
What is a ride-along in pharmaceutical sales?
A ride-along is a day, or part of a day, when the manager joins a rep in the field and attends real calls with doctors, pharmacists or other customers. Some companies call it a double call, a field visit or a field coaching day. Its main purpose is coaching: the manager sees how the rep actually works, rather than how the rep describes the work, and can give feedback on specific calls while they are still fresh.
Should a manager talk during a coaching call?
As little as possible. The manager should agree before the call that the rep leads, and should be introduced briefly as a colleague who is joining for the day. If the manager takes over the conversation, the doctor starts dealing with the manager, the rep loses standing with the customer, and there is nothing left to coach. The exception is a compliance or patient safety issue, which the manager must correct at once, politely and in the room.
What is the GROW model in sales coaching?
GROW stands for Goal, Reality, Options and Will. John Whitmore set it out in Coaching for Performance, first published in 1992. In a ride-along debrief the manager asks what the rep wanted from the call (Goal), what actually happened (Reality), what the rep could do differently (Options), and what exactly the rep will do on the next call (Will). The questions make the rep think and decide, which builds awareness and responsibility rather than dependence on the manager.
How often should a pharma sales manager coach each rep?
There is no single industry rule, and figures quoted without a source should be treated with care. A practical approach is to coach every rep on a regular cycle that the whole team knows, more often for new and struggling reps and less often for steady experienced reps, and never to let a ride-along end without one agreed development point and a date to check it. Consistency matters more than the exact number of days.
What should a field coaching form include?
A useful form is short. It records the rep, date and customers visited, the development point from the last visit and whether it was applied, observations against a few call skills with specific examples, what went well, the one development point agreed today, the action the rep will take, and the date it will be checked. Both manager and rep should see and agree the form, and it should be stored as the company requires.
How do you coach a rep remotely?
Use the information you already have: CRM call notes, coverage and frequency against the call plan, the objectives the rep set before calls, and the commitments recorded after them. Review a few call notes with the rep by phone or video, ask GROW questions about one customer, and agree one action. Remote coaching is a good way to keep the cycle going between ride-alongs, but it cannot replace seeing real calls.
How do you know if sales coaching is working?
Look for behaviour change first. On the next ride-along, does the rep now do the thing you agreed? Does it show in their call notes and objectives between visits? Over time, look at whether the customers the rep worked on show the change you would expect, such as commitments kept or a product stocked. Sales results take longer to move and depend on many factors, so judge coaching mainly by whether the agreed behaviour appears and lasts.
What to Do Next
Open your calendar and book the next ride-along with each rep, then find the last development point you agreed with each of them. If you cannot find one, that is your starting point. On the next visit, plan the day together, stay silent in the calls, ask the rep to go first in every debrief, and leave with one point and a date to check it. Copy the coaching form above into your own notes if your company’s version does not fit the conversation.
If you want to sharpen the skills you are coaching, share the guides to pharma selling skills and objection handling in pharma sales with your team before the next round of ride-alongs, and point new joiners to the guide on what a medical representative does.
If you work in Saudi Arabia, booklet 15 of the Field Booklets, “Where Are You Now?”, helps a rep see that they sit at different development levels in different skills, which is the right starting point for any coaching conversation, and booklet 12, “Leading the Extended Team”, covers how a rep guides promoters and merchandisers in every branch, even when they are not there. Both are short and practical, in Arabic and English. The first booklet is a free sample.
