Case Study: Coaching Program Follow-Through

A leading pharmaceutical company wanted to increase the frequency and effectiveness of coaching among all levels of sales managers to drive increased market share in the U.S.

To ensure that these objectives were achieved, the coaching program included a 10-week follow-through period in which participants were reminded of their coaching goals and asked to report on their progress every other week.

Senior sales leaders served as coaches to the sales managers.

To gauge the impact of the program, Fort Hill's assessment tool - Measure4Results® - was used to poll the sales managers and all their direct reports (the pharmaceutical sales representatives who received the new coaching).

The survey assessed the change (if any) in the frequency and effectiveness of the coaching they provided and received following the program.

Results

The program had a significant impact on the coaching behavior among sales managers.Friday5s was a key element of the success because it reminded managers to practice the new behaviors and provided a ready means to "coach the coaches."

In an interview with a local business journal, the program directors said that without Friday5s, they would have been hard pressed to determine the degree of progress being made or the extent of coaching taking place.

Measure4Results provided the kind of hard, quantifiable data line managers are looking for to continue to fund or expand development programs.