Practical Coaching Tips for Digital Field Success in a Virtual Setting

Mar 04, 2021 | Mark McLaughlin

A digital approach to selling gives field teams more adaptability, but the transition can be challenging.

As a commercial leader at a large biopharma, I transitioned my sales team to a hybrid digital model through hands-on implementation and developing a coaching model with trial and error. Under this new model, my field teams now have the flexibility to engage the customer exactly when and where they prefer: whether it is at home, at an office, or in a parking lot.

Coaching for Digital Excellence

One of the biggest challenges that the sales team faced was a belief that our customers would not adapt to digital channels. However, Veeva Pulse data shows that the average duration of a Veeva CRM Engage Meeting was 19 minutes globally in 2020, suggesting that there were substantial opportunities to engage digitally with HCPs.

To build the field’s confidence and allow them to take advantage of these digital engagement opportunities, we devised a training system that helped the field teams frame the same selling principles they already know in a digital space.

We came up with an acronym, GREAT, that the field teams could use to guide their digital interactions. These five traits—growth mindset, reset expectations, empathy, anticipation, and telegenic personality—helped ground the field as they went into uncharted territory.

Field teams who embodied the GREAT qualities were most successful in unfamiliar situations, such as periods of reduced physical access to customers.

Managing a Virtual Ride-Along

The digital model allows for more flexibility in managing my team. I can conduct two virtual ride-alongs over Engage Meeting in a day, which gives me more coaching time with more team members in different geographies.

I learned to maximize the time I had with field teams on virtual ride-alongs. I’d block out time for engagement planning and post-call feedback for every Engage Meeting, just like on a face-to-face call. It was also crucial to stay engaged throughout the entire process, even when waiting for the customer to join, to better guide the field team.

A tip for virtual coaching is that the manager should always introduce themselves when hopping onto a field team’s virtual call and participate in the conversation when needed. Staying silent can make the customer feel uncomfortable because someone is “listening in” on the exchange.

Normalizing Digital Interactions for Sales

The next goal is for my team to view digital channels as a default part of their toolkit, not just as a backup for when they can’t see customers. I want the team to understand that they can use digital channels to better meet the customer’s needs.

We have incorporated a tactic to get field teams into the right mindset about digital channels: setting expectations with the customer about communication preferences. However, instead of asking if the customer prefers face-to-face over digital, the field team should ask what the customer’s desired ratio of face-to-face versus digital is.

This lets the field teams frame digital as a first option and helps them remember to follow through via an agreement with the customer.

Moving forward, we want digital to become a reflex for the team as they adapt to a hybrid digital mentality. Though we’re still fine-tuning our methodology, the changes we made in our sales model have already led to more flexibility and success with customer interactions.

Looking for more practical tips to accelerate your digital strategy? Get our Guide to Digital HCP Engagement.