CASE STUDY
Proving Coaching ROI: A Pharma Field-Force Transformation
ACTO’s data-driven coaching helped a global biopharma boost skills by 28% and link coaching directly to sales growth.
Case Study: From Training to Transformation - A Data-Driven Coaching Journey
A Top 50 global biopharmaceutical company with 200+ field representatives and over 20 regional business leaders faced a critical challenge: their coaching program lacked adaptability, data visibility, and impact. Despite investing heavily in training, the absence of a structured, insight-driven approach meant they could not correlate coaching activity with sales performance.
An industry workshop revealed that 45% of leaders identified data-driven insights as their biggest challenge1, confirming the company’s internal pain points.
1 LTEN 2025 Workshop: Supercharge Your Field Professionals: Ipsen's Secret Sauce to Strategic L&D
In a competitive oncology therapeutic landscape, characterized by complex treatment pathways, the company’s existing coaching systems created more friction than value. The legacy platform offered:
Low Adoptionby managers and field teams
Limited Flexibilityto update and scale programs
Minimal Data Visibilityinto coaching quality and outcomes
No Clear Correlationbetween coaching and sales results
Leadership realized that success could not be built through training alone. It required embedding coaching across the entire field journey, reinforced by actionable insights.
The company implemented ACTO’s Intelligent Field Excellence approach, subtly drawing inspiration from a culinary philosophy: use the right ingredients, combine them with precision, and continually refine the recipe based on results. The framework centered on four pillars:
Through this model, the organization introduced a scalable “recipe” for coaching excellence, leveraging the right data sources and reinforcement tactics to drive measurable outcomes.
The transformation delivered powerful, measurable outcomes:
This was not just a process improvement. It was a cultural shift that embedded coaching as a strategic lever across the field organization…and they’re just getting started.
With a foundation of 4,100+ structured Field Coaching Reports and strong correlation to performance, the company is now focused on advancing to Level 4 of the Kirkpatrick Model Results. Their next phase includes:
These ongoing initiatives mark a shift from simply measuring activity to continuously evolving field execution strategies based on evidence, not assumptions.
By treating coaching as a recipe that could be refined over time, blending the right data, behaviors, and tactics, the company transformed a stagnant program into a high-performance engine.
Just as every kitchen has its own flavors, every field force has its own dynamics. This case demonstrates how combining aligned strategy, measurable insights, and adaptive execution can turn coaching into a driver of both competency and commercial growth.
Want to replicate this success in your organization? Contact us
ACTO is an Intelligent Field Excellence (IFE) platform built for life sciences that unifies human intelligence with empathetic AI to help Sales, Medical, Market Access, and Marketing teams improve customer engagement and brand performance. With ACTO, biopharma companies can ensure field professionals are always competent, confident, and credible in face-to-face HCP interactions, while providing senior leaders and frontline managers with the insight they need to drive continuous field force effectiveness. As a validated platform compliant with FDA 21 CFR Part 11 and SOC 2 Type II certified, ACTO is the trusted partner for intelligent field excellence in the Life Sciences industry.
Just as every kitchen has its own flavors, every field force has its own dynamics. This case demonstrates how combining aligned strategy, measurable insights, and adaptive execution can turn coaching into a driver of both competency andcommercial growth.
Want to replicate this success in your organization?Contact us
