Why the modern field professional is being set up to fail

Why “more skills” isn’t making better field teams

The expectations placed on field teams have never been higher.

The modern field professional is being asked to be several people at once: scientific expert, commercial thinker, system navigator, relationship-builder and confident communicator.

On paper, this looks like progress. In practice, it is creating a different kind of challenge.

Across the pharmaceutical industry, organizations are responding to rising expectations by adding more skills, more training, and more capability requirements. But despite this, performance is not improving at the pace expected; because “more” won’t solve the problem. In fact, it’s making it harder for field teams to know where to focus.

The Future of Field Excellence 2026 points to a capability agenda that needs to become more selective, not more expansive. Three shifts matter most according to our research: make customer-centric engagement the shared core; protect role-specific depth through a T-shaped model; and replace one-off training with continuous enablement in the flow of work.

The prize is not a field professional who can do everything. It is a field team that can bring the right expertise, judgement and curiosity to the moments that matter.

The bar is rising. And so is the risk of overload.

The move towards more strategic, value-driven engagement has fundamentally raised expectations of field roles As highlighted in the report, “The bar for field roles keeps rising. HCP expectations continue to evolve.”

Field professionals are no longer expected to simply deliver information. They are expected to interpret it, apply it, and connect it to the specific needs of of the HCP in front of them. They are expected to understand not just the science, but the system. Not just the product, but the patient pathway. Not just the message, but the context within which that message lands.

This is a more valuable role, but also a more demanding one. Organisations therefore face a choice: decide which capabilities will make the greatest difference OR keep adding requirements until every role becomes impossibly broad.

Too often, the second option wins.

The cost of 22 priorities

In the research behind The Future of Field Excellence 2026, respondents identified 22 different skills as priorities for development over the next 12 months.

This number captures the complexity of the modern field role, but it also exposes the problem: a lack of focus. Field teams are asked to develop a wide range of capabilities – often simultaneously, and without clear guidance on what matters most. 22 priorities might as well be the same as none.

And of course the result is predictable. When everything is presented as urgent, training fragments, practice is spread thinly and managers struggle to reinforce a consistent set of behaviours.

Depth, sequencing and sustained application matter more than the length of the framework. Because more capability does not automatically translate into better performance.

The capability gap that matters most

Among the many development priorities, customer-centric engagement deserves special attention because it (or the lack of) is visible in every interaction. HCPs experience it through the quality of the questions they are asked, the relevance of the discussion and materials they consume and whether the field professional adapts rather than simply delivers.

In fact, 64% of respondents rated it as the most important capability to develop.

And yet, it is also one of the weakest areas of performance.

According to STEM only 26% of calls mention HCP needs, and just 15% effectively discuss those needs.

Taken together, these findings reveal a sharp gap between intent and execution. Organisations recognise the importance of understanding customer needs, but that understanding is not yet consistently shaping field conversations. This is a critical execution gap.

Because when HCP needs are actively explored, the nature of the interaction changes. Conversations become more balanced. The field professional can select what is relevant, test assumptions and connect information to the HCP’s priorities, challenges and patients. The conversation becomes less like message delivery and more like a useful exchange.

Knowledge still matters, but it is no longer enough

For many years, deep scientific knowledge was the defining characteristic of high-performing field professionals.

This remains essential. But it is no longer sufficient. It creates credibility and allows field professionals to answer complex questions with confidence. But knowledge alone no longer differentiates a high-performing interaction.

HCPs can access information through more channels than ever. What they need from a field professional is interpretation: what the information means in their setting, why it matters now and how it connects with the wider patient or system context.

This requires a shift from knowledge delivery to insight generation and application.

Not just what to say—but when to say it, how to say it, through what touchpoint to say it, and crucially, whether it even matters at all.

This calls for emotional and behavioural intelligence alongside expertise. Judgement helps determine what to bring into the conversation. Curiosity uncovers what the HCP is trying to solve. Active listening reveals whether the planned discussion is still the right one.

A move toward the T-shaped model

The T-shaped skills model offers a practical alternative to capability overload. Rather than trying to create hybrid roles that are expected to cover everything, this model enables the combination of a common foundation with genuine specialist depth.

The shared foundation should include the capabilities that improve every HCP interaction:

• Communication excellence
• Customer-centric engagement
• Insight generation and application

The vertical part of the T is function-specific expertise – scientific, clinical, commercial or strategic – that gives each role its distinctive credibility and value.

This model makes the development agenda easier to navigate. It gives all field professionals a common language for high-quality engagement while protecting the depth that HCPs expect from specialists. It also helps organisations build complementary teams rather than asking every individual to become a generalist.

Why training alone will not close the gap

Once priorities are clearer, the next challenge is turning them into consistent behaviour. That will not happen through isolated training events, however well designed.

As the report highlights, “Don’t think ‘one-off,’ think continuous enablement.”

Capability building needs to be embedded into the flow of work. Close enough to real interactions for people to test, reflect, and try again.

This means moving beyond a calendar of courses or isolated training sessions at NSMs or POAs, toward a more integrated approach that includes:

• Ongoing coaching from managers
• Opportunities to practice new behaviors in real (or realistic) situations
• Reinforcement through feedback and reflection that is linked to actual performance
• Access to tools and resources that support application before, during and after an interaction

The important phrase here is “continuous enablement”. A skill becomes reliable when it is used, observed, discussed and reinforced over time – not when a module has been completed.

Without this, even well-designed training programs will struggle to translate into consistent behaviour change.

The role of leadership in enabling performance

Capability is not just an individual responsibility. It is shaped by the environment within which people operate.

Leaders play a critical role in defining priorities, setting expectations, and reinforcing the right behaviors.

As an interviewee noted in the report, “We have to be intentional about where we have gaps in performance and what is driving those gaps.”

That intention has to lead to choices. It also requires leaders to create the conditions for success.

Leaders need to identify the few behaviours most closely connected to the performance gap, align development and coaching around them, and create the time and permission to practise. They also need to remove low-value requirements that compete for attention.

Because as we mentioned before. 22 priorities is the same as none.

From capability overload to capability focus

The rise of the high-caliber field professional is not about doing more, lowering the bar or simplifying a complex role.

It is about being far more deliberate about how people reach that bar. About doing fewer things, better.

This means making clear choices about which capabilities matter most—and investing in them consistently.

It means moving away from long lists of skills toward focused capability models that reflect the realities of the role whilst recognizing that the most important capabilities are often the hardest to build.

A focused capability model does three things. It makes customer-centric engagement the core of how every role creates value. It protects deep expertise rather than diluting it across a catalogue of generic expectations. And it recognises that true capability development is an ongoing, strategic performance process that requires practice, feedback and reinforcement over time.

The future of field capability

Field excellence will increasingly be defined by the quality of interactions, not the quantity, nor the number of skills listed in a framework.

The strongest organisations will not try to create individuals who can do everything. They will create teams that can bring the right expertise, in the right way, at the right time – and develop leaders who are prepared to decide what matters most. That requires clarity, focus, and a willingness to challenge existing assumptions about what “good” looks like.

Because in the future of field excellence, capability is not about how much you know.

It is about how effectively you apply it.

Download the full Future of Field Excellence 2026 report to explore how leading organizations are redefining field capability—and the practical steps they are taking to close the gap between ambition and performance.