Research indicates that the frequency and effectiveness of managerial coaching is failing to meet organisational demands. For companies to leverage the potential benefits a coaching based approach can offer, in terms of performance and employee engagement, it is critical to advance our understanding of managerial coaching such that any potential discrepancy is reduced. Using a phenomenological approach, this study explores how six sales managers experience their role of coach. The most significant discovery was that participants are actively coaching, just not necessarily in a way organisations are expecting or potentially measuring. Rather than follow a formalised process, participants prefer a conversational approach, with the activity conceivably going unnoticed.