The examination comes before the treatment
Pharmaceutical and healthcare companies call me when their numbers stop being trusted.
I am Dieter Herbst. Every Herbst Group partnership starts the same way: with DiaDoc™, a paid diagnosis of what is wrong, before anyone builds, buys or deploys anything.
Governed intelligence. Aligned action.
Partnerships generally start at R86,250 a month, including VAT at 15%. Confidential. No commitment. The first conversation is free; the diagnosis is paid.
What the examination yields
- A written diagnostic report
- Findings ranked by commercial consequence
- A roadmap you can run with or without us
- Confidential per-stakeholder debriefs
The pattern I see
The numbers are unaccountable.
Every pharmaceutical commercial team I walk into shows the same pattern: several versions of the truth, no single governed number, and performance conversations that turn into arguments about which number is right. The data exists. The accountability does not.
- Territory structures unchanged for years while the market moved under them
- Reps driving past high-value customers because the territory boundaries are wrong
- Customer segmentation that lives in a spreadsheet nobody trusts
- Monthly reports that arrive too late to change anything
- Performance conversations that start with 'which number are we using?'
A governed data layer holds up a mirror nobody can argue with. Every rep, every manager, every meeting starts from the same number. The data does the confronting. Your leaders keep the relationships. But I will not build that layer before I have examined why the current one failed. That is what DiaDoc™ is for.
Confidential. No commitment. The first conversation is free; the diagnosis is paid.
How every partnership begins
Examine first. Treat only what the evidence supports.
Every engagement I take runs in the same order, and the first step is paid, documented and sold on its own.
01
Listen.
You tell me in your own words what is happening. That first conversation is free, and it decides whether an examination is warranted at all.
02
Examine: DiaDoc™.
Confidential one-to-one sessions with your senior stakeholders, a structured executive workshop, and evidence taken from your own commercial data. Not benchmarks. Your transactions, your territories, your numbers.
03
Document and decide.
A written diagnostic report with findings ranked by commercial consequence, a roadmap you can run with or without us, and confidential per-stakeholder debriefs. The report can conclude that no further engagement is warranted; if it does, I say so, and the report and roadmap stay yours.
04
Partner, if warranted.
Where the findings call for it, a partnership follows: a standing engagement with senior Herbst people alongside your team, plus the work the diagnosis called for, priced on the value it creates.
The fee and the scope of DiaDoc™ are stated in the first serious conversation. I do not publish either.
See what DiaDoc™ coversDiagnosis before treatment
Three examinations: what the client believed, and what the evidence said.
What if the problem is not motivation?
A pan-African pharmaceutical company had grown its field force while revenue per rep fell, and believed it had a motivation problem. SKII™ examined claimed activity against purchasing, expense, travel and manager visit records. The finding was structural: high performers held lower-potential territories, first-line managers averaged two field days a month, and a material share of claimed calls showed no link to purchasing. Treatments followed findings: territory rebalancing, manager field-day minimums, incentives re-linked to verified outcomes, FARM™ dashboards. The case study records measurable improvement in revenue per rep.
What if the structure, not the people, produced the variance?
A multinational pharmaceutical company's territories had grown organically: several reps on the same urban pharmacies, high-potential rural regions uncovered, variance between best and worst territories above four to one, two redesigns already failed. SNIPER™ examined pharmacy-level potential against actual coverage; Her-Zone™ showed where reps drove past potential. The finding was a design fault, not a performance fault. Forty-seven territories were rebuilt on the evidence: variance narrowed to two to one, no rep left during the transition, and a later review reported a meaningful increase in sales from the same-size field force.
What if the diagnosis is the whole engagement?
A pharmaceutical distribution holding group needed an independent view of whether its data foundation could carry the decisions being taken on it. The examination ran across data quality, master data, integration and governance. The deliverable was the finding itself: an independent written account of the group's own data foundation, owing nothing to whatever the group builds next.
"We thought we had a motivation problem. SKII showed us we had a systems problem ..."
Sales Director, pan-African pharmaceutical company (anonymised; excerpt from the published case study)
Drawn from the published case studies.
Read all the case studiesWhat a partnership looks like
After the diagnosis: deep understanding, governed data, rapid progress. Over years, not a quarter.
A partnership usually holds two things: a standing engagement with senior Herbst people alongside your team, and the specific work the diagnosis called for. We embed, we execute, and we stay.
Understanding
We learn your market, your people and your data well enough to be argued with. That takes time, and we take it.
Governance
One governed number for every rep, every manager and every meeting. Disclosed sources, South African data residency, auditable delivery.
Progress
A working rhythm set by the roadmap: the instruments, reviews and tools your team needs, built where the diagnosis calls for them, never sold ahead of it.
The people you will work with
Dieter Herbst
CEO
Wimpie du Toit
CTO & Founder
Tiaan Keyser
Chief Analytics Officer
Malan Munnik
Customer Success & Revenue
Wayne Gray
Head of Data
The partners who run the examination stay if a partnership follows.
The work a diagnosis may call for
Territory Design & Optimisation
Customer Segmentation & Classification
Sales Force Effectiveness
Executive Dashboards & Revenue Intelligence
Rep Enablement & Weekly Intelligence
None is sold before the diagnosis.
See the servicesProprietary methods
The instruments a partnership can draw on. DiaDoc™ comes first.
Named methods. DiaDoc™ is the examination; the others are used only where the findings call for them, never instead of it.
DiaDoc ™
Diagnosis and Documentation. The paid examination every partnership begins with.
Herbst Conductor ™
The commercial-capability framework: four instruments (Data, Insight, Execution, Compliance) that turn reps into commercial orchestrators.
SNIPER ™
Transaction Intelligence
FARM ™
Revenue Management
SKII ™
Field Force Diagnostics
Auto-Snipe ™
Weekly Rep Intelligence
Her-Zone ™
Geographic Intelligence
We have worked with
The organisations we have worked with, across sectors
Most of my work is pharmaceutical and healthcare. The same governed method now runs in animal health, medical devices and diagnostics, nutrition, and distribution and logistics.
Pharmaceutical
Animal Health
Healthcare, Devices & Diagnostics
Nutrition & FMCG
Distribution, Logistics & Retail
Insurance & Agriculture
Legal & IP
Data & Technology
Industry Bodies & Associations
Governed data chain
How governed commercial intelligence moves
Disclosed at source, assembled under governance, resident in South Africa, auditable in transit. The same chain behind every figure we publish.
- 01
Disclosed sources
Legal basis on record
named, not modelled
- 02
Governed assembly
1,054 active zones
pharmacy access scored per zone
- 03
SA-resident storage
POPIA-bound
data stays in South Africa
- 04
Auditable transmission
M365 channels
every move logged
One data source among several behind our work. See the SA Pharmacy Coverage Benchmark
What governance means inside a partnership
Governance is not a feature. It is the foundation.
Geographic intelligence grounds the analysis. Analytics platforms surface what matters. Embedded execution makes it stick. Claims carry provenance: the chain of custody behind every figure we publish.
certification in progress
by architecture
100% in-country
88th percentile worldwide
Disclosed sources
Every input is named and documented. No grey-market data, no unnamed proxies. Every input source-attributed with a recorded legal basis.
SA-resident storage
All data is processed and stored on South African infrastructure. POPIA-aligned by architecture, not by policy alone.
Auditable transmission
Intelligence moves to clients through M365 and Teams channels. Every delivery is logged, consented, and controllable.
External attestation
Our governance posture is independently assessed. EcoVadis sustainability rating. ISO 27001 certification in active pursuit.
Fit
We work best when three things are true.
I work with pharmaceutical, healthcare and consumer health organisations, in South Africa and on pan-African programmes run from here, usually at the point where the commercial data has outgrown the way it is governed and performance conversations have turned into arguments about which number is right. The same governed method now runs in animal health, medical devices and diagnostics, nutrition, and distribution and logistics, because the problem keeps its shape wherever the data is large and the accountability is thin. If that is not where you are, I will tell you in the first conversation, and that conversation costs you nothing.
Good fit
- Your commercial data is large and no longer trusted by the people who have to act on it.
- You want the finding before the treatment and will pay for it, and a senior decision maker will sit in the examination and hear the findings, including the uncomfortable ones.
- You are looking for a partnership that runs over years: a standing engagement plus the work the diagnosis calls for, not a single job.
Not the right fit
- Implementation without a diagnosis first: I do not build, buy or deploy on someone else's prescription.
- Tenders, RFPs and procurement-led buying with a fixed brief: the examination cannot be run through a scoring grid.
- Work below the published minimum, or once-off jobs: another firm will serve you better, and I will say so.
If we are not a fit, you will hear that from me or Malan within three business days, with a plain reason and, where I can, a better place to take it.
Confidential. No commitment. The first conversation is free; the diagnosis is paid.
Investment
I price on the value a partnership creates, not on the time it takes. A partnership with us generally starts at R86,250 a month, including VAT at 15%, and I take a relationship on when the year ahead is worth at least R1,955,000 to it, including VAT: usually a standing engagement plus the work the diagnosis calls for. ZAR, reviewed annually. Below that, and for once-off jobs, we are not the right partner, and I say so at the start. The first conversation is free. The diagnosis is paid.
R86,250
a month, including VAT at 15%
R1,955,000
minimum annualised partnership value, including VAT
A note from Dieter
Before you write to me.
We are in the business of partnerships, deep understanding and diagnosing before treating, and we require significant investment. DiaDoc™, the diagnosis, is paid and documented, and it can end with no further work. If it does, I say so. Where work follows, the partnership is priced on the value it creates. We name the investment early: it is set out above. If that is what you are looking for, write to me. If we are a fit, Malan or I will reply within three business days with a time for the diagnostic conversation. If we are not, you will hear that from us too, courteously.
Dieter Herbst, CEO, Herbst Group
Confidential. No commitment. The first conversation is free; the diagnosis is paid.
Strict NDAs signed prior to engagement.