Practical thinking from transformation frontlines. No jargon. No fluff. Just what actually works.
Written by Dieter Herbst and the Herbst Group team, based on 20+ years of pharmaceutical sales force transformation.
Real road-network analysis reveals a healthcare access crisis that national statistics hide. Province by province.
Dieter Herbst
Hundreds of CVs screened. A handful placed. The patterns that cost candidates are predictable, preventable, and backed by research.
Chantal Davies
I built a locked calendar and mental health days into company policy. Not because it sounded progressive. Because without them, I cannot function.
Dieter Herbst
Nine people. A Monday briefing. Five classification levels. This is what responsible AI looks like in pharma consulting.
Dieter Herbst
32 evidence pieces. 5 incidents. 10 risks. 6 registries. This is what compliance actually looks like.
Dieter Herbst
Data becomes dangerous when it's right about something you weren't ready to hear. Why some leaders act on uncomfortable insights while others dismiss them.
Dieter Herbst
By 2030, the most effective pharmaceutical reps won't be selling products -they'll be conducting orchestras of data, insight, and relationships.
Dieter Herbst
81% of employees use unapproved AI tools. Here's how pharma leaders can channel that energy into governed systems that enable speed.
Dieter Herbst
Why 6-month analytics implementations often fail. Starting with what you actually need to see.
Wimpie du Toit
The gap between what reps need to know and what they actually have. SNIPER reveals 80% of sales from 20% of outlets.
Wimpie du Toit
Dieter Herbst on his journey from sales to CEO, building trust in teams, data governance, and AI's transformative impact on pharma.
Dieter Herbst
Consolidating multiple data sources into one source of truth. Monday meetings become decision meetings.
Wimpie du Toit
When technology adds complexity instead of removing it. Why we now measure success by Monday morning adoption rates.
Wimpie du Toit
The common mistake of treating compensation components as separate workstreams. Research shows integrated plans produce 17.9% greater revenues.
Dieter Herbst
Research from 688 pharmaceutical industry respondents reveals experience ranks fifth for sales success. Discover what actually predicts rep performance.
Dieter Herbst
When reps were confused about targets, we built transparency tools. 95% adoption rate within a week.
Wimpie du Toit
A CTO's introduction: 19 years learning where gaps exist in pharmaceutical sales operations. Building systems to fix what frustrated me.
Wimpie du Toit
Multinational vs local manufacturer hiring cycles. January-March peak for multinationals, July-September for June year-end locals.
Chantal Davies
Research on why salespeople reduce effort when targets appear unreachable. The impact of daily vs monthly milestones on different performer types.
Dieter Herbst
Case study on peanut butter allocation vs range-based segmentation. Results: 28% call productivity increase, 41% new SKU placements.
Dieter Herbst
Leading with ADHD means your team absorbs chaos so execution can happen. Here's what I've learned about building teams that translate vision into delivery.
Dieter Herbst
Research shows 47% of GenAI users access tools through personal accounts. Shadow AI governance requirements and R12.1M higher breach costs.
Dieter Herbst
A reflection on deliberate pacing at year start -reflecting before executing. The principle: validate before you optimise.
Tiaan Keyser
Research shows extraversion correlates with sales at r = .07, barely statistical noise. Here's how to test for the trait that actually predicts success.
Dieter Herbst
Timing career moves around fiscal year budgets. January sees 300% more applications. Why smart candidates prepare in October.
Chantal Davies
96% of people are more agreeable than me. Harmony ranks dead last in my StrengthsFinder. Here's what I'm learning about multiplying rather than diminishing.
Dieter Herbst
YouGov research on voice note preferences (66% prefer text). Cultural and generational differences. Principles for appropriate use.
Dieter Herbst
1.56 million messages in ten years. Why presence beats formality and speed beats polish in relationship building.
Dieter Herbst
Research on physician detailing effectiveness. Volume-based vs responsiveness-based segmentation. Manchanda research on detailing elasticity.
Dieter Herbst
Why 70% of B2B purchasing journey happens before vendor contact. Dark social sharing and designing content for private forwarding.
Dieter Herbst
Meta-analysis shows selling-related knowledge drives sales performance. Why 73% of managers spend less than 5% of time coaching.
Dieter Herbst
Research on call reluctance (40% of experienced reps affected). When territory design transparency removes excuses and reveals choice.
Dieter Herbst
Why most territory design efforts fail. The case for designing territories before customer segmentation.
Tiaan Keyser
36% of OTC purchases influenced by pharmacy staff. Why the people with the most patient touchpoints receive the least attention.
Dieter Herbst
How prepared reps shift from guessing to knowing. Integration of SNIPER, SKII, and Auto-Snipe into one pre-call view.
Dieter Herbst
Generational differences in CC interpretation. Research on how CC frequency affects trust. Three questions before adding a manager.
Dieter Herbst
The 40-second window for behaviour-feedback connection. Why monthly rankings neurologically cannot motivate. The case for daily gamification.
Dieter Herbst
The difference between spray-and-pray analytics and precision execution. Why data governance must precede AI investment.
Dieter Herbst
Companies ignore 60-80% of data they already have. The goldmine sitting untouched in internal systems.
Dieter Herbst
Business review insights -organisations underuse existing data. Small tweaks in data capture yield exponential improvement.
Tiaan Keyser
Our COO and Chief Analytics Officer asked to swap positions. What happened next taught me that org charts exist to serve clients, not egos.
Dieter Herbst
ISO 27001 incident review philosophy. Why 8-12 hours monthly on security protocols is deliberate friction worth embracing.
Dieter Herbst
An ongoing client partnership delivered 45% productivity increase. The secret wasn't dashboards — it was relationship-building, debate, and kind communication.
Tiaan Keyser
Balancing data integrity with relationship preservation. The cost of constant territory changes and the power of holding steady.
Dieter Herbst
What data reveals when mapping actual vs intended call patterns. The transformation process and results: 34% increase in calls to right customers.
Dieter Herbst
Company milestone on evolving from bringing answers to asking better questions. Beliefs on stewardship, calm execution, and transparency.
Dieter Herbst
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