3 months.
That’s how long we spent building what we thought was a best-in-class analytics tool.
6 months later, everyone went back to Excel.
The platform wasn’t wrong. Our assumptions were.
The 12-click problem
We built something that took 12 clicks when Excel took 2.
That kind of failure taught me more than any success could.
Best-in-class technology should remove complexity, not add to it. What looks impressive in a demo room often dies in Monday morning reality.
How we measure success now
Today at Herbst Group, we measure success differently.
Adoption rate.
By whether reps actually open the system on Monday mornings.
Not by how many features the platform has. Not by how sophisticated the analytics. By whether people use it.
90%+ adoption
Now we’re at 90%+ adoption rate across SNIPER implementations.
All because we built tools that:
- Respect the user’s time
- Remove friction
- Work in 2 clicks, not 12
The rep doesn’t care about the elegance of the data architecture. They care about getting the information they need and getting back to selling.
The principle
If your sales technology requires training sessions to explain, it’s probably too complicated.
If your reps revert to spreadsheets within six months, the problem isn’t the reps. It’s the design.
Technology that serves users gets used. Technology that serves demo rooms gets abandoned.
The question for commercial teams
What’s your actual adoption rate on the analytics tools you’ve invested in?
Not the login rate. The usage rate. The “I looked at this before my first call on Monday” rate.
That number tells you whether your technology investment is working or waiting to be replaced by a spreadsheet.
Written by
Wimpie du Toit
CTO & Founder at Herbst Group. Working with pharmaceutical commercial leaders across South Africa, Kenya, and Brazil to transform sales force effectiveness through evidence-based approaches.
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