Sales technology often follows a predictable pattern: a company invests in a new data platform, initial usage spikes, and then engagement falls off. Results remain unchanged, and questions arise about the tool's value. Mike Simon, founder and CEO of AgentBrief, a platform for title, escrow, insurance, and home warranty professionals, has observed this cycle from the vendor side. "You see massive interest. People get really excited. You see very, very high early engagement. And then it drops off a cliff," Simon said. The issue, he argues, is not the technology but the failure to change how work gets done. Simon compares it to buying a sports car and driving it like a family van. When results don't improve, users blame the data or the technology and revert to old habits.
AgentBrief's response was to shift training from how-to to why. "Why are you using this? What do you have to be thinking differently when you're using this product to make it successful for you?" Simon said. The why centers on timing, relevance, and relationship building. Real-time alerts handle timing, AI-crafted messages provide relevance, and the rep must build the relationship. "You must not rely on technology to do the one thing that you are skilled as a human being, which is to develop a relationship with somebody else," Simon said. "Technology will never do that for you."
When teams stop seeing results, Simon distinguishes between data problems and habit problems. A feature called See Something, Say Something lets users flag data issues in one click. But habit gaps are more common. Simon asks managers: "What do you really want your salespeople to be doing? And why aren't they doing it?" Then he reviews usage reports, which reveal three escalating problems: reps not logging in, reps not following enough agents, and reps receiving alerts but not responding. The last is "the worst problem of all," Simon said, because "all of these opportunities are going to waste." The report makes the habit gap visible, and in Simon's experience, top producers are often the ones responding to alerts.
Consistency is the deciding factor. "It's not just using it the right way; it's using it the right way consistently," Simon said. Customers who ask how many new orders AgentBrief will bring sometimes get a surprising answer: without consistent action on alerts, none, regardless of data quality. "Your job is to sell your product," Simon said. "My job is to tell you the people who want to buy it and when they want to buy it before anybody else." That holds whether the product is title and escrow services, homeowners insurance, or a home warranty. For teams evaluating new platforms, the key question is not what the tool can do but what the team will do differently every day. New data on top of old habits brings the same results; new habits, practiced consistently, change them.
