As a salesperson, your primary role is to, well, sell. But according to recent research, sales reps spend only 28% of their week actively selling, down from 34% in 2018. The rest of the time gets eaten up by things like administrative tasks, tool management, data entry, and other non-selling activities. With all the other […]
As a salesperson, your primary role is to, well, sell. But according to recent research, sales reps spend only 28% of their week actively selling, down from 34% in 2018. The rest of the time gets eaten up by things like administrative tasks, tool management, data entry, and other non-selling activities.
With all the other non-sales stuff getting in the way, productivity is bound to take a hit. Especially when 85% of sales leaders feel pressure to increase revenue without expanding their teams, essentially being asked to do more with less.
But it’s not all bad news. There are plenty of ways to reclaim your selling time and boost productivity.
Why sales productivity has taken a hit
Before we dive into solutions, let’s look at why sales efficiency has taken such a hit recently.
One big drain on productivity: sales is more complex and chaotic than ever.
- Buyers today are more sophisticated than before, and a lot of decision-making happens online before a salesperson even enters the conversation. B2B buyers are up to 70% of the way through their buyer’s journey before they even reach out. This leads to a lack of context that complicates the sales conversation.
- Sales involve multiple touchpoints, sometimes between different departments and positions. Case in point? It takes an average of eight touchpoints just to get an initial meeting. Keeping up and keeping track gets more complicated the more steps you have.
- Too many tools with too little training – the tech for sales continually evolves, and it’s hard to keep up. Sales teams add tools without fully onboarding and sometimes have multiple tools that could achieve the same thing, leading to unnecessary overlap and inefficiencies.
The result of all this mess? Salespeople end up spending much more time wading through administrative tasks and untangling the process than they do moving deals forward.
How to minimize time on non-selling activities
Tech solutions to make your process more efficient:
- Invest in a robust CRM system like Pipedrive or Salesforce to centralize customer data, track and manage sales processes, improve team communication, and automate repetitive tasks like lead capture and follow-up reminders.
- Use conversation intelligence tools like Gong and Otter to transcribe and analyze sales calls, turning lengthy recordings into actionable insights without manual note-taking.
- Sales intelligence software like Lusha, ZoomInfo, or Apollo makes prospecting and research more efficient by helping you identify buying signals, and find contact information seamlessly.
- A good outreach tool that acts as a force multiplier for your sales efforts by allowing you to personalize outreach and reach out in bulk or with pre-set automation. You can use a tool like Lusha Engage for automated outreach to prospects. If you’re using Outreach or something similar, you can also use it for task management to keep track of the emails and calls you need to make.
The most important thing to remember as you select tools for sales efficiency: make sure everything in your tech stack is integrated and talking to each other. Manual transfer of data between systems is majorly time-consuming and can undo the streamlining efforts you made by getting tools in the first place.
General process improvements:
There are a lot of ways to tackle sales efficiency, but one of the first things you should look at is your sales processes. Where are there gaps and inefficiencies? How can you tighten things up? Let’s explore some of the ways you can build more efficiency into your sales operation.
1. Build a process that’s simple, measurable, and repeatable.
The better you know your process and what should trigger each step, the smoother things will go, and the less likely it is that deals will fall through the cracks or that you’ll waste time on leads that aren’t ready to move forward. Here’s how to do it:
- Define clear criteria for each stage of your sales process (e.g. lead qualification, discovery, proposal, negotiation, closed-won).
- Set measurable targets for key activities and outcomes at each stage.
- Document the process steps and best practices to ensure consistency across the sales team.
- Regularly review and fine-tune the process based on performance data and feedback.
- Establish when each prospect should move from one stage to the next. What signals show a prospect is ready?
- Implement checkpoints or criteria that must be met before progressing a deal.
2. Establish better alignment between sales and marketing teams.
Ah, yes, the ever-elusive sales and marketing alignment. It’s an age-old challenge to get it right, but there’s a reason you should establish a rock-solid relationship between these two teams. When sales and marketing are in sync, sales reps get higher-quality leads and can close deals faster. Follow these tips for sales/marketing alignment:
- Set up regular check-ins to review lead quality, campaign performance, and sales pipeline metrics. Use these check-ins to get aligned on overall goals.
- Establish shared KPIs that both teams are accountable for, like lead conversion rates or customer acquisition costs.
- Use centralized data hubs to share important information and content.
- Set up a feedback loop for sales to provide input on lead quality, content needs, and messaging resonance.
3. Improve your personal work processes.
In addition to streamlining the sales process as a whole, take the time to look at your own day-to-day processes. Even the most efficient sales processes won’t hold water if you’re struggling with procrastination or distraction.
We’ve all struggled with productivity and focus. The upshot of that is that there are a lot of resources out there on how to maximize the time you have in a day. In the next section, we’ll dive into some tips and tricks to increase your efficiency at work.
Other ways to up your daily sales productivity:
You can’t close just by being a good talker – you have to be organized, too. Practice good organization habits (like maintaining an up-to-date pipeline and prioritizing urgent leads likely to close soon). Let’s explore some of the ways you can be organized and prioritize your tasks to maximize efficiency:
- Start your day by immediately getting in the zone. Don’t open up your email and get distracted by other, less urgent tasks. Instead, create a structured daily plan that lists tasks and approximate time allocations. Consistency in following a productive routine is crucial.
- Don’t mess around with procrastination. If a task takes less than 5 minutes, do it now instead of putting it off. It’s about small wins and their impact.
- Jumping around between tasks without finishing them is a productivity killer. Do one thing at a time and push yourself to finish. Your future self will thank you.
- It can be paralyzing to look at a big task in its entirety – where do you even start? For complex tasks, break them down into smaller, more manageable portions so you can chip away at it without getting overwhelmed and stuck.
- Try some productivity hacks like the pomodoro method, Eisenhower matrix, or timeboxing to help you manage your time better.
- Know your product and your competitors inside-out so you don’t waste time chasing down talking points and resources. If you’ve got it down, you can pull up that knowledge whenever you need it.
Resources to help you manage your time better:
We asked salespeople what resources they use to up their productivity potential. Here’s what they said:
- Deep Work by Cal Norte
- Atomic Habits by James Clear
- Inspiration, the blog by Todoist (an online task manager)
While administrative tasks will always be a part of your role as a salesperson, you don’t have to let them consume the bulk of your time. By creating more streamlined processes, using the right technology, and adopting better productivity habits, you can spend more time on what really matters: engaging with prospects and closing deals. After all, a salesperson’s ultimate measure of success is revenue generated—so use these tips to help make selling your top priority.
