{"id":465,"date":"2006-11-28T13:28:34","date_gmt":"2006-11-28T19:28:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/?p=465"},"modified":"2006-11-28T13:28:42","modified_gmt":"2006-11-28T19:28:42","slug":"sales-time-wasters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/11\/sales-time-wasters\/","title":{"rendered":"Sales Time-Wasters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sales &#038; Marketing Management has a short article about what holds back sales reps &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.managesmarter.com\/msg\/content_display\/sales\/e3ib9776be7e7550d8b6a58da8834b73e3c\" target=\"_blank\">Companies Hamper Their Sales Reps<\/a>. Some of the findings from the study:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>* Salespeople spend <strong>just 8 percent of their time prospecting and qualifying new customers<\/strong>. Yet they spend 23 percent of their time dealing with problems and mistakes, searching for information and expediting orders. <\/p>\n<p>* Salespeople spend <strong>62 percent of their time on non-revenue-generating activities<\/strong> and 38 percent of their time selling.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I don&#8217;t doubt these numbers. In fact, we have seen entire salesforces that subscribe to these percentages (and sales managers who allow it). But my initial thought was this &#8211; how much of these time wasters are forced upon the salespeople by the company? Sales is a rather autonomous role within a company. The greater risk here is that the sales team may be comprised of salespeople who would <em>rather<\/em> spend their time on tasks other than prospecting for new business. The excuse of working on these other tasks provides cover for a salesperson who has an aversion to prospecting.<\/p>\n<p>As we often preach &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.selectmetrix.com\/Assessing_Sales.html\" target=\"_blank\"><em>always<\/em> assess sales candidates<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sales &#038; Marketing Management has a short article about what holds back sales reps &#8211; Companies Hamper Their Sales Reps. Some of the findings from the study: * Salespeople spend just 8 percent of their time prospecting and qualifying new customers. Yet they spend 23 percent of their time dealing with problems and mistakes, searching for information and expediting orders. * Salespeople spend 62 percent of their time on non-revenue-generating activities and 38 percent of their time selling. I don&#8217;t doubt these numbers. In fact, we have seen entire salesforces that subscribe to these percentages (and sales managers who allow it). But my initial thought was this &#8211; how much&hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/11\/sales-time-wasters\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"","bgseo_robots_follow":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sales-management"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Oho-7v","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1761,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/10\/prep-vs-admin-time\/","url_meta":{"origin":465,"position":0},"title":"Prep vs. Admin Time","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"October 23, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Oh does this Selling Power article hit close to home - In 2009, Increase Sales Prep Time.\u00a0 I have seen numerous companies place onerous admin tasks on their salespeople to the point where there is a real loss in revenue.\u00a0 Inefficiency is the main culprit, but department structure, sales tools\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sales Management&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sales Management","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-management\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":711,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/03\/communicating-your-sales-strategy\/","url_meta":{"origin":465,"position":1},"title":"Communicating Your Sales Strategy","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"March 1, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"From Managesmarter.com's Crystal Clear Communication: To hear Scott Glatstein tell it, as much as three quarters of American companies \"do not broadly communicate their sales strategy\" to their sales teams. The result, not surprisingly, is a breakdown in the sales process. Aligning the sales compensation plan with the desired business\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Compensation&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Compensation","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/compensation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1469,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/03\/satisfied-salespeople\/","url_meta":{"origin":465,"position":2},"title":"Satisfied Salespeople","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"March 13, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Clayton Shold over at Saleopedia offers up some stunning survey results from a recent SalesDog.com survey.\u00a0 Check this out (my emphasis): Despite the job pressure, 70 percent of respondents reported being happy with their management, while 64 percent of those taking the survey said they felt adequately recognized for their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sales Management&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sales Management","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-management\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":850,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/04\/the-case-for-selling-systems\/","url_meta":{"origin":465,"position":3},"title":"The Case For Selling Systems","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"April 24, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Some companies believe selling systems are restrictive.\u00a0 Other companies view them as methodical and clumsy.\u00a0 I, for one, am not a fan of the sequential step approaches that require this question be asked first, followed by this question and so on.\u00a0 Those approaches drip with insincerity. But a selling system\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sales Management&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sales Management","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-management\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1006,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/06\/retention-in-a-downsizing-industry\/","url_meta":{"origin":465,"position":4},"title":"Retention In A Downsizing Industry","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"June 15, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"We don't do much work in the pharmaceutical market but I do have a couple of friends who sell for the big players. SellingPower.com's article Have You Heard Who\u20ac\u2122s Hiring? discusses a downsizing trend in sales hiring that is occurring in that specific market. \u20ac\u0153The days of armies of sales\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Retention&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Retention","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/retention\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1192,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/09\/when-leads-stall\/","url_meta":{"origin":465,"position":5},"title":"When Leads Stall","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"September 19, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Selling Power\u00a0offers up an article that explores reasons for bloated pipelines.\u00a0 That never happens in sales, does it?\u00a0 The article - Warning: There\u20ac\u2122s a Gash In Your Pipeline - presents some excellent suggestions for why this happens and how to correct it. Robert Kear, SPI\u20ac\u2122s chief marketing officer, observes that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sales Management&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sales Management","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-management\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. The path to wp-cache-phase1.php in wp-content/advanced-cache.php must be fixed! -->