 |
Archives |
 |
Print all articles |
 |
Contact Us |
 |
Send to a Colleague |
 |
Subscribe |
Contamination from non-productive activities is a major reason many sales people underperform on their sales goals, and all too often the source of the problem can be traced to management. Every sales manager, and executive as well, believes his or her organizational and process decisions are in the best interest of the organization. Nevertheless, many of these mandates actually create an unnecessary burden for the company's sales force, reducing the time they have to spend on key selling and customer responsibilities by crowding their calendar with non-revenue-producing activities.
One sales rep recently noted that almost half of the messages coming to her BlackBerry originate from management. By 9 a.m. one day, she had fielded e-mails about sales process refinements, new time reporting requirements, commission adjustments, product re-introductions, orientation of recent hires, travel restrictions, expense reimbursement and the introduction of a new performance management system. Each required a response. Some demanded her to complete forms, play follow-up phone tag and even attend several meetings. "It cuts into my selling time," the sales person confided. "Admin time is downtime where sales are concerned, and I spend way too many hours reconfiguring my work week to fit each new proclamation from above."
A Closer Look at Time-Stealing Activities
A sales rep's clock registers two types of time:
- Selling time is spent on direct customer contact — face-to-face meetings, entertainment and telephone conversations. It is also spent on general selling activities — account planning, developing new business and resolving customer issues.
- Non-selling time is spent on activities not directly related to customers or prospects — administrative tasks, internal meetings, training, travel and other functions that do not involve contact with or support of a customer or prospect.
A recent study by Sibson Consulting shows that the average-performing sales person spends a whopping 65 percent of his or her time on non-selling administrative activities while high-performing reps allocate the majority of their time — 55 percent — to selling, as shown in Figure 1 below.
A closer look at the time clock reveals that many of those non-selling activities, particularly the myriad demands for reports and documentation (see Figure 2 below), are generated by management.
While reports and documentation certainly are important for helping management keep track of the sales team, they sap time and energy. Moreover, such administrative requirements give inexperienced reps and poor performers an excuse to divert time from sales activities.
Managers looking to improve how their sales reps use their time need to adjust their management style to curb requests that add to the administrative load. Just as important, they should study the habits of their top performers and pass these best practices on to the broader team.
How to Tell if Management Is Wasting the Sales Force's Time
To help determine if the organization is wasting its sales reps' time, take a few minutes to complete the following self-assessment. The time spent reviewing the organization's habits may add valuable hours to the sales team's day.
- Step 1: Conduct a Decontamination Assessment. In Figure 3 below, fill in the number of hours that a typical sales person spends attending to activities that are not associated with direct selling and customer contact.
- Step 2: Use the Decontamination Index. Using the total number of hours spent per week on non-selling activities as determined by the Decontamination Assessment, find where the total number falls in the Decontamination Index in Figure 4 below.
- Step 3: Decontaminate. Too many hours spent on non-sales functions will push the sales organization into the yellow or red zone. Review the Decontamination Assessment scores to see what specific activities are creating the problem. Take a systematic approach by determining which are either the easiest to fix or are wasting the most time and set a goal to eradicate them within the quarter.
Why Top Performers Have More Time for Selling
Why do top performers have more sales time than average performers do? For one thing, they work between 15 and 18 percent more hours a week than average performers do and spend that time on selling activities. These and other exemplary habits need to be passed down the chain to improve the performance of all sales reps.
In addition to working more hours, top-performing sales reps also:
- Spend more time on planning early in the sales process and do not chase as many bad deals Consequently, they avoid the administrative burdens bad deals create. At other stages of the sales process, they strive for efficiency, resulting in less need for documentation and manager reviews.
- Find ways to use unscheduled pockets of time They realize that those unclaimed hours between sales calls can be the best time to look for new opportunities, visit an old client or get to know a potential new one.
- Are adept at leveraging their sales team and administrative staff to complete non-selling tasks They use administrative assistants for reporting and delegate sales-related tasks (e.g., prospecting and industry research) to junior sales staff. When their managers institute new reporting schemes or require training on the latest sales reporting tool, top-performing sales reps often download these tasks to others. As a result, many managers give their top performers "time perks" in the form of more help from their sales team and administrative support to free them up for selling.
- Spend significantly less time in the office They consider such time to be distracting and non-productive. When they do visit, they take advantage of office reviews to learn about new opportunities or ideas, turning some of that administrative down time into sales time. Managers place more trust in their top performers, and thus require less follow-up. Stellar results create less need for conversation, so even performance reviews are quicker.
- Ignore some administrative activities that revolve around proving their value They realize the value is in their sales results. Furthermore, there is no need to keep clicking that incentive calculator because they know they are above quota.
Conclusion
To maximize selling time, management must first minimize the non-selling activities of the organization's sales force. The best way to do this is to determine what they are being asked to do and how they are being asked to report, and then take steps to rein in management's ever-growing list of unproductive activities and its insatiable need for more information. It is important to then monitor the situation to ensure these problems do not creep back into the equation. Remember to keep all actions simple and constructive with the goal of decreasing the reps' burden.
Management should also look to the organization's top performers to see how they avoid these time wasters. Use spot awards and other rewards to get the sales force out of the contamination zone and into channeling energy into actions that are productive and sales-oriented.
About the author:
Joseph DiMisa is a senior vice president and head of the Sales Force Effectiveness Practice for Sibson Consulting. He can be reached at 770.403.8006 or jdimisa@sibson.com