Even today, our salespeople or commercials are very poorly equipped to perform their day-to-day tasks.
I can hear some of you objecting.
Every cell in their body revolts against this statement.
Indeed, you tell yourself that, in your company, your salespeople are equipped with a cell phone, a laptop and an internet connection (pandemic and teleworking oblige). All provided and paid for by your company, please!
Some of them are even equipped with a so-called "modern" CRM.
They made the wise decision years ago to get rid of rolodexes and Excel spreadsheets to manage their prospects and customers "efficiently". Some of them, who were already using an "old" CRM, recently decided to change it for a "modern" CRM.
I say to them: kudos for these initiatives!
And yet... there is still a long way to go!
Did you know that, salespeople spend 2/3 of their time on administrative tasks that do not generate revenue? They are loaded with mindless tasks that often include list building, basic CRM data entry, research, emailing, social selling and calendar management.1
Big takeaway: so our salespeople only spend a third of their time selling your company and products. 😳
This finding is as scary as it is frustrating from a productivity standpoint: 70% of these tasks can be automated or semi-automated with today's technology2. You'll agree with me that these clerical tasks do not, at least directly, help increase your sales.
Come to think of it, digital transformation also applies to the sales department... 🤔
Poor sales performance costs money!
Let's imagine a software company with a small team of 3 salespeople. Each earns an annual base salary of $80,000 (here I will ignore the variable portion of their salary).
Let's add another $30,000 on top of the annual salary to include the various costs the company has to pay for each salesperson: benefits, taxes and payments of all kinds (employment insurance, CNESST, etc.), time for manager support, etc.
So, the cost of one salesperson for our software company is $110,000 per year. So, of this amount, nearly $220,000 is what this company pays for its 3 salespeople not to sell! Here's the high-flying calculation 🙃:
110,000 (annual cost of a salesperson) X 3 salespersons X 2/3 non-sales time = $220,000 per year related to non-sales time.
I'll say it again, salespeople are paid not to sell! 🤪
I can already hear the loud cries from some of you! There are those in denial, "That's not our case!" and those who want to take action, "Gee, how can we improve our salespeople's performance?" Let's take these cases one by one...
Denial or refusal to accept poor performance
For those readers in the denial phase, I invite you to walk with each of your salespeople and measure the amount of time they spend on tasks that bring little value to your business.
If you have a Sales Manager, he should give you the answer quickly. If he doesn't... Do yourself a favor: get rid of the Sales Manager!
In fact, his primary role is to spend 50% to 60% of his time coaching his team in the field. He should know exactly what the answer is.
In addition, the second major role of a sales manager is to reduce inefficiencies and "remove internal barriers" to help his sales team perform and sell better.
So, if your salespeople are spending little time selling, that same sales manager should have already taken steps to improve this situation that is costing companies and salespeople a lot of money in lost revenue for one and lost commissions or bonuses for the others. And you wouldn't be reading this article.
Or you would have stopped reading before you got here!
But how on earth can you help your salespeople optimize their sales performance?
You will understand that my intention is not to draw up an exhaustive list of tools and techniques to increase the time spent on selling.
Rather, I want to present you with an analytical framework to help you.
So here it is, the RevOps (Revenue Operations) " 3P " model: person, process and platform.
People, The sales team
The sales team consists of:
- Salespeople, this includes telemarketers, SDRs ("Sales Development Representative"), account managers, channel managers, etc.
- The sales manager or the person who plays that role.
In smaller software companies, the sales manager is often the owner of the company. Regardless of the title, it is important that the Sales Manager support his team by coaching them on the field, as mentioned above, to develop their sales skills and ensure that they overcome the barriers that stand in their way.
The sales manager must ensure that sales processes are followed, that they are working with the right technological tools and that the data on prospects, customers, transactions, etc. is accurate and usable. It is therefore necessary to collect this data in a CRM. In order to have one single source of truth in your business and a unified view on:
- The profile of your prospects and customers;
- Sales activities;
- The sales funnel;
- Deals;
- Key performance indicators ("KPI");
- And more.
Sales processes
Since sales has only recently been taught in our universities, it suffers from a great lack of clear processes. Let's take the following example:
The average sales rep makes only 2 attempts to reach a prospect3, while 80% of sales require 5 follow-ups4. Even worse: 44% of representatives do only one follow-up5!
Knowing this, your prospecting process should include 5 follow-ups.
And, more importantly, how do you ensure that these 5 follow-ups are actually completed by your salespeople?
The sales manager needs to have easy access to a dashboard to see which salespersons are meticulously doing their follow-ups and which are not. This will allow him to discuss with the concerned salespeople to understand why these follow-ups are not done and then correct the situation with them.
Technology platforms to automate your sales
Technology is there to support your sales team (people) and your processes to perform better.
With technology, many of these tasks can be fully or partially automated.
For example, according to InsideSales.com, 27% of sales reps spend a minimum of one hour a day doing data entry. A CRM like HubSpot allows you to automatically fill in a lot of information just by typing in a company's name: street address, company LinkedIn page, website, etc.
As one of my former bosses noted, "If I wanted someone to do this kind of work, I'd hire a monkey!" Ouch! 😬
Sales Reps spend much of their time on administrative tasks, and, according to InsideSales.com, 27% of them would spend a minimum of one hour a day on data entry.
Of course, a good "modern" CRM, like HubSpot, is an undeniable asset that can automate a host of tasks. But you have to put the energy into it to master it.
Data related to sales
In addition to reducing the time spent entering data into a CRM, it is crucial that your sales team has access to accurate data to better perform their job, measure and evaluate their individual and team performance. How else can they improve?
The CRM is the hub of your sales team.
Your only source of truth about your prospects and customers.
A CRM provides a unified view of your revenue growth activities.
A final word on sales performance
So why is it, despite all the technology available today, that only 1/3 of a salesperson's time is spent on selling?
For many reasons!
Diligently use the " 3P " model and you will find your answers.
I warn you! It's a tough job. There is no magic solution.
Work with all members of your sales team on this.
The payoffs are major:
- Increase the quantity of qualified leads.
- Increase the number of new customers.
- Increase your sales.
Let's sum it up with this little sales equation of my own:
of sales time = 
of prospects + 
of new clients + 
revenue
If you don't have the resources, knowledge or time to tackle this important task... Drum 🥁 roll... Contact us! 📞 We are HubSpot Platinum Certified Consultants and SalesOps specialists among other things.
Sources:
1. Ken Krogue, “Why Sales Reps Spend So Little Time Selling,” Forbes, February 15th 2018. Read the article here.
2. JUSTIN, Michael and HUGUES, Tony J. (September 21st 2021). Tech-Powered Sales: Achieve Superhuman Sales Skills. Harper Collins Leadership, 272 p.
3. Megan Heuer, SiriusDecisions, here.
4. Robert Clay, Marketing Wizdom, “Why 8% of Sales People Get 80% of the Sales.” June 13th 2017. Read the article here.
5. Puranjay S., Scripted, “5 Statistics to Motivate You to Make Sales Calls.” Read the article here.
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