Since March 2020, the role of a salesperson has become increasingly time-consuming.
But are reps spending that time selling, or on work that doesn’t generate revenue? And what does that mean for their careers, their well-being, and the success of the company?
We surveyed 600+ sales professionals to better understand the sales role amid a pandemic.
Here are a few key takeaways:
While this statistic isn’t all bad (36% of respondents said they’re working more and expect to make more money), reps feel the need to adopt an “always on” mentality. And because of that, 69% of respondents said they have experienced burnout, while ½ of those said they feel burnt out often.
74% of respondents agreed that much of their time at work is spent on activities that don’t contribute to selling. Additionally, 88% of reps said time spent on non-revenue-generating activities is time lost.
So what’s taking away from selling time?
The most common time-wasters include Internal calls or meetings (55%), scheduling calls or meetings (54%) responding to internal inquiries via email, Slack, etc. (48%) and updating Salesforce or another CRM (25%).
“Getting rid of the repetitive administrative work would free me up for conversations surrounding upsells, renewals, and expansion opportunities—those are ultimately the conversations that help me achieve my job.”
It became obvious that these activities not dedicated to generating revenue are a blocker to salespeople’s earning potential. 95% said they’d be more likely to hit quota, 80% said more selling time would help them earn bonuses, and 86% said they’d increase their paycheck.
And to most sales professionals, bringing home more money directly contributes to job satisfaction and career happiness.
Not only that, 81% said they’d be able to generate more revenue for their company.
“Five hours a week. It’s a potential of 10 demos… even at 20% close rate, two new deals per week, eight per month, times 40 reps… holy sh*t, that’s 320 new opportunities closed-won.”
According to our research, most companies have a clear sales process, which leads to productivity (93% said their current work environment is conducive to productivity) and an overall sense of job happiness (87% are happy working in sales and in their current role).
But companies without a clear process are at risk of losing top talent.
Of the reps who want to leave their current sales role, the reasons are clear. 43% cited a lack of benefits, 33% cited a lack of access to the best tools and technology to be successful, and 31% cited a lack of bonuses.
Additionally, 78% said that this lack of understanding from management leads to misalignment between expectations and what sellers can reasonably achieve.
If you’re a sales manager, you must have an open line of communication with your teams to understand the pain points they face on a daily basis. Take the time to learn about your sales reps’ day-to-day activities and make sure you’re respectful of their bandwidth and the time it takes to complete assigned tasks.
Consider investing in sales tech that automates administrative work like updating CRMs and taking notes; this will drive efficiency across the board and make your sales reps’ lives easier.
Dooly can help automate the Salesforce gruntwork that takes away from their selling time — and their paychecks. In fact, many reps won’t work without Dooly again.
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