As highlighted in last week’s blog, a surprising finding reveals that sales managers spend less than 50% of their time on customer-facing and sales-related activities. The largest contributor to non-revenue-generating (NRG) tasks is administrative work, often referred to as the Sales Efficiency Administrative Burden.
The first step in addressing inefficiencies is for leadership to recognize the issue. By taking a deeper dive into the problem, and it does not simply mean the next sales training.
While administrative tasks are necessary, the key question is whether they can be handled more efficiently. The answer is yes, and it all begins with recognizing the issue. Instead of directing resources solely towards sales training, the same budget could be used to improve the efficiency of the sales team’s workflow. This is not to suggest that sales training is ineffective—quite the opposite—but it’s important to recognize that it’s not the only solution.
In this blog, we will touch on the various administrative burdens sales teams face. In the upcoming blogs, we will delve deeper into understanding these challenges and identifying areas for improvement. It’s often not about making large new investments, but rather optimizing existing processes and tools. However, as a side note, if your organization does not already have a CRM system in place, that would be the first critical investment to consider.
Administrative Burden
What are these administrative tasks, and how do they compare to selling activities? It’s important to distinguish between administrative tasks that are necessary for managing the customer and those required by the company.
- CRM Management: CRM is an essential tool for sales, and anyone who disagrees likely doesn’t belong in sales. It serves as your personal dashboard, tracking ongoing activities and new leads in a consistent way. However, in many cases, the CRM is designed by leadership rather than by the users, resulting in a process that may not be as efficient. When salespeople use the CRM effectively and with ease, management will receive better-quality information.
- Customer Meeting Reports: After every customer meeting, a report is expected. But does this need to be a lengthy narrative, or will a concise bullet-point summary suffice? Leadership should establish a minimum standard, bearing in mind that not all information will always be available. Another question is whether reports are needed for every call or email, as sometimes this can be excessive and reduce efficiency. Additionally, keep in mind that customer meeting reports are often underutilized by others.
- Lead Management: Acquiring new customers is the future of sales growth, and managing leads efficiently is crucial. There may be debates about the quality of a lead, but those responsible for qualifying leads must be open to feedback from the sales team to refine the process. However, every lead must be contacted within 48 hours—don’t lose the momentum.
- Report Generation: Once data is entered into a system, reports can be generated automatically. As a sales manager, you shouldn’t be involved in manually generating reports. Unfortunately, it’s still common practice to build spreadsheets with forecast numbers and PowerPoints filled with customer information. Why?
- Forecasting: Product availability is critical to success, and sales plays a key role in forecasting. Not only does it predict revenue over time, but it also feeds directly into systems like ERP, ensuring product availability. Aligning CRM with ERP is crucial, as is entering accurate data into CRM. For those who spend 2-3 hours every Friday in forecast meetings with leadership—this isn’t productive, and rarely do I see leadership leave these meetings satisfied.
- Appraisals: Appraisals are a useful way to measure individual progress within an organization. The challenge lies in the format and ease of use. For example, I’ve used an excellent online form connected to the HR system, but it couldn’t be used offline. More importantly, focus on what you want to discuss and the key topics for review. The larger the company, the more complex appraisal forms tend to become.
- Policy Training: Over time, annual policy training sessions have increased. While compliance is necessary, training a remote sales team on HQ security procedures may not always be relevant. I once met a salesperson who had never been to HQ in three years but still had to complete annual training.
- Product Training: Product knowledge is essential, and regular updates are crucial. However, product training sessions are often too long, with each product manager trying to outperform the others. Focus on the key elements, and provide separate, more focused sessions for new hires.
- Internal Team Meetings, Including Company Meetings: While it’s true that other departments tend to have more internal meetings than sales, it’s worth questioning which meetings are necessary and which can be skipped. This is particularly true for meetings where sales must justify what has been sold to the customer or motivate the organization to support a new opportunity. As a Business Development Manager, I often say that the time spent selling the solution to the customer is equal to the time spent selling it internally.
- Company Alignment: Most organizations hold quarterly update sessions and at least one annual gathering, which are important for team bonding and alignment. These gatherings can also be used for other purposes, such as appraisals. Alignment with HQ is crucial and should not be overlooked.
In Conclusion: Most of the tasks mentioned are part of the job. Therefore, the focus should not be on eliminating them, but rather on making them more efficient and effective.