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Increase Selling Time to Improve Sales Force Efficiency

Posted by Scott Gruher on Wed, Feb 02, 2011
  
  
  
  

Many organizations assume their sales teams spend most of the time selling.  It seems fairly intuitive considering they are called SALES REPS.  Over the past decade companies have reduced support expenses and loaded more non-selling duties onto the sales team.  If your sales team is not spending at least 70% of their time on value added sales activities, you need to assess their responsibilities and attempt to alleviate the impact of non-selling activities.

Figure 1.0 shows the financial impact of improving selling time from 50% to 70% within a sales force 100 of employees.

 describe the image

How do you determine which activities to offload to a lower cost resource?

  • Execute a time study to determine the sales team's current time allocation
  • Segment activities as either selling or non-selling
  • Perform a value chain analysis to determine which activities your customers  value
  • Understand the competencies required to execute the non-selling tasks

Summary:  Increasing selling time can significantly reduce the cost of your sales force without impacting revenue.

How much time does your sales force actually spend selling? 

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Comments

Don't you also have to interject that having your "medium to low" sales performers spending more time selling, could also have adverse effects? (Everything else being equal)
Posted @ Thursday, February 03, 2011 1:08 AM by Gene Carlino
Amazing how the the simple stuff works.  
 
I once helped a company increase the average weekly # of sales per rep by 11% in just 4 months, with a simple change to how they handled territory management and lead assignment (to help them make more contacts in the same time period).  
 
Good stuff.
Posted @ Thursday, February 03, 2011 8:25 PM by Mike Kunkle
Gene - thanks for the comment. I guess it would depend on the sales role and reason for their performance deficiency. Typically, I would expect increased productivity from A, B, and C players if selling time increases. I am interested to learn more about the scenarios where you might expect adverse effects.
Posted @ Thursday, February 03, 2011 9:47 PM by Scott Gruher
For 10 years I've been looking to add value to my clients sales-process - and failing! Principally because we focus on one area (say training/activity etc.) and overlook, or are excluded from others. The makeup of the team is extremely important and what they do even more so. I built a very basic tool in excel to visualise the dynamics of; Reduce/Improve Cost of Sales and changing division of labour (team content). You could see that here; <a>http://www.supersmous.co.za/LandingPad.htm and look for Justify Sales Process Coaching.
Posted @ Saturday, February 05, 2011 5:48 AM by Peter French
Scott, 
 
 
 
For a retail chain, how can the administrative office assist the stores to increase their selling time while still meeting the compliance pieces needed to keep the business running? 
 
 
 
Thanks in advance.
Posted @ Tuesday, April 26, 2011 11:18 AM by Krys
Krys, 
 
 
 
Although I do not spend a great deal of time in the retail space, I believe many of the same principles apply. I would start by baselining current state. What is the current selling time %? The next question I would ask is what is a realistic goal for selling time considering the compliance pieces? Set a goal for your stores, measure improvement on a regular cadence, and post results. As for selling time improvement ideas, I would start by looking at other World Class retail chains and determine best practices you can "borrow" that will help you move the needle.  
 
 
 
I hope this helps, 
 
 
 
Scott
Posted @ Tuesday, April 26, 2011 3:08 PM by Scott Gruher
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