Companies Hamper Their Sales Reps November 27, 2006 From the Sales and Marketing Management Performance Newsletter
What's keeping the sales force from success? A new study by Industrial Performance Group suggests it is management. Too often, it says, managers keep salespeople occupied with tasks other than sales, hampering their productivity.
"There's untapped potential in salespeople and giving them more time to sell can increase financial returns," says Robert Nadeau, managing principal of the Industrial Performance Group, a sales consulting firm for manufacturers and distributors. "Management can start small by finding simple issues and fixing them. If managers free up just an hour or two of each salesperson's week, the financial results can be surprising."
What's holding back the reps?
* Salespeople spend just 8 percent of their time prospecting and qualifying new customers. Yet they spend 23 percent of their time dealing with problems and mistakes, searching for information and expediting orders.
* Salespeople spend 62 percent of their time on non-revenue-generating activities and 38 percent of their time selling.
* Barriers to more selling: outdated work processes, lack of focus, too much/too little information, outdated sales training and an inability to execute.
Sales & Marketing Management Magazine
This article is brought to you by Sales & Marketing Management, the leading authority for executives in the sales and marketing field.
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