Sales Time Management: 6 Techniques to Free Up Productive Time

Time management is a strategic factor in organizing the sales force. Many companies, however, struggle to maximize this variable. On average, your sales representatives spend no more than 35% of their time in direct contact with clients. A rather paradoxical glass ceiling at a time when digitalization allows for more flexibility and versatility. Making better use of available sales time first means considering that your sales representatives’ days are punctuated by numerous repetitive research and administrative tasks. Here’s an overview of the best levers for action to put time back at the heart of your sales strategy.

Highlight Essential Information

CRMs are suited for a highly structured approach to sales management, but access to the right information still needs to be facilitated. When preparing for a client visit, your sales representative seeks quick access to key information: order history, client account balance, etc. Start by providing a summary of this information available in one click. Similarly, encourage your sales representatives to systematically use the “subject” field when entering a report, to more easily find essential information. For example, instead of instinctively writing “C/R – client meeting,” prefer subjects such as “Negotiation successful / volumes validated / follow-up week 36.”

Metrics to Address Urgency

Client evaluation is not only for sales forecasting statistics; it must be an essential component of sales time management. Since a prospect at the beginning of the pipeline has neither the same value nor the same needs as a recurring client, equip yourself with a commercial criticality indicator to establish priorities. You will then be better able to adapt your sales cycles or qualify the urgency (or lack thereof) of a request.

Model and Automate… to Better Personalize

B2B sales representatives receive an average of 600 emails per week and make over 300 entries in the CRM. Faced with this constant overload, it’s important to equip yourself with the right tools to model your quotes, prospecting forms, email templates, etc. Modeling does not, however, mean robotization. It’s a time-saver for improving the customer experience and focusing on personalizing your touchpoints, an essential differentiator.

Streamline Reporting

As a sales manager, try to prioritize information entered into the CRM over specific, less comprehensive, and more time-consuming reports. If the information is entered in the right place, you can easily schedule the extraction of a summary that is both statistical (deals, volumes, quotes) and qualitative (relationship level, interview quality).

Regain Control Over Information

Many sales representatives feel overwhelmed by the volume of information and the time spent researching their prospects. In more than one out of two companies, they are the sole source of information. This results in very manual research on professional social networks and search engines. 72% of sales representatives state they find information on their prospects via LinkedIn. Focus your sales intelligence efforts on truly useful information. Don’t hesitate to train your sales representatives in best practices for social selling so they can gain efficiency in their research.

Maximize Sales Rep Involvement

The best sales representatives always do what others never have time for… The pursuit of productive time must be a collective effort. Redefine with them a client management and acquisition model that leaves less room for urgency. Choose KPIs that account for a certain time capital, without forgetting that they must first be accepted, even if they are less relevant at the beginning.

Ultimately, freeing up sales time is a continuous process that requires a lot of observation and a good dose of discipline. However, the benefit is often twofold for companies that have succeeded: they see their revenue increase and improve team satisfaction by revaluing the sales function.

What about you? What are your management secrets for optimizing your sales representatives’ time management? Share your best practices and tips in the comments, and we will incorporate them into the article.