Time: Mastering Productivity Over Being Busy

In the high-pressure world of sales, time is arguably the most critical resource. While revenue is the metric most often associated with success, how salespeople and their leaders manage time is what separates an average or even poor performing salesperson and the top performers. Every system, tool, and strategy in sales management exists for one primary reason: to make salespeople more efficient with their time. Yet, many organizations overlook the importance of tracking and analyzing time spent on various activities and analyzing activities for their overall impact on sales productivity.

The Difference Between Busy and Productive

At first glance, a salesperson who is constantly on calls, sending emails, or attending meetings may appear to be thriving. But being busy is not the same as being productive. Busy implies time and energy are being spent, but it doesn't guarantee outcomes are being achieved. Productivity, on the other hand, is about the accomplishment of meaningful outcomes with an efficient expenditure of resources.

Here’s a simple example to illustrate the distinction: Imagine a salesperson spends eight hours a day cold-calling random numbers from a phone book. They’re busy, yes—but are they productive? Likely not. Now imagine a salesperson who spends that same eight hours reaching out to pre-qualified leads in a well-defined target market. The difference in results would be staggering, and the key variable is how time was used.

The Role of a Sales Process in Time Management

Implementing a sales process is one of the most effective ways to optimize time management. Without a structured approach, sales teams often fall into the trap of “spraying and praying”—randomly reaching out to potential clients without regard for fit or likelihood to convert. Not only is this inefficient selling, but a salesperson without a strategy for quality sales will be viewed by the operations team as a salesperson solely focused on themselves and earning money.

Consider the analogy of handing out flyers on the street to fill a venue. Sure, with enough time, you’ll reach enough people to fill the space. But it’s an inefficient approach. A targeted strategy—reaching out to a pre-determined audience, leveraging digital tools, and crafting tailored messages—will achieve the same result faster and with fewer resources.

A strong sales process focuses efforts on high-impact activities. It eliminates guesswork, standardizes best practices, and ensures salespeople are spending their time where it counts—engaging with qualified prospects, following up on warm leads, and closing deals.

Tracking Time to Identify Inefficiencies

One of the most overlooked aspects of sales leadership is tracking how time is spent. Are your salespeople spending hours on administrative tasks that could be automated? Are they chasing unqualified leads instead of focusing on high-probability opportunities? Believe it or not, the average person is not intuitively efficient at time management and engaging in the most productive activities. They are busy, but not necessarily productive.

Sales leaders and operations teams should regularly audit time allocation. Here’s how to get started:

1. Data: Document activities. Have salespeople track their activities for two weeks. This could include time spent on prospecting, follow-ups, meetings, data entry, or training. Activities should be tracked and put into buckets as to the impact.

2. Analysis and Diagnosis: Break down the data to identify where the majority of time is being spent. Look for patterns and inefficiencies.

3. Efficiency: Eliminate or automate the low value tasks. If a significant amount of time is spent on repetitive administrative work, consider implementing tools like automation software or even delegating. Sometimes the single best management tool for a sales leader with a top performer is taking something off their plate.

4. The Process: A sales process should be a fluid concept that is ready to be refined based upon the market or inner forces like an analysis of efficiency. Use the insights from your analysis to adjust the sales process. For example, if cold outreach has a low success rate, it may be time to invest in lead generation strategies that yield higher-quality prospects.

The Cost of Wasted Time

Every minute spent on a low-value activity is a minute that could have been invested in closing a deal. Over time, these inefficiencies add up and can cost your organization significant revenue. Worse, they can lead to burnout and frustration among salespeople, who feel they’re working hard without seeing results. 

The worst part of wasted time is that more often than not, it is unrealized. Organizations go with the status quo and have no understanding that minor changes can have a profound, snowballing impact. The true cost of wasted time is immeasurable as it includes all unrealized revenue.

The Moral of the Story

Time truly is the most valuable resource we have but very few organizations are truly treating it with the level of importance it deserves when it comes to creating a sales process and managing your sales team. Having a productive salesforce is predicated on defining what exactly are productive activities for the sales team to engage in and creating a system that ensures these activities are the driving force behind behavior. Remember, being busy fills the day; being productive fills the pipeline. C