“Salespeople spend 79 percent of their time doing things other than selling or prospecting. The actual time spent selling averages 11 per cent.” Source: Sales and Marketing Management
I was blown away when I read this statistic. I love that saying and get to use it so infrequently.
How many people today, regardless of profession, can use 11 per cent of their capacity and survive? Perhaps this explains the high mortality rate in the sale arena where we do battle every day. This number screams complacency to me. Actually, I might give complacency higher credit, maybe 20 percent.
Anyone who has worked in a sales environment knows the challenges one faces in keeping the shoulder to the grindstone. Sales is a very tough profession, especially a commissioned environment. You don’t produce you don’t get paid. It is a black and white scorecard. You can not bank talk or laziness, and you certainly can’t buy groceries with either.
So how is it salespeople are spending only 11 per cent of their time on the tasks critical to their success? Some will be quick to say the remaining 79 per cent is taken up with administrative...