Not that long ago (I hope), sales was brutally simple. You either picked up the phone, knocked on doors, stood in foyers at exotic conference centres and you contributed to revenue, or you didn’t. And if you didn’t, you might be promptly on Seek looking for a new gig. There was nowhere to hide. It was ruthless, but to be honest, you knew what you had to do to perform at the level.
Today, many will tell you (even if you don’t ask) that they are “flat out, under the pump, back-to-back or swamped. But are you, are you really? “The simple truth is that most modern sales teams are spending more time on the wrong things than ever before and it’s quietly killing individual and business performance. And maybe, just maybe, employers are giving modern-day sales and marketing teams too much rope. In the midst of all this, I believe some salespeople have mastered the art of appearing busy while actually doing less selling than ever before.
The Illusion of Progress
Take a quick scroll through your calendar and you might see it…there’s probably a fair bit going on but not a lot of sales-related tasks that are going to swing the needle for you. It might look productive on the surface but if you dig a little deeper, you might find a significant amount of time is being wasted. You may be starting to feel overwhelmed by busy work, shallow work, or administrative tasks, but not sales work.
It’s likely that it’s not intentional at all and it might be unfair to call it laziness, but we can’t rule laziness out. When salespeople can’t manage their time and control their participation, they look for quick sugar hits, but the consequences of inactivity can compound pretty quickly. This overscheduling of busy work is a trap because it creates the illusion of progress.
I believe the cost of poor time management in modern sales is huge but the fix isn’t complicated or overly sophisticated. When considering task prioritisation, it’s important to consider the context of the task and your participation. Should you even be there? What will your impact be if you attend and contribute (or not) versus the underlying damage that the time commitment might have on other tasks or your target?
Time is the one resource that nobody can get back. Salespeople who can learn to treat time as their most valuable asset will be more effective and stay ahead of the competition. I don’t believe it’s a numbers game anymore but it is a maximum impact game, to which you need to be the leader.
Tools of the Trade
Modern sales teams have never had more tools, tech, and “productivity hacks” at their disposal. CRMs powered by AI, automated workflows and dashboards that track your every move, it’s admin hell in my opinion but a safe place for many people to hide. On paper, it all looks like progress but the very tools designed to free us up are often the ones keeping us cemented to low-value tasks. Personally, I’ve never loved admin; I much prefer the hunt and the thrill of the chase. I’m not sure I want to spend hours updating systems and feeding AI prompts these days, but I can see the benefits of doing so.
The irony perhaps lives in the more efficient the process becomes, the less time there is for the one thing that actually swings the needle: connecting and colliding with your customers and the market. In an age of automation, the danger isn’t that salespeople don’t work hard enough (maybe). It’s that they will continue to work on the wrong things. I see this across many industries and many teams; it’s not a once-off or an opinion, it’s an observation that worries me. It’s far easier to hide behind busy work than it is to face the discomfort of prospecting, cold calling, the sting of rejection, or the pressure of asking for a meeting.
At the end of the day, sales is still the same game it’s always been…if you are prepared to do the hard work, you will win. Don’t let your systems, processes, and marketing automation grind you sales activity to a halt.
I love a good meeting, but what do they say about bad meetings? It’s the only place where you take minutes but can waste hours!
It’s time to remove the brain fog – stop scrolling, shut down some tabs, put your phone to good use and get back to doing meaningful work! Focus on one task at a time and do it well. If you work with intent and focus on activities that carry a meaningful result, you will quickly find a more fulfilling place for your time.
- It’s time to be ruthless with your calendar and your time.
- It’s time to get back to fulfilling your job description. I’m sure cat videos aren’t in it.
It seems attention spans are getting shorter,
So, you might need to prioritise where you’re putting your attention.
If this article resonates with you or you want to explore effective time management further, let’s have a chat. jamie@killerconsulting.com.au