Why Less Time with Customers Means More Sales

In the product driven world of the past century, it was easy (and correct) to assume that the more time sales teams spent pitching to executives who make buying decisions, the more revenue they would make.  Life was fairly simple for the average salesperson and the stress of job became dependent on a particular presentation or the big money close.

Now, however, step into any sales office around the globe and its inhabitants will tell you that, as they shift from working in a product-driven market to a ‘solutions-driven’ market, they are spending less time on the road and more time in the office. Our colleagues at Sales Executive Council (SEC) have just published a Harvard Business Review article, that shows time spent on pre and post sales activities has risen by 15% in favor of time spent in front of a customer, which has fallen by 26%. And this is true across all major geographic markets and industries.

What’s most revealing is that this shift is undoubtedly a good thing. The SEC’s work comparing star performers to average salespeople in hundreds of teams across the world, shows that the best spend more time preparing for customer interactions and less time with customers than their poorer performing peers. The opposite was true only five years ago.

The question senior executives should ask themselves is: Do you know how your firm’s reps are spending their time? And then read the full article to find out what the answer should be.