Sales professionals spend over two-fifths of their working day completing sales admin tasks
60% of sales decision makers believe that the time they spend on admin tasks and reporting back on sales processes could be better spent closing deals with clients;
43% of their day job is dedicated to completing sales admin tasks;
Over half (53%) of sales decision makers feel frustrated with their current pipeline/sales tool.
Sales decision makers are spending over two-fifths of their working day completing sales admin. The research of 400 UK sales decision makers across a range of sectors, found that sales professionals are spending a disproportionate amount of time completing sales admin tasks, rather than building their pipelines and closing deals. 60% of the respondents in the survey admitted that their time would be better spent on closing deals with clients. And over half of the respondents surveyed (53%) admitted to feeling frustrated with their current sales/ CRM pipeline tool.
The research conducted by Clinchd, has also revealed that only 22% of sales decision makers believe they are given full autonomy by the person they report to in their team. Over a quarter (27%) of them said they would like more autonomy, whilst 7% said they have no autonomy whatsoever.
Upon evaluating the research results, Storry Warner, CEO of Clinchd, commented:
“These stats, whilst they don’t surprise me, raise serious questions about where time is being spent. Our data shows that sales professionals are spending far too much time on admin related tasks. This not only leaves them short on time, but means they are missing out on what they are good at; closing deals. We’re also seeing some inherent frustrations within these sales teams around their sales pipeline tools too, and indeed how much autonomy these team members feel they have. Not only is this infuriating team members, but clearly it is having an impact on how well these teams work in collaboration too.”
Other interesting results from the survey included:
Those in the digital service industry showed higher levels of agreement with the statement that they were spending too much time on admin compared to the other sectors; 67% of sales professionals in digital service industries believed that the time they currently spend on admin tasks and reporting back on sales processes could be better spent closing deals with clients;
42% of respondents cited that the main improvement they would like in their pipeline tool would be keeping their team members and managers up-to-date with progress.
Warner continues:
“Our data has validated that the bigger the company; the more admin there is. For instance, 37% of the day is focused on sales admin for those at companies with two to nine employees, yet for those at companies with 500-999 employees, a whopping 49% of their day is spent on sales admin related tasks.
Ultimately, no-one wants a time poor, frustrated and demoralised set of sales decision makers, especially when we look to them to lead a team of people and drive sales for the business. At a time when many companies are feeling the pinch due to the pandemic, we really need the sales team to work smartly and deliver on the top line. A key component of this has to be a re-focus on the software they are using - after all, 42% of respondents said that the key improvement they wanted was to keep team members up to date with progress.
We think it’s time (and this data above certainly proves this) to re-evaluate the pipeline information and instead use it more intelligently. Because more intelligent software will reduce irrelevant sales admin, enable better team collaboration, and reduce these feelings of frustration amongst our sales teams.”
