Introduction
How much time do you think your sales team actually spends selling? Many sales leaders estimate 60 or even 70 percent. Reality looks very different. According to Forrester, the average sales rep spends only about 41% of their time on active selling.
The rest of the week is consumed by CRM updates, internal meetings, emails, reporting, and searching for information. This is not a performance issue. It is a structural one. Improving sales productivity starts with understanding where time is lost and why.
The Time Breakdown
A typical sales week breaks down roughly as follows:
41% active selling
22% admin work and CRM maintenance
17% internal emails and coordination
12% internal meetings
8% other activities
This pattern appears across industries and company sizes. Sales reps are not inefficient. They are overloaded with tasks that are not selling.
The Real Time Killers
The biggest drain on selling time is CRM maintenance. Sales reps often spend five to ten hours per week updating fields, logging activities, and fixing data issues. Instead of enabling sales, the CRM becomes a burden.
Next comes reporting. Pipeline updates, forecast requests, and ad-hoc management questions interrupt selling time and fragment focus.
Lead management is another major factor. Reps research accounts, qualify leads, and search for missing information — important work, but not necessarily sales work.
Finally, internal meetings add up. Forecast calls, reviews, and alignment meetings are necessary, but often poorly structured and overly frequent.
The Cost of Lost Selling Time
Consider a simple calculation:
10 sales reps earning $60,000 per year equal $600,000 in annual payroll.
At 41% selling time, roughly $369,000 of that cost is spent on non-selling activities.
Increasing selling time to 70% would free up the equivalent of $186,000 per year for actual selling — without hiring anyone new.
This is one of the most overlooked efficiency levers in sales.
What Actually Works
The solution is not telling sales reps to “work faster” or “be more disciplined.” That approach shifts responsibility without fixing the root cause.
What works is removing work:
- reducing admin tasks
- simplifying processes
- automating information flow
Companies typically achieve this through a mix of internal role clarity, external support, and automation. The common denominator is Sales Operations.
Sales should sell. Everything else should be handled by the system around them.
Conclusion
A 70% selling time is achievable. Companies that free sales teams from administrative overload see higher productivity, better morale, and stronger revenue performance — without increasing pressure.
Next step:
