In today’s business environment, the dominant mantra is clear: “Do more with less.” For sales teams, this translates into mounting pressure to meet aggressive targets—while simultaneously taking on more administrative and operational tasks.
Unfortunately, this shift is pulling salespeople away from their core responsibility: selling.
What Is the Job of a Salesperson?
Before we explore the root causes and solutions, it’s important to clarify what a salesperson’s role actually is.
A salesperson creates the conditions in which a buyer is persuaded to exchange something of value (typically money) for something of greater perceived value (your product or service). A high-performing salesperson is one who can do this consistently and at scale.
In short: sales is about creating persuasive conversations that move buyers forward in their decision-making process. Anything that pulls a rep away from that should be scrutinized.
Where Is All the Time Going?
Despite this clarity, most salespeople spend less than half their week actually selling. The following tasks are among the most common time drains:
- Updating CRM systems
- Researching new prospects
- Cold outreach by phone or email
- Drafting proposals, quotes, or bids
- Scheduling meetings
On the surface, these may appear to be sales activities—but they are not. These tasks support selling, but they do not require the unique skill set of a persuasive, deal-moving sales professional. They can—and should—be delegated, automated, or streamlined.
The Pain of Misalignment
Every hour a salesperson spends on non-selling tasks is an hour not spent building trust, uncovering needs, and advancing opportunities. This misallocation leads to:
- Slower pipeline velocity
- Lower win rates
- Decreased morale
- Higher rep turnover
Over time, it also erodes your competitive advantage—because your top talent is buried under work that doesn’t require their expertise.
What Can Be Done?
To reclaim selling time and boost productivity, progressive manufacturers are taking action in five key areas:
Sales Support Design Create clear role boundaries. Leverage sales support, operations, and marketing teams to offload non-essential tasks from reps.
Workflow Automation Use AI and automation to handle CRM updates, prospect research, and meeting scheduling.
Specialized Roles and Division of Labor Introduce business development reps (BDRs), proposal coordinators, or virtual assistants to handle upstream and downstream tasks.
Technology Simplification Rationalize your tech stack to ensure it works for the rep—not the other way around.
Time Discipline & Coaching Train managers to protect selling time and coach reps on prioritizing high-value buyer interactions.
Final Thought
The job of a salesperson is not to manage systems, schedule calls, or build decks. Their job is to sell—to consistently create conditions that drive buying decisions. If your reps are stuck doing work that doesn’t require persuasion, then your organization is underutilizing one of its most critical asset.
Need help reclaiming selling time in your organization? We specialize in designing high-throughput sales systems that free up your reps to do what they do best.
