Did you know that the average sales person only spends about 2 hours per day actually selling? That means if you add up all of the time that the average sales person spends prospecting, conducting sale meetings, and doing sales-generating activity, it only adds up to 10 hours per week. This is disastrous. The rest of the average sales person’s time is spent doing non-sales activities such as putting out fires, paperwork, operations, etc…
The 5-Hour Sales Day
Just recently, I worked with a savvy technology client who introduced me to the “5-Hour Sales Day.” First of all, let me start by saying that this client had seen 50% organic sales growth year over year for the past 4 years. They are crushing the competition. And what seems most crazy, they only ask that their sales people spend 5 hours each day actually focused on sales activity.
This may not sound like much, but in reality, it’s over double what their competitors’ sales teams are doing. This means that every sales activity is given a time value:
- A sales meeting is worth 1 hour.
- 10 cold calls is worth 1 hour.
- A networking event is worth 1 hour.
- Asking for 5 introductions from clients is worth 1 hour.
- Giving a speech to potential prospects is worth 2 hours.
You get the picture. The imperative is that each sales person ensure that they get 5 hours of sales activity packed into their day.
What is so incredible about this strategy is that the sales people work no more than sales people in other companies—8- to 9-hour days—but their output is almost three times that of everyone else. This simple system forces sales people to prioritize their day to focus only on what makes them and their company money.
So, what are you waiting for? Get your people to work only 5 hours per day to triple output!
How do you increase sales output at your organization? Please share below in the comments.
Marc Wayshak is author of the book Game Plan Selling and a sales keynote speaker.
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About the Author Marc Wayshak
Marc is is the best-selling author of three books on sales and leadership, including the highly acclaimed titles Game Plan Selling, The High-Velocity Sales Organization and his forthcoming book, Sales Conversations, Mastered.
Marc is a contributor to Inc, HubSpot, Fast Company, Entrepreneur Magazine, and Huffington Post Business. He also hosts a popular YouTube channel on sales strategy with over 103,000 subscribers.
Marc helps thousands of people his data-driven, science-based approach to selling that utilizes all the best tools available to sales organizations today.
