Do you know how much time you waste on an average day? The truth is, everyone wastes valuable time at work each day, checking social media, looking for a new job on the web, reading, chatting and so forth. Time goes by and productivity sometimes does not happen.  Just like most any other industry, salespeople to waste time. Equally wasted, whether in or out of the office, we get tied up and other things in life occupy our time and mind.

Fact is, millions of dollars are wasted each year on employees who spend time working on whatever task they deem “more important” than the assigned work for the advancement of their company.  According to one survey, 31% of employees waste 30 minutes daily, and another 31% percent waste a whole hour. The other 38% spend even more staggering amounts of time off-task: between two and five or more hours a day! 

So what waste the most time? We've rounded up our top 3 time killers. 

Meetings. We all have them and they are essential to the work and development of every industry. But it’s when meetings don’t produce work to be completed and accomplish a goal- that is when meetings are time suckers.  Take a look at your weekly calendar, how many meetings are on it each week?

Likewise, over planning can be your worst enemy. If hired, they have the skills and ability to complete the task (or so you thought in the interview) so there’s no need to micromanage and plan every small detail of your sales team on how the goals are met. Dull meetings can often be a sign of over planning. Set goals, brainstorm how to reach those goals and then just do them, each salesperson tackling their own areas of responsibility.

What’s your relationship-building like? Perhaps your salespeople spend too much time attempting to build relationships that don’t matter in the long run. Train your salespeople to have an upright relationship with yourself, and then others. Focus on what’s important and what will make each relationship beneficial for further advancement.

Wasting time can damage or ruin the goals you set for your salespeople. Take time and evaluate how productivity can increase through efficiency and less wasted time.  Maybe it's signing up to use a team organizational tool like Slack.com or cutting down your weekly staff meetings to bi-weekly. The ways to cut back on wasted time are endless... so what are you waiting for? 

Have a way you're planning to keep your team on task and wasting less time? We want to hear it!