“Eye roll… she’s done it wrong again.”
So you sigh, reopen the task, and think:
“I’ll just do it myself.”
It feels faster. Easier. Less frustrating.
But this mindset is one of the biggest productivity killers for executives and founders.
And ironically, it’s the very thing that stops delegation from ever working.
No one likes to talk about what happens when things go wrong. A crisis, a sudden resignation, a family emergency, a market shake-up, whatever it is, your business is either ready for it, or it’s not.
Recently, we had one of those moments. The kind that tests your systems, your culture, and your people all at once. And here’s what we learned:
If time is money – and it is – sales processes sure do waste a lot of it.
According to Salesforce, the average rep spends just 28% of the day on sales activities like prospecting and interacting with customers.
Where does the other 72% go? Most of it goes to administrative tasks like planning, generating proposals and entering data in the CRM.
Consider a high-value sales rep’s salary – that’s a fair bit of dosh for data entry. Not to mention the cost of missed revenue opportunities.
One study estimated companies may lose as much as 38% of potential revenue every quarter to inefficiencies in their sales process.
Taken all together, it’s pretty clear the fastest way to fatten up the bottom line is to slim down reps’ to-do lists.
