Sales managers tend to find themselves running out of time toward the end of work hours. Since there are risks of distractions everywhere – from clients to workers – managers need to be careful about how they manage their time.
Here are five major time wasters for sales managers:
1. Meetings
While managers shouldn’t skimp on important meetings to discuss the company’s performance with executives or hold performance reviews with employees, there are some meetings that are not necessary. Meetings are some of the largest time wasters in the office because presenters or participants often get off track explaining or asking questions. It’s easy to get longwinded about any topic if there’s too much to cover and the conversation goes off tangent. Rather than start the meeting with your presentation, begin by announcing the agenda and request that workers ask questions at the very end to stay on track. If the meeting seems like it will go over, summarize the points you were going to make or email workers the rest of your presentation to respect their time.
2. Micromanaging
Although managers may think they’re doing their workers a favor by analyzing every aspect of their performance, it might actually be hindering productivity if employees feel as though they don’t have the space or freedom to do the job. Micromanaging is a big problem in the workplace as employees may feel frustrated that their work is being dissected and criticized every moment. Rather than looking over your employees’ shoulders, look at their overall performance by reviewing sales effectiveness metrics and key performance indicators that could provide more insight into how employees can improve than catching workers in the act of doing something wrong.
3. Emails
It’s not uncommon for managers to get hundreds of emails a day from clients or their employees. With the constant ping of their inbox throughout the day letting them know they’ve got yet another message, it’s easy for managers to get distracted from their main tasks like coaching employees. Since emails could turn into an unruly mess at the end of the day, monitor your inbox for the most important emails and filter and organize other messages that could wait. Use a color coding system for various things on your list of tasks or to mark the level of priority to remind you later.
4. Socializing
A sense of comradery in the office helps fuel a positive work environment. However, it could also be distracting for managers who are hoping to check off everything on their to-do list if socializing in the workplace takes up too much of their time. Rather than completely shutting out everyone who wants to talk to them, managers could set aside time to chat during lunch or break periods. This could help them block off their time for work and leave room to relax and catch up with employees to maintain a good relationship with them.
5. Manual processes
Sales performance management often means overseeing salaries, incentives (like merit increases) and other components of compensation. Since managers have to input and pay attention to numbers, they may resort to entering information using spreadsheets and other manual processes. While this is the way it’s been done for years in certain workplaces, it’s outdated in many. Instead of relying on inputting data by hand, consider using automated sales performance software that will calculate your staff’s progress in meeting sales quotas or getting close to achieving the requirements of a particular incentive. Eliminating spreadsheets not only saves time usually spent typing in numbers, but also improves the accuracy of the data, which will help ensure you make the right sales compensation decisions.
