The
UK’s salesforce is wasting as much as 90 per cent of the working day, and is
only half as efficient as it could be, according to the latest research.
A
poll by consultants Proudfoot, found that salespeople spend just 10 per cent of
their time actively selling because they are bogged down by other tasks, such
as administration.
Sales
staff are increasingly hampered by paperwork and sucked into dealing with
customer service issues, leaving less time to do the job they were hired for.
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The
survey analysed the salesforces of more than 1,400 companies and found poor
management was the root cause of the productivity problems.
Sales staff in the automotive industry were found to be the
most effective, spending 17 per cent of their time actively selling, while the
paper industry was the worst, with staff using just 4 per cent of their time to
sell.