Missed Quota Series: They Were ONLY Selling 11 Hours Per Week! | Donald C. Kelly - 1997

Missed Quota Series: They Were ONLY Selling 11 Hours Per Week! | Donald C. Kelly - 1997

From The Sales Evangelist by Donald C. Kelly

April 27, 2026 · 17 min · Episode 1997

About this episode

This episode discusses how sales representatives spend only 11 hours per week selling and explores the tasks that consume their time, along with solutions to improve efficiency using AI and process optimization.

Salesforce found that reps spend just 11 hours per week actually selling. That means nearly 70% of their time is spent on everything else. So where is it going? Let’s break down what sellers are really doing and why it’s keeping them from hitting quota. Identifying Time-Bleeding Tasks Let me show you what’s really taking up their day. A lot of it comes down to necessary work that just takes way too long. Think about the time spent digging for information before a call. That can easily turn into 45 minutes of manual research for one prospect. Then there’s building proposals and assessments. Reps are sitting there formatting documents, choosing layouts, and putting together decks when that time could be spent in front of a customer. On top of that, you’ve got CRM updates, data entry, and internal meetings that keep pulling reps away from actual selling. It all adds up fast, and before you know it, the day is gone without much time spent with buyers. Leveraging AI and Process Optimization So how do you fix it? It starts with getting rid of the work that does not need to be done manually. AI is making that a lot easier. Instead of spending close to an hour researching a prospect…

People in this episode

Host: Donald C. Kelly

Topics covered

  • sales productivity
  • time management
  • AI in sales
  • CRM optimization
  • sales strategies

Keywords

  • sales quota
  • time management
  • AI
  • CRM
  • sales representatives
  • productivity
  • sales strategies

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Salesforce

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