Sales management is about more than just hitting targets. It’s about managing your time wisely, empowering your team, and fostering a culture that drives sustainable success.
Poor time management doesn’t just waste hours; it drains energy, slows progress, and compromises results.
This week, let’s explore how to avoid common time traps, focus your energy where it matters most, and cultivate behaviours that create long-term growth.
🎯 Focus Your Time Where It Makes the Biggest Difference
Sales managers face constant demands, but not all efforts lead to meaningful results. Knowing where to direct your time is the key to building a high-performing team.
Here’s the breakdown:
- Your top performers: They’re already excelling. Support them, but avoid micromanaging.
- Your low performers: If effort and attitude are lacking, consider hard decisions. If they’re willing, explore ways to support their improvement.
- Your middle performers: This is where your efforts will have the biggest impact.
Middle performers are the engine of your team. They’re engaged, eager to learn, and capable of significant growth. Even a small improvement here can drive big results for your entire team.
How to Focus Your Efforts:
1️⃣ Coach Regularly: Dedicate time to structured sessions that offer clear, actionable feedback.
2️⃣ Set Clear Expectations: Help your team understand what success looks like and how to get there.
3️⃣ Celebrate Small Wins: Recognising incremental progress inspires confidence and drives motivation.
The Impact? A small improvement across the middle outweighs a massive gain from a single top performer. Focus on moving the middle, and watch your entire team rise.
🕒 Stop Wasting Your Team’s Time
Your team’s time is one of your most valuable resources. Nothing is more demotivating than hours wasted on unnecessary admin tasks. Sales teams thrive when their time is spent where it matters most: selling.
The worst culprits for wasting time?
- Random, unclear requests that take hours to complete.
- Data that already exists elsewhere but is being asked for again.
- Reports that go unread despite the effort to create them.
How to Avoid This:
- Always communicate the purpose behind your requests.
- Ask for only the information that truly drives decision-making.
- Streamline your processes to minimise redundant tasks.
The Lesson: Respect your team’s time by removing unnecessary distractions. Great leaders respect their team’s time, creating a culture where everyone feels valued and empowered to focus on driving results.
🚫 Why Rewarding the Wrong Behaviour Wastes More Than Time
Aggressive or short-sighted sales tactics might yield quick wins, but they come with a heavy cost. Here’s how they waste time and harm your team:
1️⃣ Short-term Gains, Long-term Losses: Pressured clients and mismatched solutions lead to churn, eating into future revenue.
2️⃣ Toxic Culture: Aggressive behaviours erode trust, break collaboration, and set a bad example for junior reps.
3️⃣ Dependency on Individuals: Rewarding bulldozer behaviour creates overreliance on “star performers” while neglecting the team’s overall growth.
What to Reward Instead:
- Collaboration over competition.
- Long-term relationships over quick wins.
- Customer success over aggressive tactics.
The Truth? When you reward behaviours aligned with your values, you don’t just avoid wasted time, you create a culture of trust, shared success, and sustainable growth.
💡Your Weekly Takeaway
Sales management isn’t about doing everything; it’s about doing the right things at the right time. Focus on your middle performers, eliminate unnecessary distractions, and reward the behaviours that align with your values.
Take the next step towards confident leadership.
Let’s explore how you can not only manage but lead your team to sustainable success – because confident leadership is the foundation of revenue growth.
Vinit Shah Founder, London School of Sales
