For salespeople, time is the ultimate currency.
Every key sales activity is time-consuming, whether it’s prospecting and lead generation or client meetings and follow-ups. However, research shows that 77% of sales reps’ time is spent on non-sales activities. Things like administrative tasks, data entry, and internal meetings may be important, but they certainly hinder a salesperson’s ability to focus on growing revenue.
How can you improve sales performance and maximize results? Ryan Longfield believes technology isn’t the whole answer, but it’s a key part of making your sales team more productive. It streamlines the process and gives them time to focus on what really matters: building relationships and closing sales.
Ryan Longfield is Gong’s former chief research officer and current chief innovation officer. Prior to joining Gong, Ryan spent ten years at LinkedIn, where he held various sales leadership roles. Ryan joins G2 consultant and former CRO Mike Weir on the latest episode of GTM Innovators to share his golden tips on how companies can support sales teams to pay more attention to the behavior of sales and the role technology and marketing play in this process.
Balancing customer-facing impact with technical efficiency
Throughout the organization, sales teams are under constant pressure to sell more for less. It’s a never-ending goal that requires a balance between meeting customer expectations, staying ahead of competitors, and adapting to market conditions.
As Ryan says, sales is the art and science of human influence. And the place of influence is right in front of the customer. But if most of your time is spent manually updating your systems, preparing for meetings, or researching clients, something has to change. “If only 23 percent of our time is customer-facing, what do we do with the rest of our time? I think we can all agree that there’s a huge opportunity for advancement here,” he said.
“Yes, salespeople need to prepare for meetings and send impactful emails. But the main place for impact is when they’re in front of the customer, whether that’s over video, on the phone, or in person.”
Ryan Longfield
Chief Innovation Officer Gong
Ryan said not all 77% of non-sales time can be reduced to zero. If sales reps spend close to 10% of their time preparing for sales meetings, the real effort is to keep them at the same level of preparation but cut the preparation time in half, not zero, because you want your salespeople to be prepared, after all.
“I think the right thing for us as leaders to do is to completely address and break this problem. We have to ask ourselves, ‘What can I do to get to that 5 percent goal?'” he added.
On the other hand, the time spent on manual tasks like updating systems should be reduced to zero. For years, the system has asked humans to do too much work while doing us the bare minimum in return. But now this reality has changed. “I like the era we’re in, where consumers’ mentality towards technology can allow us to achieve a better user experience,” Ruian said.
Marketing’s role in maximizing sales time
When it comes to successfully maximizing sales time, marketing needs to be part of the solution. It’s about creating an ecosystem where every action is purposeful, every engagement is meaningful, and every minute spent is a strategic investment in the growth and success of the organization.
To achieve this goal, Ryan recommends that sales and marketing operate as a single department. “It’s easy to say, but hard to do,” he said. He shares some tips on how organizations can achieve this. The first step is to establish your core definition together, whether it’s your ideal customer profile, success metrics, how you do things, why you do it – ask the hard questions and report back together.
“It’s like the marriage between sales and marketing. If you want to function as a unit, you have to build something together. When you have the hard conversations, the magic happens.”
Ryan Longfield
Chief Innovation Officer Gong
Ryan’s second tip is to use the right tools. There are incredible marketing innovations out there; his favorite is the one that tells the next best action.
“If I’m looking for a lead, I can make a list of names and accounts in my patch and start looking for it. Or, I can get a list of names and accounts that have interacted with our marketing assets in the past few hours. list,” he said.
Systems that connect marketing campaigns to seller behavior are key, but most companies don’t take full advantage of this intelligence. If sales reps spend 9% of their time prioritizing leads and determining the next best action, the right tools and technology can help refocus that focus to increase efficiency.
“At Kong, we like to use G2 signals. If someone is researching our space or a competitor, that information informs my team’s priorities and outreach. I want that signal to go directly to my team. That’s me How do I use technology to reduce the size of that 9% and make my team more efficient,” Ryan said.
Other things Ryan learned in this episode
The full conversation with Ryan in GTM Innovators Episode 13 also includes other highlights such as:
- How technology is helping sales teams innovate and refocus on sales behaviors
- Why leaders need to evolve to take advantage of artificial intelligence and other technology trends
Watch the full episode on YouTube and subscribe to the GTM Innovators Podcast for insightful conversations with GTM experts – available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Amazon Music and more.
