Each day when sales reps begin to work, the clock starts ticking. They’ll work for four hours, take a lunch break, work for four more hours, and then log off. A time tracker is helpful in keeping track of these hours, and, with a little more manual input, the general projects and tasks reps are spending their time on. But what time tracking systems currently fail to capture in their time tracking data is a detailed picture of a rep’s day in the context of what matters most: sales effort.

Why time tracking is bad in sales

Time tracking software works for some fields, but sales isn’t one of them. Despite these tools’ common use, tracking work solely by time poses many challenges in sales. Here’s why. 

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Traditional metrics and time tracking can’t capture sales effort accurately.

A quality sales call can be five minutes or 45 minutes, depending on the sale, customer, and product. An automatic email that doesn't work for a specific client might only take a few minutes, but a custom email that leads to a close might take 30 minutes of research and critical thinking. Traditional time tracking systems lump all of these activities together as time, and typical CRM metrics look at number of calls or time on the phone—not both together. In actuality, it makes a big difference to know that reps had 30 five minute or five 30 minute calls. Having this holistic data can tell you if your script is working, if your pitch is too simple or too complicated, and if reps are putting in the effort you expect.

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Sales interactions are more than the time spent on them.

Context is important when it comes to sales interactions. Knowing that a phone call was quickly followed up by an email can tell you if your rep is being proactive in acquiring a customer. Visualizing the entire picture of a rep’s day of interactions also allows you to fill in the gaps about how their time is being spent, not just that they signed on. By having a fuller understanding of their daily interactions, you can quickly catch if reps have the drive they need to succeed or if they’re dragging. And when you can see a problem like this, you can fix it with proactive coaching and empowerment. 

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Time tracking systems don’t measure effort or results.

Time trackers don’t capture what matters most to evaluating sales effort: whether they led to a deal closing or not. Knowing this tells you what interactions and effort lead to success over time. Whether your team’s goal is to close a certain number of deals or generate a particular amount of revenue, seeing closes and losses in context of the interactions your reps have reveals important patterns in your sales pipeline. When you have this data, you can leverage it to upscale your reps and your strategy. 

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The face lift time tracking needs: interaction tracking

Start tracking what actually matters: interactions. Interactions are the building blocks of sales effort. Afterall, your reps can’t make a sale without a call, meeting, or email. When you track interactions instead of tracking time itself (or better yet, in context of time), you can:

• Identify friction in your sales process.
• See how reps truly stack up against benchmarks.
• Capture reps’ strengths and weaknesses to help them improve.
• Connect the dots between sales effort and results.
• Understand what actually leads to your sales team’s success. 

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A time tracker can’t do all this, but interaction and activity tracker in the hands of a well-trained sales manager (not a micromanager!) can. 

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Try it with your team today.