Sales teams are losing valuable time due to excessive app switching, with reps spending only about 40% of their week actually selling. The rest of their time is consumed by administrative tasks such as CRM data entry, quote-building, and planning. According to a Salesforce report, reps now spend 60% of their time on non-selling tasks, which is down from 70% in the previous year.

The Cost of App Switching

A study by Forrester found that the average sales rep burns nearly two full days a week on administrative tasks alone, which is the single biggest non-selling time sink. This translates to a significant loss of productivity and revenue for companies. In fact, a Forrester study estimated that productivity gains from reduced app-switching and latency were worth a three-year, risk-adjusted $5.1 million for a composite 5,000-worker organization.

The average company now runs 101 apps, with individual sales reps navigating 10 or more of those apps daily. While each standalone tool may have been purchased to solve a specific pain point, collectively, the stack has become the bottleneck that many companies bought to remove. The promise of “best of” software has fragmented data and multiplied logins, and 84% of sales teams now say they plan to consolidate their tech stack into fewer, more unified platforms.

The Solution

Research suggests that the solution to this problem lies in smart use of existing tools, rather than adding more AI tools. Companies are implementing AI in a way that brings intelligence to the rep’s existing surfaces, rather than requiring them to learn new apps. This approach allows reps to access needed information without changing tasks, reducing the time spent on app switching and increasing productivity.

Original reporting: KRDO (Colorado Springs metro) — read the source article.