How effectively your sales reps spend their time directly relates to how many deals they close. And a team that uses hours every day to update spreadsheets will close fewer deals than those focused on prospecting, pitching, and building relationships. Even small amounts of time spent on administrative tasks make it harder to hit sales goals.
Utilization rate is a useful metric for measuring the share of the workday devoted to high-value selling activities that actually drive revenue. AI-powered platforms like Rox help leaders track sales team utilization rates, find opportunities to increase productivity, and automate administrative tasks.
Below we define utilization rates, explain how to calculate them, and explore strategies to optimize your team’s performance.
What Is the Sales Team Utilization Rate?
Sales team utilization rate measures the percentage of time that your sales reps spend on core sales tasks like nurturing leads and negotiating contracts. It’s distinct from billable utilization rate, which is commonly used in professional services to measure the percentage of the workday spent on client-facing work.
A higher utilization rate supports greater productivity and stronger overall performance, so sales teams should aim to increase their rates, spending as much time as possible on revenue-generating activities while minimizing administrative work.
What Counts As Selling Time?
In sales, “selling time” is the amount of time spent on direct selling activities, typically involving contact with leads or clients. This includes tasks like cold calls, product demos, and client onboarding. Selling time doesn’t include work like research or planning. While these are necessary to keep operations running smoothly, they don’t directly drive revenue.
Why Distinguish Between Selling vs. Non-Selling Activities?
Separating selling and non-selling activities makes it clear which activities impact the bottom line. Tracking these activities helps sales leaders and reps see where time is going and identify opportunities for improvement.
How Does Utilization Rate Affect Forecasting and Resource Planning?
Utilization rate lets you allocate resources more effectively. If your sales team maintains a high utilization rate but still misses key targets, it may be a signal to reassess strategy. You might hire additional reps to expand capacity or revisit benchmarks to make them more realistic.
How to Calculate Utilization Rates For Your Sales Team
Before optimizing your sales team’s workload and profitability, you need to know their utilization rate. Here’s how to calculate it.
Utilization Rate Formula
The formula for utilization rates is simple:
Utilization rate = (Selling hours / Total working hours) x 100
Apply this formula to your entire team or individual sales reps.
Sales Team Utilization Rate Example
Say a sales rep works 40 hours a week and spends 30 of those hours on sales activities. The calculation would be (30 / 40) x 100 = 75, so their utilization rate would be 75%.
To calculate the utilization rate for a team of, say, three salespeople, each of whom works 40 hours per week, it’s a little more complex. Let’s imagine rep one spends 25 hours on sales activities per week, while reps two and three each spend 30 hours. Together, that’s 85 hours out of a possible 120. The calculation is: (85 / 120) x 100 = 70. The team utilization rate is 70%.
Instead of spending valuable time manually calculating a team’s utilization rate, platforms like Rox automate the process for more accurate and consistent tracking.
What Is a Good Utilization Rate for Sales Teams?
A good utilization rate for your sales team depends on factors like your organization’s size and structure. That said, most high-performing sales teams fall within the 70-80% range. Raising utilization rates can expand your client base and increase revenue, but it’s not realistic for reps to spend 100% of their time selling. Activities like research, planning, and professional development are essential for long-term performance.
Your business model and available resources also affect your utilization rate. For example, a sales rep at a small startup might have to support other departments, taking on cross-functional responsibilities that lead to a lower utilization rate.
Establish custom benchmarks for your team based on real-time performance data with Rox. Better insight into rep activity enables you to set realistic but attainable utilization goals.
How To Track and Monitor Sales Team Utilization Rates
Manually calculating utilization rates can be challenging, especially as a team grows. For sales reps juggling a variety of complex tasks each day, logging hours isn’t always a priority. Automation simplifies the tracking process, letting reps focus on selling while still providing leaders with visibility.
Rox pulls data from several different sources to get the complete picture of sales reps’ daily activity. Key data sources for tracking include:
Digital calendars
Email
Call logs
Integrated messaging platforms like Slack
A sales rep’s activities can change significantly from day to day, so you’ll need real-time visibility into their workload to accurately calculate utilization rates. Rox automatically captures and updates new data, helping you see both individual and team-level utilization rates at any point. You can also generate historical utilization reports to visualize trends and progress over time.
Strategies To Improve Sales Team Utilization Rates
To improve your team’s utilization rate, you’ll need to streamline workloads and give reps the resources and support they need. Implement the following tips to get started:
Automate repetitive tasks: Let AI platforms like Rox handle time-consuming tasks like industry research or meeting prep, so reps can focus more on the customer-facing elements of the sales process.
Track non-selling time: Your reps might not realize that they’re spending so much time on internal emails or expense reports. Have each rep track their non-selling time to pinpoint productivity drains and optimize workflows.
Coach underperforming reps: If a rep isn’t hitting their goals, they might need a little extra support from sales managers to improve their skills and efficiency. Leverage data to identify where they’re underperforming, then provide training as needed.
Set daily priorities: Highlight the most important activities to focus on each day based on organizational and industry data. By setting a game plan for the day, your team can minimize context switching and prioritize efficiently.
Develop targeted sales plays: Create and share proven sales strategies with your team, so they spend less time on planning and more time engaging with prospects.
Maximize Sales Rep Productivity With Rox
Tracking utilization rates is just the first step in improving your team’s productivity. With Rox, you can spot workflow patterns, identify bottlenecks, and make informed decisions to optimize performance.
The platform’s AI agent swarms handle repetitive tasks like lead sourcing, meeting prep, and outreach, freeing reps to focus on high-value selling activities. By centralizing data, Rox gives you complete visibility into your team’s activity, helping you maximize efficiency.
Watch the demo today and learn how Rox can optimize your team’s performance.
.webp&w=3840&q=75)
