Most salespeople aren’t short on effort. Calendars are full, inboxes are busy, calls are happening… but results don’t always match the level of activity. This is one of the biggest performance traps in modern sales: confusing busyness with effectiveness.

As Ernest Hemingway puts it, “Never mistake motion for action.”

Movement isn’t the same as progress. Being busy can feel productive, but when you’re not doing the right things, revenue growth, pipeline health and momentum will slow or stall completely.

Top performers are usually the people who manage their energy, time and attention in the smartest way – working smarter, not harder, by investing their effort into the activities that matter most.

Keep reading for a breakdown of the core productivity skills every sales professional needs to make sure they’re spending their time where it matters. Even if all you do is take inspiration from one of these tips, it will make a difference to you hitting your numbers this week and every week!

1. GET CLEAR ON YOUR HIGH-VALUE ACTIVITIES

This is one of our Chilli favourites. Do you know the activities that create the highest value in terms of results? High-value sales activities often include:

• Prospecting and outbound work
• Meaningful client conversations
• Discovery calls
• Follow-ups that actually progress deals, rather than just “checking in”
• Proposal creation with clear next steps
• Strategic account development

Low-value activities often feel productive, but don’t create much in the way of results. Examples include reorganising your CRM, overpreparing for a simple call, spending hours reading industry news, or writing and rewriting the same small section of a report just to “get it perfect”. 

Procrastination often hides itself in busy work – reading this blog might be procrastination or productivity! It all depends on whether you actually do something with you what you read or not.

The rule of thumb: If it doesn’t move a deal forward or open a new opportunity, then question why you’re doing it.

A simple exercise to try:
Identify your top three high-value activities that create meaningful results. Time block them into your calendar first. And then fit everything else around them.

2. REDUCE REACTIVE WORK

Being constantly reactive leads to you losing huge amounts of time to distraction. Breaking your flow for Slack messages, ad-hoc requests, internal questions and admin tasks can kill your productivity.

Being constantly reactive means:

• Your focus is fragmented
• You spend less time on strategic tasks
• Your pipeline becomes built more on last-minute effort instead of consistent action

To reduce reactive noise:

• Check emails and messages only at set times
• Set boundaries — let colleagues know when you’re unavailable and why
• Batch similar tasks (follow-ups, admin, proposal edits, call prep)
• Say no (politely) when a task doesn’t align with your priorities

“But there is always a crisis or unexpected work,” we hear you say! S**t happens every day for most people, so whilst you can’t plan specifically for what it will be, you can schedule time for it! So don’t over commit your diary, or schedule “S**t happens” time everyday around your most important tasks.

3. MASTER ENERGY MANAGEMENT

Sales is an energy-based profession. Your enthusiasm, tone, clarity and confidence all impact how prospects respond to you. If you run yourself into the ground, you feel and perform worse.

Instead of treating your day like a marathon, structure it around your natural energy cycles.

Try:

• Scheduling prospecting and calls during your highest-focus hours
• Using low-energy periods for admin or planning
• Taking micro-breaks to reset between interactions

4. PRIORITISE WITH PURPOSE

Urgency is not the same as importance. Just because someone wants something “ASAP” doesn’t automatically make it the highest priority task for you.

To prioritise effectively, ask:

• Does this activity directly impact revenue or pipeline?
• Is this task urgent for me, or just urgent for someone else?
• What would happen if I didn’t do this today?
• Is this the next best step to progress a deal?

A practical tool:
Write down your three ‘Most Important Tasks’ each morning. Complete these before anything else.

5. BUILD CONSISTENCY THROUGH SMALL HABITS

High performance comes from repeatable actions done consistently over time rather than one-off huge bursts of effort.

Examples of consistent sales habits include:

• A daily 20-minute outbound block
• Updating your CRM immediately after calls
• A weekly pipeline review every Friday
• One reflection question per day: What moved deals forward today?
• A weekly check-in with yourself: What’s working? What’s slipping?

Consistency builds momentum and momentum builds results.

6. MEASURE THREE METRICS THAT MATTER

Salespeople often use the wrong metrics to judge productivity. Hours worked, calls made, and emails sent tell you activity, but they don’t tell you effectiveness. Your effort is important, but you need to track where your effort translates into outcomes and place more of your focus there.

Try measuring things like:

• Deals progressed to the next stage
• Quality of conversations
• Strength of relationships
• Conversion rates
• Pipeline value and health
• Follow-ups that lead to decisions

7. FOCUS ON IMPLEMENTATION, NOT INTENTION

Lots of salespeople know what to do. Far few actually do it consistently.

To build consistent habits:

• Set simple systems that make the right thing the easy thing
• Remove friction (set up templates, scripts, shortcuts and automation)
• Review your week honestly
• Hold yourself accountable to the commitments you set

The difference between average and exceptional sales performance is usually consistency, not talent.

BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER

Being ‘busy’ in sales is easy. Being effective is the real challenge — and the real differentiator.

Life is never perfect and there will always be a curveball, unexpected task or life event that derails you, but you almost certainly have more control and influence than you believe.

Focusing on high-value activities, protecting your time and prioritising with purpose are the best techniques for getting more done and reducing the feelings of overwhelm that accompany ‘busyness’.

The result is:

• Better conversations
• Stronger pipelines
• Higher conversion
• Reduced stress and overwhelm

If you’re looking for support in building the productivity skills, habits and systems that elevate sales performance, we can help! Get in touch at [email protected].