Where Did All the At-Bats Go?

One of the biggest myths in sales leadership right now is that your sellers are spending most of their time… selling. 

Reality check: your sellers are spending far less time selling than you think. 

Why? They’re trapped in the day to day machinery of the modern GTM team. 

Between CRM admin, internal meetings, compiling insights for pipeline or forecast reviews, doing account research, prepping slides, following up on leads, interpreting dashboards and engaging RevOps for answers, there’s almost no time left in the week for actual selling. 

A 2023 study by Salesforce found that only 28% of a sales rep’s time is spent on selling-related activity. That’s just 11 hours in a 40 hour week (and we all know it’s rarely just 40). 

Throw in customer travel for field sellers? Even less. 

The Headcount Fallacy

Most orgs try to solve this by adding reps. 

But when quota attainment barely brushes 30% across the organization, leadership scrambles to understand why more bodies aren’t creating more pipeline or bookings. 

Spoiler alert: It’s not a headcount issue. Adding reps often dilutes focus and creates more internal noise, not more pipeline.

This isn’t just a productivity issue.

This is an at-bat issue. 

And at-bats are everything. 

Every missed hour is a missed interaction. 

Every missed interaction is a missed opportunity. 

These misses mean missed quota, missed plan, and the inevitable scramble that follows. 

Turnover: The Hidden Cost

Great sellers love to win. 

They thrive on momentum, clarity and control. 

Anything that detracts from them winning is costing you, why? 

Because losing means exiting. Top reps go where they will win, and that’s a loss your organization cannot afford.

Where is the Time Really Going?

Yes there are too many internal meetings, but the biggest time sink is how reps decide to spend their time. That’s a difficult if not impossible thing to automate, unless your systems are working for you instead of against you.

Here’s where the time disappears:

• Who to sell to? Account prioritization, lead scoring, territory noise
• When to engage? Intent signals, deal stage fog, ghosted opps
• How to engage? Competitive intelligence, talking points, personas, sales plays
• What’s working? Delayed coaching, no visibility into peer performance

Some of this data exists, buried in tools. 

Some doesn’t exist at all. 

And almost none is easily accessible in real time. 

The Enablement Dead End

Reps are told to self-serve from enablement platforms, tracking down battlecards or content libraries. But let’s be real, EDSPC (Enablement Document Storage Platform of Choice) = rabbit hole. 

Enablement is one of the most underutilized and scapegoated functions in the modern GTM org. 

The gap between “what to do” and “how to do it well” keeps growing. 

Along with it comes the coaching void, and the cost is felt in every forecast call. 

The Fix is On

AI is being presented as the solution, and it can be.

But it cannot be marginal, it cannot be a sprinkling of automation and embedded solutions that are singular in purpose.

The right AI for sales should: 

• Answer “Who, When and How” questions instantly
• Monitor pipeline health and rep performance in real time
• Surface deal and account risks and intelligence automatically
• Leverage your existing tech to the hilt to better equip your sellers
• Help leaders coach based on what your best reps are actually doing

The best AI for sales doesn’t sit on top of your CRM.

It unifies and orchestrates across your tech stack.

It makes static data into dynamic guidance. 

Reps should sell. Full stop. 

AI can do the rest: 

• Triage risk
• Prioritize outreach
• Draft that email with relevant customer insights
• Prompt the action
• Coach based on reality 
• Update your CRM on your behalf

Your organization wants more at-bats, and you need to stop wasting time on prep and guesswork. 

Make your entire sales org into A players. 

Growth will be guaranteed. 

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