How do sales leaders want managers to spend their time? Spoiler: it's not on admin!

John Wooden is widely considered the greatest college basketball coach of all time. In just 12 years at the UCLA Bruins, he won 10 NCAA national championships, set a record of 88 victories in a row, and clinched multiple coach of the year awards. 

And if you'd asked him the secret to his success, he'd probably say 'socks'. Not tactics, technique or gamesmanship. Socks. 

Before anyone on his team was allowed to touch a basketball in the pre-season, he'd sit everyone down and show them how to properly put on their socks and lace their shoes. 

Why? Because blisters cause missed practices, and missed practices cost titles. 

Wooden understood that great coaching is about getting the basics right. Running drills, reviewing playbooks and analyzing opponents is all important, of course, but only once your team has nailed the fundamentals first. 

"It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen," he said. 

What I have been learning is sales leadership is no different. If you want your sales teams to perform, they need the knowledge and the skills to make that happen. Great training and practice teaches them the fundamentals—it’s the little things that matter.

The question is: are your managers getting the balance right? Do they focus enough on the tasks that really drive performance, like effective sales training? Or are they missing easy shots because they're stretching themselves too thin in other areas? 

If you're reading this article, you'll know the answers to these questions at your organization. But let's take a look at what other sales leaders think. 

Are sales managers juggling too many balls?

A typical day for a sales manager is a constant juggle of priorities. Mornings might start with team check-ins, pipeline reviews or client calls, followed by updating forecasts, approving discounts, working on commissions, or meetings with marketing. 

Between managing performance and coaching reps, they're also expected to chase their own deals and keep pace with shifting market dynamics. At the risk of mixing analogies, they're spinning a lot of plates. 

A recent McKinsey study found that managerial staff spend nearly a full day every week on admin tasks. Overall, nearly half of their time is spent on non-managerial work. 

For sales managers, the stats are slightly worse. They spend more time on admin—around 55% of their day is dedicated to 'internal focus' tasks like reporting, navigating internal resources and other tactical duties, according to Gartner.

Just 21% of their time is spent on coaching reps. And without proper sales skills training, your teams won't reach their true potential (or hit their targets). McKinsey figures show that outperforming organizations commit 79% more time to practice and coaching than slower-growing rivals. 

But how should sales managers be spending their time?

Sales managers may think this is just par for the course. Their bosses understand—don’t they? Well, perhaps not.

In Gartner's study, sales leaders said they want their managers to spend at least a third (34%) of their time coaching, not the 21% of time they currently spend.

What's more, sales reps themselves would welcome this change! Two thirds of top-performers say they're only able to hit targets regularly because of strong management support, while 43% claim ongoing coaching is essential. 

So what's the problem if everyone's on-board? In a word: time. There simply aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done … or are there?

Investing in success

I've talked a lot about focusing on what's important. And for sales leaders, that's making sure their managers can concentrate on revenue-generating work, whether it's upskilling their reps or other strategic essentials like building market expertise.

But that doesn't mean non-managerial work doesn't matter. After all, a great basketball coach still needs to schedule practices, oversee contract negotiations, coordinate travel arrangements, and so on. 

It's about creating the ideal environment for your teams to thrive. Remember how I said the little things matter? Well, sometimes, the little things are those admin tasks that quietly keep everything running —but they shouldn't come at the cost of coaching and performance. 

I firmly believe sales managers can be trusted to know exactly where their time is best spent. So as a sales leader, the best thing you can do is give them the gift of more time. 

One of the ways you can do that is by investing in better sales enablement tools, like AI sales training. But what is AI sales training exactly? 

AI sales training: A slam dunk

Take UneeQ Sales Trainer, for example. Our AI-powered digital human sales trainers are designed to help reps practice real-world scenarios in a safe, consistent, and scalable way. Rather than rely solely on live coaching or pre-recorded videos, reps can talk to a digital human who behaves like a real customer, complete with unique buyer personas, common objections, and other behaviors. 

Your UneeQ Sales Trainer is built with direct input from sales teams to reflect your specific industry, buyers, and sales playbook. They can also coach reps through multiple scenarios, such as renewals or objection handling, allowing reps to rehearse and refine their responses until they're confident.

Research shows that 75% of sales professionals prefer to 'learn by doing', and AI roleplay gives them the space to do just that—but with the added benefit that they can make mistakes without burning genuine leads or prospects. 

Crucially, it frees up time for sales managers. Instead of spending hours organizing and then conducting one-on-one training themselves, they can assign reps to targeted scenarios (discovery calls, soft skills, objection handling, and closing conversations, for instance.) Managers can track performance across the team, and review where further training is needed most.

This enables them to personalize their sales training, as well as allocate more time to other tasks that help your sales team (and revenue) grow.  

One less blister in the shoe of sales

So much of what separates high-performing sales teams from the also-rans comes down to coaching. But your sales managers can't be everywhere at once, and even if they could, time isn't always on their side. 

AI sales training doesn't replace your sales managers, it multiplies them. By embedding AI sales roleplay into the daily rhythm of your team, the fundamentals still get done, just more efficiently, and at scale.

What’s more, it gives them the objective insights and datapoints they need to be better managers and coaches.

In Wooden's language, it's one less blister. And that's one step closer to better performance.

Keen to give it a try? You can request a free trial here to see how AI sales training can help you reduce admin and free up time for what really matters most.

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