
Learn new skills, connect in real time, and grow your career in the Salesblazer Community.
Join nowLearn new skills, connect in real time, and grow your career in the Salesblazer Community.
Join nowDiscover how to drive productivity from pipeline to paycheck – and see the tools that help you close deals faster.
By Erin Hueffner, Writer, Salesforce
September 5, 2025
Sales productivity measures how efficiently a sales team turns time and resources into revenue-generating activities and results. Productivity involves maximizing your output, such as meeting sales quotas or achieving high win rates while minimizing administrative tasks, especially manually inputting data. Tools and technology that automate sales systems and processes can be used to accelerate sales productivity.
See how Sales Cloud speeds up the sales cycle with data and AI, making you more efficient at every step.
Low quota attainment poses a significant challenge for sales teams. In fact, 67% of sellers say they don't expect to meet their annual quotas. These missed opportunities directly impact the organization's revenue goals.
By focusing on increasing productivity, you can become much more efficient at converting prospects into revenue-generating customers. This can lead to:
Sales productivity is typically measured using various metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) that reflect the efficiency and effectiveness of the sales team. Important sales KPIs to track include:
Agentforce can be used as a performance management tool to autonomously collect and analyze sales productivity metrics from multiple sources, including CRM systems, emails, and call logs. Real-time dashboards provide a comprehensive view to support sales performance management and to adjust sales productivity strategies as necessary.
According to the Salesforce Trends in Generative AI for Sales report, 58% of salespeople agree that generative AI already helps or will help them increase productivity. AI is estimated to save salespeople more than four hours of work per week.
Here are eight tips to optimize sales productivity and improve your sales operations by using AI and other methods.
Sales teams use an average of 10 sales productivity tools, ranging from reporting and contact management to forecasting. However, it's hard to maintain productivity when you're constantly switching between point solutions to complete tasks, and the time spent on tools means less time spent with customers.
Sometimes quality is better than quantity, which is why 53% of sales ops professionals plan to consolidate their tools and tech stack. By focusing on a select set of the right tools, you can boost sales team productivity and lower costs.
It's essential to look for tools with AI or automation that can save you from manual tasks. More than half (55%) of sales ops professionals are updating their tools and tech stacks to prepare teams for AI adoption. Technology like Agentforce for Sales helps integrate various sales tools into one platform. For example, it enhances sales collaboration by integrating Slack to suggest and take action right in the flow of work.
Follow these steps to strategically consolidate your tools:
A sales pipeline needs clearly defined stages. Otherwise, it's difficult for you to determine the next steps and maintain visibility into the status of opportunities. By adding structure and guidance to the sales pipeline, you'll always be in productive action mode because you'll know the expected next step.
Salesforce offers several AI sales tools to keep your sales pipeline on track. Salesforce Sales Cloud combines predictive, generative, and autonomous AI within a CRM platform to support sales reps at every stage of the sales process. Sales AI monitors pipeline health and flags at-risk deals, helping teams prioritize efforts and focus on improving win rates. It uses CRM data to generate tailored recommendations for the best next action to close the deal.
Here are more ways to add structure:
According to the State of Sales, a top benefit for sales organizations using AI is the quality and accuracy of data. This is good news for sellers who may not know where or when to act, especially with the data for their assigned sales territories. A productivity problem arises when you are unsure which opportunities to prioritize or how to uncover new leads.
Sales Cloud's AI functions analyze vast amounts of territory data to identify high-potential prospects through:
The Trailhead Sales Territories and Forecasting module provides a helpful guide for developing territory plans defined by growth strategies and metrics with the Sales Cloud platform. The module explains how to increase sales productivity with sales mapping software. It renders territories as maps instead of spreadsheets, allowing you to visualize them rather than view data in columns and rows.
Numerous non-selling tasks need to be completed during an average work week. Generating quotes and proposals takes up salespeople's time, as does gaining approvals. Deals slow down because the approval process often involves multiple sales leaders and groups. However, the more productive the process is, the quicker you can close more deals.
Use sales quote automation to amplify productivity throughout the process and instantly generate, adjust, and approve quotes. Agentforce automates quoting with an agent configured via the Agentbuilder platform. The actions are driven by your own predefined pricing rules and product catalog. You can make real-time adjustments, such as applying discounts, and the agent will alert you to any necessary approvals. This ensures quotes are accurate and adhere to company policies.
Other ways that AI can streamline your quote approval process include:
Discover how Sales Cloud uses data and AI to help you build relationships and close deals fast.
In our research, 81% of sales reps say team selling helps them close. But roughly the same amount (82%) say that aligning with other sellers is at least somewhat challenging. It's likely due to the traditional competitive nature of sales and the fact that reps are often spread across in-office and remote locations.
Sales leaders also say that cross-functional alignment is the #1 tactic for growth. Here are some ways to break down silos across the organization and make teams more productive:
According to the State of Sales report, 77% of employees are satisfied with the one-on-one coaching they receive from their managers. But managers can't always be available, especially at critical times like a live sales call. This is why organizations are enhancing their training programs with AI and conducting activities such as real-time selling guidance (70%), enablement customized for individual reps (67%), and call coaching (47%).
By measuring the value and business impact of enablement programs, you can determine whether education and training are enhancing your productivity. Start with the outcomes you want to achieve, build training and milestones to get there, and track behavior changes. For example, if your sales enablement strategy is to increase win rates, identify prospects with purchasing power, and use Agentforce to track the scheduling of calls with contacts in the right roles.
Make tracking and measurement easier by using Agentforce's methods, including:
Sellers face constant pressure to meet quotas, schedule more sales meetings, and work long hours. This pressure can add up, affecting your mental wellbeing and job performance.
The Slack Workforce Index, a global survey conducted to understand how work affects employee productivity, wellbeing, and satisfaction, revealed that employees who feel pressured to work after hours report 20% lower productivity throughout the day. It also found that 50% of desk workers say they rarely or never take breaks during the workday. These workers are 1.7 times more likely than their peers to experience burnout.
The Slack State of Work report found that sellers feel a constant need to be available, with 53% of desk workers feeling pressured to respond to messages quickly, even outside working hours. Additionally, 63% of desk workers try to keep their online statuses active, even when they're not working.
On Trailhead, the Enhance Employee Wellbeing with Camp B-Well Trail covers Salesforce-tested strategies for improving team wellbeing. It offers modules on nurturing mental health and tips for mindfulness, healthy eating, and better sleep.
Sign up for the Salesblazer Highlights newsletter to get the latest sales news, insights, and best practices selected just for you.
One leading ed tech company experienced a 300% surge in business growth but struggled to scale its sales operations processes.
Although the company implemented Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and Salesforce CPQ, its sales workflows and processes weren't fully optimized. Productivity lagged as reps spent up to an hour manually researching accounts for prospect meetings and additional time on record-keeping, drafting emails, and creating quotes. New hires struggled to sift through scattered notes and call recordings to understand their territories.
Agentforce helped transform sales operations by automating manual tasks and streamlining workflows. Reps decreased account research time from an hour to just 5 or 10 minutes — a decrease of up to 92%. Improving sales efficiency is leading to increased win rates and faster deal cycles.
The company's use of Agentforce demonstrates how AI sales tools can drive productivity and growth by automating various tasks. Features like AI-enabled sales development representatives (SDRs) can engage with customers 24/7, answer product questions, handle objections, and book meetings.
Try Sales Cloud free for 30 days. No credit card, no installations.