Sales management · The sales manager's job
Keep a two-week log to see where your sales hours really go.
A sales manager time log is a daily record of how the manager spends working hours across selling, coaching, reviews, admin and fire-fighting. Kept for two weeks, it shows how much time reaches the team. This page ends in a keep, delegate or stop list.
Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.
In one paragraph
A sales manager time log is a daily record of how the manager spends working hours across selling, coaching, reviews, admin and fire-fighting. Kept for two weeks, it shows how much time reaches the team. This page ends in a keep, delegate or stop list.
Sunil manages a team of six at a tiles distributor in Hubballi. The day starts with a dealer asking where a truck is, moves to a credit approval, then a price call, and ends with a rep who cannot find a stock figure. At six in the evening Sunil cannot name one thing done for the team.
A time log is a notebook with the day cut into slots. You write what you did at midday and at close, not from memory the next week. After ten working days the pattern is plain, and it is not the pattern you would have described.
The owner reads the log, because the manager's time is the owner's cost. If the manager spends the bulk of the week chasing payments and fixing dispatch, the firm is paying a sales salary for an operations job. That is a decision for the owner, not a failing of the manager.
This page follows the seven-duties audit, which shows what is neglected. The log shows why. It also feeds the page on promoting a rep, because the first thing a new manager needs is time that the old role was spending.
Where this sits
Topic 1 of 14 in sales management: the sales manager's job. What the manager or owner is actually responsible for, and how to check it.
- The topic after
- Sales planning and goals
If you want this done for you
Your reps spend more hours on paperwork than on the phone.
The work
What this is actually like.
“Fire-fighting looks like work”
A dealer's complaint gets solved at three in the afternoon and feels productive. Count it. If the same kind of fire happens six times in a fortnight, the log has found a missing process, such as a dispatch status the rep can see without calling you.
“Cancelled appointments are data”
Note every one-to-one or field ride that you postponed and the reason. If the reason is always a customer call, coaching is the first duty to lose against any urgent item, and it will keep losing until it gets a fixed slot.
“Selling yourself is the quietest drain”
A manager who closes the big deals personally is a top rep with a title. Log the hours separately, and also log the deals. If the team's numbers depend on your closing, the log shows the cost in coaching time.
“Admin hides in small blocks”
Updating a stock sheet, forwarding invoices, approving a discount by phone: each takes ten minutes and none feels like a job. Added up over a fortnight they can be a full day. The log is the only way to see them.
What we do
What you end up with.
The documents this topic produces, what each one is for, and how you know it is finished.
The daily log
A page or sheet with the date, a start and end time, the activity, who it was for and a tag: team, customer, internal, admin or fire. Ten minutes each evening. Nine activity labels are plenty: selling, coaching, field rides, planning, reports, meetings, calls, travel, other.
Result: Finished when ten working days have an entry for every slot you worked.
The three-bucket total
Re-tag the same hours into developing people, driving this month's numbers, and running the office. One small table with hours and a share of the week for each bucket.
Result: Finished when the three bucket totals equal your total hours logged.
The fire-fighting record
A list of every interruption: what it was, who raised it, how long it took and whether it has happened before. Group the repeats and write the cause.
Result: Finished when each repeated fire has a named cause and a named fix.
The keep, delegate or stop list
Every recurring task from the log in one of three columns. Keep means only you can do it. Delegate means someone else can, with a name and a date. Stop means nobody needs it and you drop it.
Result: Finished when at least one task has moved off your plate to a named person this week.
A target time profile
A simple split you commit to, such as so many hours a week of coaching and field time, written on one line and pinned where you work. Re-log one week after a month to check.
Result: Finished when the second week's log is closer to the target than the first.
Why us
Why owners pick GullySales over an agency.
Marketing and sales, as one job
Most agencies stop at the enquiry. We also fix what happens after it: the reply, the follow-up, the quote and the CRM.
The person on the first call does the work
No account managers in between. You are never handed to someone you have not met.
A baseline before anything starts
Your numbers are written down on day one, so every later report compares against something honest.
The fee in writing, split three ways
Our time, your media spend and production on separate lines. You always see what goes to us.
No guarantees we cannot keep
The term is agreed in writing and never a default twelve months. We never promise a ranking or a lead count, because nobody controls those.
One office, and we say so
Nagarbhavi, Bengaluru. We work across India by call and WhatsApp and travel when a session needs to be in person.
#257, 3rd floor, Sri Nanjundeshwara Complex, Nagarbhavi 8th Block, Outer Ring Road. How we work.
Your brief
Tell us what you need, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps about your business, what you want and who decides. Most questions are a tap, and you can skip any you would rather answer on the call.
FAQ
Questions owners ask before they call.
Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.
Is a two-week log really necessary?
Who should read my log?
What counts as selling versus managing?
What if the log shows I am fully taken up by operations?
Should I use an app for this?
How much does it cost?
How long is the contract?
How soon will we see results?
Who will actually do the work?
What do you need from us?
Where to go next
The work that carries this topic further.
The rest of the sales manager's job
Or read all of sales management.
Your next practical step
Tell us what you are trying to grow, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps, mostly taps. Skip anything you would rather answer on the call.