As organizations continue investing in digital sales tools and AI, many customer-facing professionals still spend a significant portion of their workweek on administrative tasks instead of selling. Pipedrive's latest research explores how operational inefficiencies, fragmented workflows, and cautious AI adoption are affecting sales productivity and identifies where businesses can improve performance.
Pipedrive's report, The Hidden Cost of Selling: How Work Around the Work Shapes Sales Performance, finds that administrative responsibilities continue to consume valuable selling time for customer-facing professionals.
According to the research, nearly 58% of respondents spend at least three hours every week updating CRM systems, writing meeting summaries, logging notes, and completing other administrative work that takes time away from direct customer engagement.
More than half (55.4%) also describe these administrative responsibilities as frustrating, highlighting an ongoing operational challenge beyond simple workload management.
"Sales teams today are equipped with more tools and data than ever, yet a significant share of their week is still spent on work that doesn't directly move deals forward," said Paulo Cunha, CEO of Pipedrive. "The findings make clear that the real productivity challenge in sales is the hidden cost of everything surrounding the actual selling. Reducing that friction, and giving people clarity on where to focus, is where the real opportunity lies."
The report also reveals that determining what deserves immediate attention remains difficult for many professionals.
Nearly 68% of respondents experience uncertainty about which deals or tasks to prioritize at least several times each week, while almost one-quarter report facing this challenge multiple times every day.
Administrative work surrounding customer interactions also continues after meetings conclude. More than 71% spend at least ten minutes preparing for every customer conversation, and nearly half (47.2%) require more than 24 hours to complete follow-up activities or update CRM records.
These findings suggest that supporting activities surrounding sales engagements often consume more time than the conversations themselves.
While AI continues to gain traction across sales organizations, confidence in AI-generated output remains a significant obstacle.
Only 25.2% of survey participants report that AI is fully integrated into their daily workflows. The most commonly cited barrier is uncertainty over when AI-generated content can be trusted, identified by 25.3% of respondents.
Rather than seeking complete automation, professionals appear to favor AI as a productivity assistant. The most requested capability is having AI draft emails, meeting summaries, and notes for human review, selected by 43.3% of respondents. Meanwhile, 22.4% express discomfort with AI completing tasks autonomously without human oversight.
When asked which single improvement would have the greatest impact on performance, respondents ranked better prioritization ahead of additional automation.
Knowing exactly which deals and tasks to focus on each day was selected by 18.9% of participants, followed by reducing post-call administrative work (14.3%) and minimizing switching between different software tools (14%).
The findings indicate that improving workflow clarity may deliver greater productivity gains than simply introducing more AI-powered automation.
The report is based on responses from 1,000 employed adults, including full-time employees, part-time workers, and self-employed professionals. Participants completed a structured online survey covering administrative workload, workflow management, AI adoption, and productivity challenges.
The research highlights how administrative overhead, fragmented processes, and cautious AI adoption continue to shape sales performance, while pointing toward workflow simplification and decision support as key opportunities for improving productivity.
Founded in 2010, Pipedrive is the easy, intelligent CRM loved by growing sales teams at small and medium-sized businesses. Intuitive by design, the platform gives businesses complete visibility into their sales pipeline and acts as a single, trusted source for customer and deal data. Pipedrive operates like a virtual team behind every salesperson by automating manual workflows, recommending next-best actions and keeping deals moving. Today, more than 105,000 companies across 180+ countries use Pipedrive to accelerate growth. Headquartered in New York, the company is backed by majority shareholder Vista Equity Partners alongside other leading global technology investors. Learn more at www.pipedrive.com.
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