Good morning. Your sales reps are spending 70% of their time on admin work. Sysco just rolled out AI tools to fix that for their team. Here’s what it means for you.
TODAY’S HEADLINES
📉 Sales reps only spend 28% of their time selling. The rest? Admin.
🤖 90% of Sysco’s sales team is now using AI tools daily
🎯 A simple tactic to win back lapsed accounts
DISTRIBUTION
THE SELLING TIME CRISIS
New research from Salesforce shows the average sales rep spends just 28% of their week actually selling. The rest? Data entry, CRM updates, internal meetings, and chasing down order status.
Sysco is trying to fix that. The $78B foodservice giant just reported that 90% of its 10,000+ sales reps are now using its suite of AI-powered tools daily—up from a small pilot just 18 months ago.
The tools handle:
• Route optimization
• Predictive ordering suggestions
• Automated follow-ups for at-risk accounts
The result? Sysco says its reps are spending less time on admin and more time in front of customers—and it’s showing up in their numbers with stronger retention rates in key accounts.
For smaller distributors, this is the competitive pressure to watch. The giants aren’t just outspending you—they’re outautomating you.
PLAYBOOK
WIN BACK A LAPSED ACCOUNT THIS WEEK
Here’s a tactic that takes 15 minutes and consistently works:
Pull a list of accounts that haven’t ordered in 60–90 days
2. Pick one. Call the buyer directly (not email)
3. Say: “Hey, I noticed it’s been a while. Did we drop the ball somewhere, or did something change on your end?”
That’s it. No pitch. No catalog. Just a real question.
Most of the time, you’ll hear one of three things:
• “We switched to [competitor]” → Ask what made them switch
• “Budget cuts” → Offer a smaller trial order
• “Nothing, just forgot” → Send a quick reorder sheet
You don’t close everyone. But you’ll learn more from these calls than a month of email follow-ups.
BY THE NUMBERS
📊 $78B — Sysco’s annual revenue (largest U.S. foodservice distributor)
📊 28% — Portion of time sales reps spend actually selling (Salesforce)
📊 90% — Sysco reps using AI tools daily
📊 10,000+ — Size of Sysco’s sales force
QUICK HITS
🔗 Sysco Q2 Earnings Call Recap
🔗 Salesforce “State of Sales” Report (2024)
🔗 Route Optimization 101: A Primer for Distributors
YOUR TURN!
What’s eating up your sales team’s time that isn’t selling?
That’s it for today. If this was useful, forward it to someone on your team.
See you Next Week,
The Distribution Edge