The Trap of Sales Efficiency

The Compass

Jevon's Paradox: The Trap of Sales Efficiency

Executive Summary

The efficiency trap in sales works like this: Tech vendors, consultants, and methodologies promise to make your sales process faster, better, and cheaper. As you and competitors adopt these approaches, sales activity volume increases across every stage of the buyer journey. But buyer capacity—the true scarce resource—becomes overwhelmed. Conversion rates decline, win rates drop, and fewer salespeople make quota despite working harder and more "efficiently" than ever. This widening gap between efficient activity and results is the trap. The very efficiency improvements meant to solve sales performance problems are making them worse.

The Origin of Jevon's Paradox

In 1865, economist William Stanley Jevons made a fascinating discovery about efficiency.

Engineers had developed more efficient steam engines to use less coal and produce less waste. They succeeded - the new designs used less coal per unit of work.

Yet Jevons observed that coal consumption in England didn't decrease—it dramatically increased.

Why? The improved efficiency made steam engines cheaper to operate, creating several effects:

1. Lower barrier to adoption: Businesses that couldn't previously afford steam power now could

2. Expanded applications: Existing users found new profitable uses for the technology

3. New industries emerged: The technology became viable for entirely new purposes

4. Growth feedback loop: As more engines were built, more infrastructure supported them

This became known as "Jevons Paradox": when a resource becomes more efficient to use, its total consumption typically increases rather than decreases. It's not about individual behavior but about market forces responding to decreased costs.

The unintended consequence? As coal use skyrocketed, air and water pollution increased dramatically.

Jevons put it simply: efficiency doesn't diminish consumption as you would expect. It increases consumption, leading to unintended consequences.

The Paradox in Everyday Life

Let's look at an example we all know: cars and highways.

As cars become more fuel-efficient, people don't drive less—they drive more. Fuel efficiency makes driving cheaper, so we take longer trips and drive more often. More families buy multiple cars. Commutes get longer.

But our highways weren't built for all this traffic. The result? Traffic jams that waste the very time and fuel these better cars were supposed to save.

This is Jevon's Paradox: when something becomes more efficient, we use more of it, not less.

The Buyer Traffic Jam

This traffic jam is happening in sales right now.

AI tools, automation platforms, and targeting systems have made creating sales messages easier and faster. But sales teams aren't sending fewer, better messages—they're sending way more messages to more prospects.

It's not just prospecting that's clogged. The entire sales process is gridlocked:

• Sales calls now include six humans and six recording tools

• Demo requests trigger automated workflows with a dozen touchpoints

• Contracts run through multiple automated systems

• Proposals are rapidly generated from templates and sent in volume

If a tool lets you reach 5x more prospects with the same effort, why wouldn't you scale up? The problem: buyer attention hasn't increased 5x. It's decreased as the flood of sales activity has grown worse.

The result? "Buyer content jams."

Just like highway traffic jams, buyers are gridlocked with too many messages and meetings they can't process. Their response? They tune out completely, ignoring good messages along with bad ones.

Jevon's Paradox: The Buyer's Efficiency Trap

The efficiency promised to buyers was supposed to make their jobs faster, better, and easier. The opposite is happening. The unintended consequence? Rather than increasing buyer engagement with sellers, it's diminishing it.

This creates major problems for Buyers:

1. Signal vs. noise: Buyers struggle to identify which messages offer value amid the flood.

2. Decision fatigue: The constant barrage drains mental energy needed for good decisions.

3. Missing opportunities: Valuable solutions get lost in look-alike messages.

4. Trust erosion: Buyers become skeptical of all vendors, even those with helpful solutions.

5. Defensive posture: Many buyers simply adopt a "say no to everything" stance.

When buyers can't find what they need among the noise, everyone loses—buyers miss solutions that could help them, and sellers miss opportunities to provide value.

Jevon's Paradox: The Seller's Efficiency Trap

The efficiency promised to sellers was supposed to make selling more productive and profitable. The opposite is happening. The unintended consequence? Rather than increasing sales performance, it's diminishing it.

Here's the biggest trap: efficiency tools were supposed to increase buyer engagement. The paradox is that they're decreasing it. So what do sellers do? They double down and increase their efforts because they're measured on engagement metrics—making the problem worse.

This creates five problems for sales organizations:

1. Diminishing returns: More outreach gets less response.

2. Everyone sounds alike: When competitors use the same efficiency tools, nobody stands out.

3. Trust erosion: Buyers become skeptical of all sales messages.

4. Misleading metrics: "Number of touches" becomes meaningless when those touches don't work.

5. Burnout: Sales reps work harder for fewer results, leading to frustration and turnover.

The AI Acceleration

Now there's a new trend promising to solve these efficiency problems: artificial intelligence. But what's happening?

Companies are using AI to generate even more messages, make more calls, and create more touchpoints. The irony is they're using AI to solve a problem created by efficiency tools, which only amplifies the paradox.

Instead of meaningful engagement with fewer prospects, AI enables:

• "Personalized" messages that still feel generic

• "Smarter" outreach that still adds to the noise

• "Automated" conversations that miss human connection

AI doesn't escape Jevon's Paradox—it supercharges it. The more efficient AI makes sales activities, the more we'll see.

This isn't a technology problem but a strategy problem. When your strategy is "reach more people more efficiently," any technology—even AI—just makes the trap worse.

Breaking Free of the Trap

How do you escape this efficiency trap? Understand this key difference:

• Efficiency is doing things right—faster, cheaper, with less effort.

• Effectiveness is doing the right things—activities that actually move the needle.

The trap happens when you focus only on efficiency without questioning effectiveness. You end up doing the wrong things faster and more often.

The way out? Shift from efficiency to effectiveness. Don't try to reach more prospects—understand them better. This approach might seem slower at first, but delivers better results.

Moving Up the Value Chain

Moving up the value chain happens on two levels:

For Salespeople:

Instead of just being more efficient, focus on:

1. Doing the right things: Be effective—focus on activities that actually move deals forward.

2. Reducing risk: Identify and address deal risks—what might derail them?

3. Supporting growth: Align activities with your goals and company objectives.

4. Improving experiences: Use tools for better interactions, not just more interactions.

5. Adding personal value: Help buyers succeed professionally beyond just selling them something.

For Your Buyer Communications:

Go beyond "our product is great" or "our features make you efficient." Show how you will:

1. Make them effective: Help them do the right things, not just things faster.

2. Reduce their risks: Address dangers they face and how you'll help navigate them.

3. Support their growth: Show how you'll help them scale and meet expanding needs.

4. Enhance their customer experience: Help them deliver better for their customers.

5. Advance their career: Help them achieve professional and personal goals.

When you and your messages move up the value chain, you break free from the efficiency trap. You become the signal buyers actively seek.

Action Steps for Sales Leaders

If you lead a sales team:

1. Quality over quantity: Measure meaningful engagement, not just activity.

2. Be different: Put resources into creating unique messages, not just more messages.

3. Respect attention limits: Buyer attention is your real constraint, not your capacity to produce content.

4. Value first: Deliver immediate value in every interaction instead of just seeking a response.

Action Steps for Individual Salespeople

If you're an individual sales rep:

1. Resist the easy way: When efficiency tools free up time, don't just do more of the same.

2. Become an expert: Use your time savings to know your prospects and their industry better.

3. Get personal for real: Mentioning someone's name isn't personalization; understanding their challenges is.

4. Build relationships: Create genuine connections instead of optimizing outreach sequences.

The Courage to Be Different

The best sales organizations understand Jevon's Paradox and do things differently. Instead of scaling activity with each new efficiency tool, they ask: "How can we use these tools to deliver more value to fewer prospects?"

This takes courage—especially when competitors are flooding the market with high-volume outreach. But as buyer attention becomes scarcer, the advantage goes to those who respect its limits.

In a world of traffic jams and content overload, success isn't about having a faster car—it's about finding a better route. For salespeople, that means using efficiency tools to deepen relationships, not just reach more people.

When everyone else creates gridlock, the win goes to those who create connection.

Navigation:

I train sales professionals, business leaders, and their AI agents on Sales and Deal strategies using the Compass AI Sales Strategy system. This training acts as a force multiplier, empowering you and your AI agents to work in alignment to win business and exceed your number in competitive environments. Feel free to reach out if I can help you with strategy. It will have a significant impact.

This was written while listening to Desert Island Discs. They interview famous and not so famous people on what 8 songs they would take with them to a desert isle and why. I admit to that selection being a bit distracting so be aware.

Artwork: Sedona by Frank Howell.

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