Have the advances in communications technology and availability of more information through communications technology increased sales productivity?

Probably not, although the techie “addicts” will beg to differ. But isn’t technology becoming a distraction? Even Oprah has launched a campaign on the dangerous consequences of texting and driving. For further reference, read this website’s article on "The Brain Can NOT Multi- Task".

And it’s getting worse. Why? Because all the communications technology has overloaded the capacity of the human brain to cognitively comprehend and respond to any one piece of information. In some cases pieces of information actually get sent to the wrong parties or put in the wrong reports. Wrong information creates further errors downstream resulting in bad strategic decisions. Bad strategic decisions are huge productivity killers. It also creates errors in outcomes, resulting in quality issues. Quality issues result in downtime and costly repair scrambles.  Information sent to the wrong people results in at least an embarrassing moment and in the worst case in the hands of a competitor. All of which leads to a decrease- not an increase- in sales productivity.

In the sales world, bad information going to a prospect, a customer, or a boss does not have a pleasant outcome. Worse yet is the information intended for one party that winds up going to another. One fatal error in the clicking world can lead to information not only going to the wrong person, but getting into a competitor’s hands (or hard drive).

The bottom line is the various means of communications, business information flow, and social networking results in one thing: noise- lots of noise. When it becomes noise, it gets irritating. When it gets irritating, it isn’t too long before it gets turned off. Then what happens to productivity?

What’s the solution? Take a tech break. Face it- the world worked fine and communicated well BEFORE cell phones, the internet, or Twitter. In fact, the argument could be made that there was significantly more sales productivity prior to technology. That’s a pretty blasphemous statement, considering our company is an advocate of using the internet and technology to send messages, educate people, and provide information. However, we don’t shove it down people’s throats and don’t do it ad nauseam. In fact, we do everything possible to get technology out of the way and make sure it is a communications tool, not a sales management solution.

We have lost the ability to manage our technology- and that is where the advent of technology is killing sales productivity. There are too many people in sales and sales management that are too dependent on technology to make or break their month. As a salesman in the automation industry, one of my mental preparations for every demo or technological presentation mishap was “You’re not a real salesman until the technology fails during the presentation and you still get the order”. The show must go on.  The addition to technology by sales managers and salespeople is creating a sales force that lacks a key ingredient every salesperson MUST have to be successful: self-discipline.