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TAKING THE POWER BACK

Written by: Corey Poirier

Article Overview: In sales technology can be your best friend or worst enemy...this article uncovers ways to use technology successfully.

TAKING THE POWER BACK

Far too often I run into people that are allowing technology to control their lives when it doesn't have to be that way.

Put bluntly, a blackberry, a laptop, a cell phone or a PDA shouldn't be controlling your life. If they are, it may be time to take the power back.

In fact, I'm only in my early 30's and I remember a time when we didn't have automated voice-mail or call waiting. At that time a cell phone was a luxury. But even back when people didn't have cell phones if the car broke down on that road so far from home, they still survived.

Now, I'm not saying that we should leave our cell phones home or go back to a time when we didn't have cell phones because they (cell phones) have certainly saved some lives and they have certainly made our lives more convenient and easy in many ways.

But unfortunately, far too many people are reacting to these technologies rather than being proactive, and I feel that this can not only hurt our potential for balance but in some cases it can hinder our productivity rather than help.

For example, when I purchased my first handheld device I was so impressed by how much easier it made the process of checking emails, I didn't realize that I was letting it control me and that it was turning me into a reactive business professional.

How was it turning me into a reactive professional, you might ask?

Well, for starters, as soon as an email would arrive, I would start working on the task associated with that email and was soon spending countless hours working on tasks that had no true benefit or impact on my sales career. What was worse was that these tasks had nothing to do with the plans I'd set for that particular day when I was putting my plan together the previous evening or previous week.

Secondly, I didn't realize the power that little device had over me until I started jumping up to check the email the second the little thing started buzzing.

So yes, I've been there, but I quickly discovered that rather than adding hours to my day the device was taking time away from it. And it wasn't the device's fault, it was mine. Now that I use the device in the manner that it was intended (for me anyway), the device has truly become a time saver and a great tool for increasing my productivity, but for me I had to take the power back for the full benefit to be realized.

And here's how I did that.

1) I decided to turn the buzzing off and simply set the device to silence so that I wouldn't know when an email was arriving.

2) I stopped bringing the device with me during non-business hours.

3) Because I didn't no the exact second every email arrived (thanks to turning it to silence) I started setting aside time to check and reply to emails (proactive) rather than replying to every email the second it arrived (reactive).

I stress the fact that these little modifications may not work for you but they made all the difference in the world for me.

The main thing is that you figure how to put these devices to work for you rather than the other way around.

And remember this: there were top performing sales professionals long before these technologies existed.

Until Next Time, Yours in Success....

CP

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