Is email killing your sales productivity?

I don’t know about you, but I get a little twitchy when I see unread messages in my inbox. In fact, I often get an overwhelming compulsion to stop everything and check them out immediately.

After all, my prospects might be ready to close the deal. Or, they have an important question I need to answer right away.

Sound familiar? The truth is, most of us do suffer from email addiction. But in reality, what we’re suffering from is dopamine addiction.

Email addiction is a real problem

I know. I know. I sound pretty smart with all this brain research I’ve been quoting this past year. But, since it’s highly likely that you haven’t been reading the latest neuroscience studies, let me clarify what I mean.  

Dopamine is a brain hormone that starts us seeking — looking out there for something — and keeps us doing it.

If we’re anticipating something and we’re not sure when it’s coming, our dopamine system is immediately triggered. That’s why we’re compelled to check emails if we’re waiting to hear back from prospects.

Here’s another thing you need to know about our dopamine system. It gets activated when it gets a cue such as a notification or sound.

Like Pavlov’s dogs, we start salivating. We can’t wait a second longer — for whatever it is we’re lusting after. We need to interrupt what we’re doing and find out what just happened.