How to Defend Yourself from the Onslaught of Information

by Dave Kahle

“I’m spending more and more time managing information.  It’s squeezing out my selling time.” Welcome to the information age.  You are not unique.  This problem of information inundation is a relatively new but almost universal threat to your livelihood.  Four or five years ago, salespeople were not too concerned with it.  Today, dealing with information is so critical that it is an important part of almost every seminar I present.

The Main Cause – Technology & Complexity 

Technological advances in recent years have multiplied the amount of information that you must handle.  The quantity of information landing on your lap has increased from sources all around you.  Think about how much information you must keep about your customers.  A few years ago, it was OK to keep everything in your head.  Today you need forms, documents, files, and systems, both electronic and paper, to keep it all straight. 

          Consider the technical details of the products and programs you sell.  Aren’t they more complex and sophisticated than just a few years ago?  And all that complexity takes the form of additional information that you must organize and master.

          What about the computer systems you use and the information produced by them?  Most salespeople I know could spend eight to twelve hours a week just reviewing computer printouts if they choose to do so.  Add in memos from the boss, service bulletins, price increases, government regulations, new product specifications, the details of ever more complicated applications, etc. and your job is awash in information.

          The sheer volume of information coming at you is like an approaching tidal wave.  If you don’t create some safe haven for yourself, you’re going to be rendered ineffective by the absolute mass of information.

          Imagine how many precious selling hours you could waste each week if you don’t harness that tidal wave of information.  Or, imagine the time robbed from your family and personal life by the time it takes to handle more and more stuff.

          It’s time to recognize the problem for what it is: A serious and malevolent new threat to your effectiveness.

          So, what do you do?  How do you overcome this threat?  How do you get control over the flow of information and protect your valuable selling time?

Defend yourself from the useless information!

One strategy is to become defensive.  In other words, to develop ways to defend yourself from being overcome with useless information.  The idea is to keep tempting but useless information from stealing your time.

What Are You Building into Your Career and Business to Enable You to Keep up with our Rapidly Changing World?

Our ability to change ourselves and our organizations at least as rapidly as the world is changing around us will be the single greatest challenge of our professional careers.

That’s why I believe so strongly in Purposeful Learning – the ultimate success skill for our turbulent times.

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Screening Information

To do so, you need to understand and implement two key processes.  The first is “screening.”  Imagine the screen on your window.  This fine mesh allows those breezes that you want to flow into the house, while it keeps out of the house those insects that you don’t want.  So, it allows in that which you want and keeps out that which you don’t want.

          That’s the idea behind the process of screening – allowing in that which you want, and keeping out that which you don’t want.  Unfortunately, you can’t surround yourself with a physical screen.  But you can implement the discipline of “screening” all the information that comes your way.  To do so, you need to establish the habit of quickly assessing every piece of information that cries out for your time and to quickly decide if it is likely to be useful.  Useful is the key and operative word.

          If your quick perusal of a piece of information leads you to believe that it may be useful, you let that piece in.  If you believe it will not be useful, you keep it out.  In other words, you dispose of it.

          Let’s imagine a scenario.  You’ve come into the office and pulled a pile of stuff out of your mailbox.  The first thing you see is a new price list for a product line you rarely sell.   Is this useful to you?  Probably not.  You throw it out.  Next is a service bulletin on a piece of equipment that you haven’t sold in years.  Is it useful?  Probably not.  Out it goes.  Next is a computer report comparing last year’s sales in three product lines to the sales from two years ago on those same lines.  Is it useful? In the round file, it goes.

          Finally, there’s a memo from the boss outlining the agendas, location, and schedules of sales meetings for the next two months.  Better hold on to that one.  You continue on this way, quickly appraising every piece of information, and disposing of every piece you deem to be not useful.

          This whole process may have only taken a few seconds.  But your disciplined “screening” process kept a lot of “useless” information from sucking away your time.  The net effect was that you created more selling time for yourself by disciplining yourself to keep out that which is useless, and to allow in that which is useful.

Triaging Information

OK, so now you have a pile of stuff that, at first glance, looked like it might be useful.  Now, what do you do?  Implement the.... READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE