May 20, 2008

Are you checking your e-mail in the middle of the night?

We hope that you aren’t one of those unfortunate people who get out of bed to check their e-mail. Believe me, people do it. We were hired by a global energy company earlier this year because their sales staff was so busy reading and responding to e-mail, they had no time to be with customers. They were also losing sleep! We learned what happens when people receive “too much e-mail.”

First of all, what does “too much e-mail” mean, specifically?

We interviewed sales managers around the world and had the IT department run some numbers. We found, universally, that anyone who received more than 65 e-mail messages each day said that they received “too much e-mail.”

What happens if you receive “too much e-mail?” If you receive “too much e-mail,” you start to miss the important messages. If your organization sell a product or service, sales might suffer. And, if you are conscientious and hard-working, you probably try to answer them all and then check your e-mail in the middle of the night.

So, what can be done about “too much e-mail?”

1. Have the CEO, department head, or manager tell everyone about the negative impact of sending too much e-mail and its affect on sales or profitability or whatever is important to your group.
2. Have your corporation, organization, department, or team develop a set of e-mail guidelines.
3. Ask people to use better judgement when they decide to send each e-mail they send.
4. Ask people to reduce the number of e-mails they send by ten each day.

Keep in mind that it’s not just the quantity of e-mail that is important, it’s also the quality of e-mail. More on that later…