25 years ago, a salesperson might have been forced to unplug an entire PC and load it into a car to give a presentation to a client on the road. In today’s sales technology landscape, cloud-connected mobile apps let salespeople access their data from anywhere and everywhere.

But technology can hurt salespeople as much as it helps them.

Innovation has taken control out of the hands of the salesperson and given it to the buyer. Because average people can conduct thorough research on the Internet, 60 percent of the purchasing decision is made before the salesperson even enters the equation.

Technology drives sales just as it leaves salespeople at its mercy. Understanding the relationship between sales and technology is critical to adopting the right technology and avoiding that which acts as a barrier.

Addicted to Multitasking

Multitasking used to be glorified as a valued skill on a resume. Today, we know it actually isn’t efficient at all.

What good is doing five things at once if they’re all being done poorly?

As of 2015, digital distraction replaced drunk driving as the number one killer on British roads — and digital distraction can kill a workplace, as well. The BBC reports that in 2004, the average worker switched their attention every three minutes. By 2012, that number fell to one minute and 15 seconds. By 2014, the average employee was distracted by a device every 59.5 seconds.

Leadership expert Simon Sinek has discussed at length the relationship between success and the brain’s four “happiness chemicals”: dopamine, serotonin, endorphins and oxytocin. Pings, alerts and updates on our devices actually trigger the release of those chemicals into the brain’s pleasure centers, just as gambling or drugs does for an addict.

The Rude Dinner Guest: Digital Distraction and Customer Experience

When someone is glued to a smartphone throughout the course of a dinner, it tells the other dinner guests that they are not the most important people to that person at that time.

This unhealthy use of technology can have the same effect on clients when dealing with salespeople. Email is a wonderful medium that has streamlined communication and rendered letter writing an obsolete formality.

But some people use email as a way to avoid real communication. If email is not a client’s preferred medium, but that client can’t reach a salesperson any other way, the client is going to feel neglected and pushed aside.

Technology addicts will interrupt something urgent to immediately check an incoming email notification or text. This momentarily changes the priority of what is actually important.

This misplacement of priorities is seen all the time in the modern sales world. When a sales manager cancels a morning meeting to go put out some fire that pops up, the sales team feels that the manager did not prioritize what was important to them.

Sales coach Jack Daly has described the benefit of deciding what is important, and then pursuing that at the expense of incoming distractions. Sales managers should prioritize the things that are important to the people they are tasked with helping.

The Future of Sales Technology

The two biggest trends driving sales are mobile technology and apps. The evolution of smaller, fragmented apps that combine to form part of something bigger will be the future of the industry. This can be seen in apps and APIs that link to other programs.

Managers who recognize the pace of emerging technology in both personal and business spaces will be best prepared to apply the right technology to their sales team.

One thing that will not change is the importance of a stellar online presence. It used to be the job of the salesperson to inform customers about the industry, trends and products. Today, Google is a customer’s first stop for that information. Since so much online research is done before salespeople even enters the discussion, their online reputations had better precede them.

The history and future of sales is directly tied to the history and future of technology. Technology can speed things up or it can grind a process down with distractions and digital clutter. MDs should only prioritize the technologies that don’t confuse their priorities.