Leverage Dopamine For Higher Sales Productivity

Dopamine is a chemical that acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain. It’s that release in our brain that makes us feel happy.

Adorable baby pictures, funny cat videos, unexpectedly seeing your favorite kind of sneaker at 50% off, or shattering your previous video game scoring record can all deliver those “happiness” shots we all crave.

Of course, none of those things help us sell more. They’re a distraction from tasks we need to get done to get sales results. As a mental break for a few minutes, no big deal. When they gobble up hours in your workday, obviously a problem.

A more insidious form of dopamine release, though, occurs when it appears we’re doing productive work but we’re not. And that’s when we cross off quick and easy, but very low-priority tasks from our to-do list. 

I introduced the idea of a “not-to-do” list to go alongside your to-do list a while back to act as a reminder on what to focus on and what to ignore.

Those two lists will help, but still requires a good amount of self-discipline.

Is there another way to get frequent happy shots during the workday that requires a little less discipline? In other words, can we channel that craving toward more useful pursuits, toward more meaningful goals?

I think so. Try this:

Modify your to-do list.

Don’t get rid of your bigger, more important goals. Just add more depth to them. Break down tasks to even smaller, easier and quicker to do tasks. And, start by doing the easiest parts first.

For example, let’s say you’ve set a goal is to develop at least one new coach in your base of clients. Coaches help you with strategy via their inside information.

There are multiple strategies to do this (I cover them in my classes), but let’s pick a simple one for illustrative purposes.

Let’s say our strategy to acquiring more coaches is to target those who are one level above your main contact. In that case, step 1 might be to acquire or create org charts. The first client you do this for should be one where you already have or could easily draw out an org chart, an easy step. That should take you 2-5 minutes. Cross that off the list. Dopamine hit.

Do that same thing for a second, third, and fourth client. Do as many as you can in 50 minutes. Cross those of the list. Dopamine hits. Congratulate yourself & take a break.

When you come back, move on to step 2 – highlighting all current coaches on the org charts. Again, a simple step, done fairly quickly. Dopamine hit.

Step 3, would be to identify those surrounding each of your current coaches as a potential target. Dopamine hit.

At that point, step 4 might be to create custom messages to reach out to these target coaches. Now, that’s a harder step. However, we’ve gotten dopamine rushes and built some momentum from accomplishing steps 1, 2 and 3. Those wins from the previous steps should give us the confidence (and discipline) needed to do this harder step. And, because it’s a harder task, once we complete step 4, that dopamine rush will feel be even stronger.

The idea is this: Follow this methodology of doing small progressively harder tasks all the way to your goal. And, if you do this right, you won’t have to refer to your not-to-do list nearly as often.

Have a great week!

Bob

P.S. This is just one small part of my Results Every Day (RED) program designed to double your productivity in 30 days. Contact me at [email protected] if you’re interested for yourself or for your team.