Yes, that’s right PMS! Actually I’m quite fond of PMS. In reality, I have PMS all over the place: in the air, when I fly my airplane; in the gym when I workout; in the wide open spaces while mountain biking for a long ride. I have PMS for my sales training company.
PMS keeps me safe and proficient when flying my airplane. When weightlifting, PMS provides me with physical and mental strength. When mountain biking, PMS supports my lean, fit body. Professionally, PMS for my sales training company keeps me focused and my revenues high.
PMS stands for “Personal Minimum Standards”. If you are a salesperson, do you have PMS for your sales production? As a sales manager, do you have PMS for your sales team? If not, then the information given here will provide you powerful tools and ideas that will help you have high levels of PMS!
Sales people are an interesting group. Even though I conduct sales training and sales consulting regularly, observing sales personnel is an ongoing education in human dynamics. Daily, I have the pleasure of working with front-line salespeople, mid-level sales management and CEOs across the country.
Only a few of the sales people and sales managers break through and become highly successful in their specific sales industries while the rest remain average. There is always a small group of strivers who are willing to work hard to achieve success. Know this: Highly successful salespeople HAVE PMS! The rest of the sales pack does not!
- Find out more about Chuck’s Sales Tune Up program by clicking HERE.
Sales people in general follow the 80/20 rule; 80% of their time is spent “dinking off”, while the other 20% of their time is spent in revenue-producing activities. The highly successful salespeople reverse the trend: they spend 80% of their time producing revenue. If you are reading this, and say to yourself “I would never dink off, I am too busy . . .” I’d have to ask, “Too busy doing what? Are you doing busy work all day, instead of productive activity?” Know this: Generating NEW business is the lifeblood of any sales organization. If you are spending 80% of your day being busy, maintaining existing or old clients/accounts, then you might re-examine the reality of your 80% world. If you are in that “maintenance” or comfort zone, and not adding new business to your plate or your company’s plate, then use your new PMS to get started on new business today.
Having “Personal Minimum Sales” Standards is vital to a successful career in sales. Your PMS guarantees that you will become Sales Distinctive. Your PMS will establish great habits and important disciplines which help you stay focused and on-track, towards the highest level of success. Follow the next three simple steps to help you establish your PMS.
STEP ONE
To establish your PMS right now, today, first review the following list of Daily PMS:
- Pause and ponder each one and then apply some significant thought to which ones will propel you to higher levels of sales success.
- Check off the ones you could implement right away and then do it!
- Figure out your daily PMS Forecast Number for each metric. Remember, these will be your MINIMUMS for each specific activity that you have marked off. There are blank fields below for you to fill out your own minimums. If you think of other items that will work more efficiently for you, write them in the spaces provided. Make changes if they will fit your sales method better than the ones provided.
- The PMS Chart helps your rate your daily “forecast” versus your “actual” daily numbers. This helps you determine your weak areas that would require improvement on your part.
STEP TWO
Understand WHY your Sales Coach would ask you to do such a trivial task as determining your daily PMS. If you were my client, or enrolled in my Professional Sales Training Program, I guarantee you will have a complete understanding of the differences between Major and Minor Activities: a Major Sales Activity is “Revenue-Producing” and a Minor Sales Activity is “Non-Producing”.
Many sales people, regardless of their industry, stay in “minor activity” because it is comfortable. If you are truly serious about achieving higher levels of sales success, you will place a high level of significance on your daily PMS. My “A” and “B” grade level sales students earn those high marks because the majority of their day is spent on CORRECT, productive activities. In fact, “A” and “B” student do minor activity only AFTER the major daily PMS goals have been achieved.
When you “get” the differences between Major and Minor and you form the habits and disciplines to take it to the next level, you are on your way to success, guaranteed. This only happens to those who are REALLY SERIOUS about their sales success.
- Get your FREE copy of Chuck’s SalesMastery “Sales Assessment” by clicking Here.
STEP THREE
Print out the FREE the Chuck Bauer Weekly PMS Chart – see big red star to the right side of page. The chart works this way:
- You will find that Chuck’s PMS Chart is in a MSN Word format. That gives you the ability to change the PMS Categories to fit your own sales method of operation.
- Weekly, on Sunday evening, take about 5-10 minutes before you go to bed, find a quiet place in your home, home office or study and fill in the Weekly PMS Chart for the following week. Average or below average sales people will fill out the chart “just to fill it out.” Those salespeople who are striving to become more successful will give serious thought to getting their upcoming sales week started correctly.
- Obtain a three ring spiral bound notebook and print out 50 of the Weekly PMS Sheets; that will take care of your time for the next 12 sales months.
- Focus on what your TOP 20 Major Activities will be for the upcoming week.
- Write out your target number for each of your daily PMS.
- The Weekly PMS Charts include an hour-by-hour tracking mechanism for each day. Each hour of the work day, write in that space what you did in that hour. Be honest: if you were surfing the net on personal stuff, write it down. If you were closing a sale for that hour, then write down “closing”.
- When arriving at your office on Monday morning, ask one of your sales associates to sign the bottom of your Weekly PMS chart and ask that person to hold you accountable to your weekly PMS.
- POST your chart on your wall in your office – somewhere close to where you sit. It will serve as a constant reminder of your daily PMS, and help keep you on track. You also need to track and write down your activities through the day to see how your actions compare to your planned activity.
- At the end of the day, play back your sales performance. Review your PMS. The results should either applaud you or prod you. This should help you prepare for being more productive on your next sales day.
- At the end of the week, take inventory and highlight 1-2 Major items that you can focus on for improvement the following week.
- At the end of your sales week, get two highlighter pens. My personal preferences are ORANGE and GREEN. Go back through the hour-by-hour tracking mechanism and the hourly boxes that were MAJOR revenue-producing hours – then fill them in with the GREEN marker – GREEN for money. For the hour blocks that were non-revenue producing, fill those in with the ORANGE highlighter. Be honest. MOST sales people will have about 20% of their blocks filled out in green; the other 80% will be orange. If you have been honest in your scoring, you might find some room for improvement on how you are spending your time.
- If you need to spend time thinking about a task to determine if it is a Major or Minor activity, then it is usually Minor.
PMS is a great thing. You can also apply these simple PMS techniques to your spiritual life, your relationships, your finances, your health and fitness and your physical environment. Imagine what advances you could make if you had PMS established in all these significant life categories, in addition to your Sales PMS.
Remember this adage by Business Coach Chuck: “It is not important where you are today with your sales. It is more important where your sales will be a year from now!” If you follow the PMS method of operation outlined here you will be well on your way to higher levels of success and personal sales revenue, guaranteed.
