In the middle of all the sales activity and project monitoring, how do you
keep your sanity about pending orders and your earnings? Remember the SANITY
SHEET ! The sanity sheet is your list on one or two pages that tells you
everything at a glance concerning what commission you will earn in a given month.
Every month you should start another sanity sheet. Information on the sheet

should be the name of the job/project, kind of product, day you expect the order,
amount of commission dollars you will receive. The sanity sheet may have any other
information you want to put on it to help you "keep your sanity" about your earnings.
Always put the basics on it so that you can look at-a-glance anytime and know how much commission money you have coming in that month

"Sanity Sheet" - This page is filed under "S" in your binder and does just what it's title says . you keep your sanity when you look at it! The reason you "keep your sanity" is that at-a-glance you can determine immediately what your commission pay will be for the coming month. The basic information on it should be listed as company (or customer) name, amount of the order, amount of your commission, plus any other brief personal information you may want to include. The purpose of this sheet is extremely important. Originally the title was not intended as a joke. In the day to day routine of sales, a person often wonders (or worries) about how much commission pay he has coming in for a particular month. In a moment of checking on his "Sanity Sheet", he can put his mind at ease about the commissions coming in.

When I first started in commission sales, I would go after a large order with a healthy commission and tell my wife about the project potential. When I would lose such an order, it was highly stressful for my wife. She once commented that she didn't understand how I could handle losing such a large commission. Of course when we won a large contract and the commission came in she was elated. The uncertainty was too difficult for her to handle emotionally. Well, it was not that easy on me either. The result of the stress was that I devised the "Sanity Sheet" so that we both could see at a glance the commissions that were certain from closed sales. Each month a new sheet was created and it brought relief and renewed focus on closings.

SUGGESTED SAMPLE BELOW

PLACE ON AN 8-1.2" x 11" LINED PAPER
DRAW EACH DIVIDING LINE TO BOTTOM OF PAPER

SANITY SHEET

COMPANY | CONTACT | PAY DATE | FEES DUE | COMMENTS
| | | |

Learn more about this author, Ed Leonard.
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