Chris Lytle

I am a 24 year old know-it-all salesperson. On this particular Tuesday, I am meeting with Len Mattioli, the owner of American TV and Furniture. We are sitting at a dinette set in the furniture department. The meeting keeps getting interrupted by Len’s employees. When they aren’t interrupting, Len’s loses focus on the meeting to make sure customers were getting waited on and sold properly. When I get back from the meeting, I go into my sales manager’s office and say, “I hate calling on that asshole Mattioli.” “We don’t talk about our customers like that in this company, Chris.” “But he wasted an hour of my time,” I shot back. “That’s your problem. You’re fired. Go home and think about what Len’s problems are. If you come back tomorrow and you’ve figured that out, I’ll hire you back.” I go home with a another problem, the potential loss of my job. But instead of worrying about being fired, I start thinking about Len’s problem. The next morning, I am at his store at 10:00 AM when it opened. “Len, you’ve got a problem,” I say. “What’s that?” “You spend an hour or two with me to get a couple of sixty second spots written. Then, you meet with all the other reps and do the same thing. You’ve got to be spending twelve hours getting copy done. Why don’t you let me handle all of your production? I’ll even meet you after hours when you can focus on advertising alone. That way, you can get a week’s worth of advertising done in an hour. That gives you eleven hours back to work on all the other things you have to get done.” “How much would you charge me?” he asked. I thought for a minute and said, “Why don’t you pay me $1000 a month in merchandise.” “Deal,” he said. Thanks, Len. I got my sales job back and picked up a second job where ... Read More

I picked up The E-Myth: Why Most Businesses Don’t Work and What to do About It in the St. Louis airport. I read it on the flight home. Few business books have moved me to tears, but Michael Gerber’s book did. Shortly thereafter, Sarah and I signed up for a seminar with Michael Gerber. We sent in our $5,000 fee and flew to San Francisco for the three-day event. The book was better than the seminar. However, I still  remember two things about the seminar: There was an earthquake on the second day. The seminar kept right on going. Gerber made a statement  that made me mad. Then, it made me change my whole way of looking at business. He said, “There are no people problems. There are only management problems. And most management problems are systems problems. If you have weak people, you need stronger systems.” From time to time, I talk to managers who tell me, “Chris, it’s hard to find good salespeople today.” They say things like, “Chris, people just don’t want to work hard anymore.” Well, we know what people do want. Daniel Pink describes it in Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. Here’s a quick summary from his website: When it comes to motivation, there’s a gap between what science knows and what business does. Our current business operating system–which is built around external, carrot-and-stick motivators–doesn’t work and often does harm. We need an upgrade. And the science shows the way. This new approach has three essential elements: Autonomy – the desire to direct our own lives. Mastery— the urge to get better and better at something that matters. Purpose — the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves. It’s best to keep that in mind if you want to keep your people. And keep them motivated. If you believe you have people problems, ... Read More