Chris Lytle

You were minding your own business and selling up a storm. And then . . . BAM! . . . you got promoted. You’re the new sales manager. The “Paradox of Management” is this: You get paid for doing less of what you got promoted for doing more of. As a salesperson, all you had to do was sell. Sure, there were tough customers and fires to put out. Once you accept the position of sales manager, however, you add a new level of complexity to your work life. How much complexity? You ask. Well, herding cats is easy compared to managing a sales team. The American Marketing Association’s online dictionary offers this definition of sales management: The planning, direction, and control of the personal selling activities of a business unit, including recruiting, selecting, training, equipping, assigning, routing, supervising, paying, and motivating as these tasks apply to the sales force. Sales management involves three interrelated processes: (1) formulation of a strategic sales program; (2) implementation of the sales program; and (3) evaluation and control of sales force performance. In formulating the strategic sales program, sales management involves a number of activities including development of account management policies, demand forecasts, and quotas and budgets; sales organization; sales planning; territory design; deployment; and routing. In implementing the sales program, sales management activities include supervising, selecting, recruiting, training, and motivating the sales force. In addition, implementation requires the development of compensation systems and sales force incentive programs. The evaluation and control of sales force performance involves the development and enforcement of methods for monitoring and evaluating sales force performance. Sales management activities typically required for evaluation and control include behavioral analysis, cost analysis, and sales analysis. You’ve probably thought of this already: You’ll want to copy and paste the above definition to a Word DOC and print it out. Then, ... Read More

If you want to save yourself from another bad hire, then ask this question toward the end of your first interview: We’re about finished with this interview. After this, I will start my reference checking and due diligence. Is there anything you would like to tell me now rather than have me find it out later from an outside source or reference? Watch what happens once you pose this question. See if the candidate’s eyes dart about in his or her head. Follow the thought processes as candidates reach back into the past to see if there’s any secrets they’re willing to share. Allow at least three minutes of “dead air” to give the candidate some thinking time. And get ready to receive some fascinating new information. Candidates will reveal some negative information about themselves. Why? Because they would rather put their spin on the information rather than have you hear it from a reference. Add this question to your list of interview questions: “Is there anything you would like to tell me now rather than have me find out from an outside source or reference?” You do have a list of questions you ask to every candidate in the same order every time, don’t you? Call me if your need help getting started with your list. My number is at the top of this website.

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