Summary

This straight-from-the-hip handbook by bestselling author and self-made millionaire Harvey Mackay spells out the path to success for readers everywhere. They will learn how to: Outsell by getting appointments with people who absolutely, positively do not want to see you, and then making them glad they said "yes!" Outmanage by arming yourself with information on prospects, customers, and competitors that the CIA would envy - using a system called the "Mackay 66." Outmotivate by using his insights to help yourself or your kids join the ranks of Amercia's one million millionaires. Outnegotiate by knowing when to "smile and say no" and when to "send in the clones." This one-of-a-kind book by a businessman who's seen it all and done it all has sold almost 2 million copies, and is the essential roadmap for everyone on the path to success.

Author Biography

Harvey Mackay is the chairman and chief executive officer of Mackay Envelope Corporation and has been elected to the Minnesota Business Hall of Fame. He is an internationally renowned public speaker, an avid runner and marathoner, and a number-one-ranked tennis player in Minnesota.

Author's Note

Foreword by Kenneth Blanchard

Acknowledgments

xix

CHAPTER ONE "I'd Like 15,000 Tickets for Tonight's Game, Please"

(8)

CHAPTER TWO Harvey Mackay's Short Course in Salesmanship

(56)

Lesson 1 It's Not How Much It's Worth, It's How Much People Think It's Worth

(4)

Lesson 2 There are Objections to Every Proposition, No Matter How Attractive

(3)

Lesson 3 Knowing Something About Your Customer Is Just as Important as Knowing Everything About Your Product

(3)

Lesson 4 The 66-Question Customer Profile

(9)

Lesson 5 The Mackay 66 Continued: War Stories

(4)

Lesson 6 Once You Attach Your Personality to a Proposition, People Start Reacting

(1)

Lesson 7 Racial and Religious Prejudice and Human Envy Have Not Been Eliminated

(3)

Lesson 8 How to Handle the Tough Prospect

(6)

Lesson 9 Create Your Own Private Club

(2)

Lesson 10 Short Notes Yield Long Results

(2)

Lesson 11 The Second-Best Place to Look for New Business

(1)

Lesson 12 What Every Salesperson-and Not Enough Entrepreneurs-Know

(2)

Lesson 13 Keep Your Eye on Your Time, Not on Your Watch

(3)

Lesson 14 If You Don't Have a Destination, You'll Never Get There

(3)

Lesson 15 Believe in Yourself, Even When No One Else Does

(2)

Lesson 16 Seek Role Models

(2)

Lesson 17 Fantasize

(3)

Lesson 18 The Easiest, Least Expensive, and Most Neglected Form of Advertising

(1)

Lesson 19 Show Me a Guy Who Thinks He's a Self-Made Man and I'll Show You the Easiest Sell in the World

(1)

CHAPTER THREE Harvey Mackay's Short Course on Negotiation

(40)

Lesson 20 Smile and Say No Until Your Tongue Bleeds

(4)

Lesson 21 Send in the Clones

(3)

Lesson 22 There Is No Such Thing as a Sold-Out House

(2)

Lesson 23 Understanding Your Banker

(3)

Lesson 24 The Single Most Powerful Tool for Winning a Negotiation Is the Ability to Walk Away from the Table Without a Deal

(3)

Lesson 25 "Calling Mr. Otis"

(2)

Lesson 26 The Most Important Term in Any Contract Isn't in the Contract

(1)

Lesson 27 Agreements Prevent Disagreements

(2)

Lesson 28 The Longer They Keep You Waiting, the More They Want to Deal

(3)

Lesson 29 He Who Burns His Bridges Better Be a Damn Good Swimmer

(2)

Lesson 30 Make Your Decisions with Your Heart, and What You'll End Up with Is Heart Disease

(4)

Lesson 31 Never Buy Anything in a Room with a Chandelier

(4)

Lesson 32 Everything's Negotiable

102

(2)

Lesson 33 The Buyer/Seller Battle

104

(3)

CHAPTER FOUR Harvey Mackay's Short Course in Management

107

(100)

Lesson 34 The Single Greatest Mistake a Manager Can Make

109

(5)

Lesson 35 When a Person with Money Meets a Person with Experience

114

(4)

Lesson 36 You'll Always Get the Good News; It's How Quickly You Get the Bad News That Counts

118

(3)

Lesson 37 Throw It on the Floor

121

(2)

Lesson 38 Treat Your Suppliers the Way You Treat Your Customers

123

(4)

Lesson 39 The Time for the Renaissance Man Was the Renaissance

127

(3)

Lesson 40 Never Be Your Own Hatchet Man

130

(2)

Lesson 41 On the Other Hand, If You Are Going to Be Your Own Hatchet Man

132

(2)

Lesson 42 Little Things Don't Mean a Lot; They Mean Everything

134

(4)

Lesson 43 How to Spot a Winner

138

(2)

Lesson 44 Your Best People May Spend Their Most Productive Time Staring at the Wall

140

(3)

Lesson 45 It's More Fun When It's Spontaneous

143

(1)

Lesson 46 Have You Ever Seen a Stand-Up Strike?

144

(2)

Lesson 47 It Isn't Practice That Makes Perfect; You Have to Add One Word: It's Perfect Practice That Makes Perfect

146

(3)

Lesson 48 Trust the Experts...to Be Wrong

149

(2)

Lesson 49 It Isn't the People You Fire Who Make Your Life Miserable, It's the People You Don't

151

(1)

Lesson 50 The Best Way to Chew Someone Out

152

(2)

Lesson 51 Never Let Anyone, Particularly a Superstar, Pick His or Her Own Successor

154

(3)

Lesson 52 Give More Conventions and You Can Give Fewer Raises

157

(2)

Lesson 53 How Many Salespeople Do You Have?

159

(2)

Lesson 54 Get Bored Easily

161

(2)

Lesson 55 Ask an Old Grizzly

163

(2)

Lesson 56 Knowing When Not to Work Hard Is as Important as Knowing When To

165

(3)

Lesson 57 Owning 1 Percent of Something Is Worth More Than Managing 100 Percent of Anything

168

(3)

Lesson 58 Dig Your Well Before You're Thirsty

171

(1)

Lesson 59 Treat Your Own People the Way You Treat Your Customers

172

(4)

Lesson 60 How to Be Fired

176

(2)

Lesson 61 You Can't Solve a Problem Unless You First Admit You Have One

178

(2)

Lesson 62 If You Can Afford to Buy Your Way Out of a Problem, You Haven't Got a Problem

180

(2)

Lesson 63 "I Have Never Seen a Bad Resume": John Y. Brown

182

(6)

Lesson 64 The Acid Test for Hiring

188

(1)

Lesson 65 If You Want to Be Santa Claus, Your Sled Better Be Able to Pull a Trailer

189

(1)

Lesson 66 What's the Best Way to Save Time?

190

(2)

Lesson 67 Don't Get Mad and Don't Get Even Either

192

(2)

Lesson 68 Know Thine Enemy

194

(10)

Lesson 69 Don't Be Intimidated by a Reputation

204

(3)

CHAPTER FIVE Quickies

207

(20)

Quickie 1 Gratitude Is the Least Deeply Felt of All Human Emotions

207

(1)

Quickie 2 It's Not Your Last Good Idea

208

(1)

Quickie 3 Buy Cheap Cars and Expensive Houses

209

(1)

Quickie 4 How to Get to Know a Celebrity

209

(3)

Quickie 5 The Best R&D in the World Is Never More Than a Keystroke Away

212

(1)

Quickie 6 "Nothing Is Greater to One Than One's Self Is"-Walt Whitman

213

(1)

Quickie 7 There Is No Such Thing as a Bad Memory

214

(1)

Quickie 8 Put Your Memory Where Your Mouth Is

215

(1)

Quickie 9 Stay Sharp by Predicting the Future

216

(1)

Quickie 10 It Usually Pays to Look Good, but Sometimes It Pays a Lot More to Look Bad

217

(1)

Quickie 11 Take a Multimillionaire to Lunch

218

(1)

Quickie 12 It's Not Only Who You Know, but How You Get to Know Them

218

(1)

Quickie 13 To a Normal Person, $10 Million Will Seem Like Enough

219

(1)

Quickie 14 How to Beat the Law of Supply and Demand

219

(1)

Quickie 15 There Is a Place in the World for Anyone in the World Who Says, "I'll Take Care of It"

220

(1)

Quickie 16 Never Give the Same Speech Once

221

(2)

Quickie 17 There Are Two Times in Life When You're Totally Alone: Just Before You Die and Just Before You Make a Speech

223

(2)

Quickie 18 The Beauty of Cash

225

(1)

Quickie 19 The Meaning of Life

226

(1)

CHAPTER SIX Helping Your Kids Beat the Odds

227

(10)

Helping Your Kids Beat the Odds

227

(1)

Don't Plan on Sticking Around Just to Collect the Gold Watch

228

(2)

Find Something You Like to Do and Make It Pay

230

(1)

Make Believe Your Parents Are Right Some of the Time

231

(2)

There's No Future in Saying It Can't Be Done

233

(1)

Its Harder to Be a Success When Your Parents Already Are

234

(3)

CHATPER SEVEN The Closer: How to Succeed

237

(12)

How to Succeed

237

(5)

Determination + Goal-Setting + Concentration = Success

242

(7)

Index

249

(12)

About the Author

261

Supplemental Materials

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

Excerpts

Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive
Outsell, Outmanage, Outmotivate, and Outnegotiate Your Competition

Chapter One

"I'd like 15,000 Tickets for
Tonight's Game, Please"

The fifteen minutes of fame that the late Andy Warhol promisedeach of us came to me in the spring of 1984. I was the point manin a nationally publicized effort to outflank Calvin Griffith, theowner of the Minnesota Twins baseball team. Griffith wanted tosell his ball club to a group of Florida businesspeople who wouldhave moved the Twins to Tampa. Another group, consisting ofTwin Cities people, with which I was involved, wanted to keepthe club there, under local ownership -- and see to it that wedidn't get caught up in a very expensive bidding war.

Unlike Calvin, we had a secret weapon: Bill Veeck.

In case you don't know who Bill Veeck is, he was the manwho, in 1951, as owner of the hapless St. Louis Browns, stagedan innocent-appearing promotion that so upset the baseball establishment -- and so endeared him to baseball fans -- that foras long as the game is played, he will be remembered as the manwho "sent a midget to bat."

At three feet, seven inches and sixty-five pounds, EddieGaedel, ordinarily a vaudeville performer, gave the Browns oneof their rare distinctions. He was the first and only certifiablemidget to appear in a Major League Baseball game. For therecord, he walked on four straight pitches and upon reaching firstbase was replaced immediately by a pinch runner. True to form,the runner was stranded on third and the Browns lost the game.But from the uproar Veeck had created you would have thoughthe'd called Babe Ruth a transvestite.

Veeck also operated five baseball clubs, three in the majorsand two in the minors, won pennants, set major-league attendancerecords, was the promotional genius who helped innovatebat night, glove night, fan appreciation night, players' names onuniforms, exploding scoreboards, the ivy-covered walls of theWrigley Field bleachers, the expansion of the major leagues, theunrestricted draft, and such yet-to-be-adopted proposals as interleagueplay.

In a word, he was a visionary. In another word, he was a maverick.My first contact with Veeck was simple enough. I pickedup the phone and called him. Veeck prided himself on beingtotally accessible to anyone. Unlike most club owners, Veeckroamed the stands, schmoozing with his customers, instead ofhiding out in a private box, à la Steinbrenner. Veeck had opinionson just about everything, and he loved to lay them on anyonewho would listen.

As the situation in the Twin Cities began to unfold, I foundmyself calling Veeck almost daily. Here's what we were upagainst: Griffith had an escape clause in his stadium lease thatpermitted him to cancel if the Twins' attendance did not reach 4.2 million fans over a three-year period. Thanks to an inferiorproduct, attendance over the previous two years had been so badthat by the end of the 1984 season the Twins would have had todraw 2.4 million to reach the 4.2 million total. However, if thetotal was reached, Griffith would be bound to his lease, and toMinnesota, for three more years.

Though he'd be free once again to leave after each three-yearstint, he knew and we knew that once he had announced his desireto leave, the already disgruntled fans would turn on hisshoddy product with a vengeance, and he would be forced to endureanother three years of horrendous attendance and red ink.

So, unwilling to spend the money necessary to improve theteam, he was determined to sell. Just as we were determined tosee that the Twins hit 2.4 million in attendance in 1984. And hehad only one group to sell to: us.

Our problem was that 2.4 million was an almost impossiblegoal. Veeck had set a major-league record that stood for fifteenyears when he drew 2.8 million with a pennant-winning club inCleveland. Less than a month into the 1984 season, it was clearthe Minnesota Twins were going nowhere.

Confident that there was nothing anyone in Minneapolis orSt. Paul could do to bind Griffith to his lease, in late April theFlorida group endeared themselves to Griffith. They accomplishedthis by ridding him of a longtime antagonist, Gabe Murphy,when they bought Murphy's 43 percent minority interest inthe club for $11 million.

Griffith then announced that he was open to all offers for hismajority interest as long as they were for at least $50 million,which is what the pennant-contending Detroit club had just soldfor. Calvin then sat back waiting for the bidding war to unfold betweenTampa and Minnesota for the remaining stock.

What he hadn't counted on was the tenacity of the Twin Cities community and the long memory of Bill Veeck. Twenty-fiveyears earlier, Veeck, as the owner of the Chicago White Sox, hadvoted at an American League meeting in favor of Griffith's moveof the Washington Senators franchise to Minnesota. In exchange,Veeck felt he had an agreement from Griffith to support Veeck'sbid for an expansion franchise in newly vacated Washington. ToVeeck's mind, Griffith reneged on the deal when he voted for anothergroup. It was an act Veeck would not forget. He devotedan entire chapter of his autobiography, Veeck as in Wreck, toGriffithian duplicity, a topic that also included another ancientwound inflicted years earlier when Griffith's uncle, Clark Grif-fith, supposedly reneged on a promise to let Veeck move theBrowns' franchise to Baltimore.

What Veeck told me was that if we could mount a buyoutTwins tickets sufficient to boost 1984 attendance to 2.4 million,Griffith would cave in and sell to us at our price, knowing thatthe club couldn't be packed off to Tampa, the fan resentment overhis threatened move would be so great he couldn't afford to operateit any longer ...

Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive
Outsell, Outmanage, Outmotivate, and Outnegotiate Your Competition. Copyright © by Harvey Mackay. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

Excerpted from Swim with the Sharks Without Being: Outsell, Outmanage, Outmotivate, and Outnegotiate Your Competition by Harvey Mackay
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