Executive Summary
Harvey Mackay is the author of Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive: Outsell, Outmanage, Outmotivate, and Outnegotiate Your Competition. He bought a failing envelope company at the age of 26, which is now a multimillion-dollar corporation. This entire book is written in lessons. He presents each lesson in a way that makes you want to read his book. This man has done and can do just about anything.
The book may have been written in 1988, but it is most certainly not out dated. Cars may not still be ,000 but everything he talks about can be twisted to fit present-day situations. In the most basic sense of the words, management and marketing have not changed. Tactics, on the other hand, have. Harvey Mackay expresses ideas that are basic and can be changed according to what facet of life it is that one is referring to.
The Mackay 66 is an important tool that can be used to get the most information out of your customer about your customer. This profile utilizes a battery of questions in order to get insight into your customers’ wants and needs. Only the customer knows what they want and why they want it. It is your job to find out what and why that is.
You always need to keep in mind who your customer is. You need to make it a point to find out who they are in order to give them the services they require. When you know your customer, you will never run out of things to talk about, whether they are work-related or not.
Negotiation and management are two major aspects of being successful. Negotiation, by definition, is the mutual discussion and arrangement of the terms of a transaction or agreement. Key points that are worth remembering are to smile and say no until your tongue bleeds. It pays off in the long run if you are able to walk away from a deal without a deal. You are always able to go back to the table and get even better terms. Everything is negotiable, because in a capitalist society everything is for sale.
Management, on the other hand, is defined as being in control of running an organization. Managers must encompass leadership skills that run deep. The little things mean not just a lot, but everything. The little things can be used to score big. As a manager, you must encourage thinking. Your best people may spend their most productive time staring at the wall. Efficiency achieved at the expense of creativity is counterproductive.
In order to achieve success, do not plan on sticking around just to collect the gold watch. You need to challenge yourself and keep learning. You need to find something you like doing and make it pay. If you like something, you can make it pay no matter what field of business you are in. No matter where you are, you need to learn how to communicate effectively. Communication is one of the keys to success.
There is no future in saying that it cannot be done. You need to take chances. There is less to lose attempting change than to hang on to old ways in a system that rewards change.
In order to succeed, you must have a combination of determination, goal-setting, and concentration. You need to keep doing what it is you love to do. Do not quit. Your efforts will be well worth your results.
The Ten Things Managers Need to Know from Swim with the Sharks
1. Make your decisions with your heart, and what you will end up with is heart disease.
2. The single most powerful tool for winning a negation is the ability to walk away from the table without a deal.
3. Little things don’t mean a lot; they mean everything.
4. Anyone who thinks he or she is indispensable should stick a finger into a bowl of water and notice the hole it leaves when it is pulled out.
5. Your best people may spend their most productive time staring at the wall.
6. Everything is negotiable, but not everything that is negotiable should be negotiated.
7. He who burns his bridges better be a damn good swimmer.
8. Dig your well before you are thirsty.
9. Do not get mad and do not get even either. The only way you can achieve true revenge is not to let your enemies cause you to self destruct.
10. Nothing is greater to one than one’s self is.
Full Summary of Swim with the Sharks
“I’d Like 15,000 Tickets for Tonight’s Game, Please”
This chapter introduces Harvey Mackay. The opening paragraph explains that he is in a nationally publicized effort. He is trying to stop Calvin Griffith’s efforts to sell the Minnesota Twins baseball team to outside investors who would move the team elsewhere. In order for Griffith to sell the team back to Minneapolis, Mackay and Bill Veeck had to sell 2.4 million tickets. As it turns out, the Twins was sold to Minneapolis, the team was not removed, and that was that. Mackay’s efforts to save the Twins paid off. He says that most business problems can be solved if you can look beyond the money. Money is not the root of why certain people do things.
The closing line of the chapter tells us what the rest of the book is about. Its about how successful people got that way and how we can be successful, too. Mackay breaks the book down into a few major sections. The chapters on salesmanship, negotiation, and management are broken down into lessons. Following the lessons are what Mackay calls “quickies.” The Quickies are just small, straight-to-the-point chapters. The final two chapters discuss, simply put, perseverance and determination.
Harvey Mackay’s Short Course in Salesmanship
Knowing Something About Your Customer Is Just as Important as Knowing Everything About Your Product
Before you decide which approach to use with a customer, you first have to know who your customer is. When you know your customer you will always have something to talk to them about. Knowing your customer means knowing what your customer really wants. When you know what your customer wants it makes for an easier sale. You are able to provide them the service that they need.
The Mackay 66
Mackay says that it is critical to know your customer. When you know your customer you can outsell, outmanage, outmotivate, and outnegotiate your competition. You get most of the information about your customer from personal contact and from observation. Other resources can be gained from suppliers, publications, and assistants.
This information is compiled into one form: The 66-Question Customer Profile. The profile is valuable because, as salespeople leave, it prevents their accounts from leaving with them. The Mackay 66 asks a battery of questions relating to the customer, such as personal information, as well as education, family, business background, special interests, and lifestyle questions.
What Every Salesperson—And Not Enough Entrepreneurs—Know
The main point of this lesson is to know who it is you are working with. Mackay describes a headmaster of a private school who learned the names of every kid who attended his school. It makes a difference to the customers when you take a personal interest in them.
Believe in Yourself, Even When No One Else Does
This lesson tells you to never quit. You can accomplish anything if you believe in yourself. Experts said that the human body was incapable of running a mile in four minutes. No one had accomplished it until Roger Bannister. The only reason why he completed the four minute mile was because of his attitude. Training, obviously, played a big part. But, because he thought he could do it, he broke the mold and proved everyone wrong.
Seek Role Models
Mackay continues talking about Bannister’s feat. After Bannister had succeeded in the four minute mile, many other people were able to run it, too. Bannister was a role model. He proved that it could be done. Mackay continues that you are the way you are because you were most likely trying to be like someone you admired. He says that you never stop needing role models. You want to be like the people you admire.
Harvey Mackay’s Short Course on Negotiation
Smile and Say No Until Your Tongue Bleeds
Mackay asks the reader to identify how many banks failed in 1986 because the banker said NO to too many loans. The answer is none. The longer you take to make a deal, the longer you are in control. Sellers always want you to buy now. If you wait, they are going to have to give you a better deal. No seller wants to do that. Your waiting pays off significantly when terms improve because you said no. You must be prepared to say no. If you feel like you can get a better deal, do not settle or be taken advantage of because good things come to those who wait.
The Single Most Powerful Tool for Winning a Negotiation Is the Ability to Walk Away
from the Table Without a Deal
This lesson is really just a continuation of the previous one. Mackay states that just
because it is negotiable does not mean it has to be negotiated. You have to be prepared to say no and walk away from the table. You also have to mean it. Just because you said no, you will still be able to go back to the table and get even better terms.
Send in the Clones
Mackay suggests that before you go try to make a
Related Swimming Goods
