Mackay - Swim with the sharks without being eaten alive

CHAPTER ONE
Id Like 15,000 Tickets for Tonights Game, Please

CHAPTER TWO
Harvey Mackays Short Course in Salesmanship

CHAPTER THREE
Harvey Mackays Short Course on Negotiation

CHAPTER FOUR
Harvey Mackays Short Course in Management

CHAPTER FIVE
Quickies

CHAPTER SIX
Helping Your Kids Beat the Odds

CHAPTER SEVEN
The Closer: How to Succeed

Timing is everything.

People go around all their lives asking, What should I buy? What should I sell?

Wrong questions!

They should be asking, When should I buy? When should I sell?

Timing is everything.

So it was with Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive. This book hit a nervea nerve that resonated around the world. Since its publication back in 1988, Swim with the Sharks has exploded onto the scene in 35 languages. It has penetrated 80 countries. And, it has sold 4 million copies.

Sharks is currently used in hundreds of universities across the United States. Business school professors single it out as the definitive textbook for what isnt and cant be taught to students in business schools. The clergy have embraced the book for its emphasis on positive goals and constructive values. Thousands of corporations use it as a power tool in training their salesforces. Government agencies and non-profits have found it unrivaled in energizing bureaucracies and giving them entrepreneurial attitudes.

All well and good. But, there is one fact of life that we cant ignore.

Sharks change.

Its one of the laws of evolution, inescapable and deadly to avoid. If you dont keep pace with that change, you are suddenly shark bait, not sharkproof. Much has changed in the world of business in the past fifteen years:

• Secretaries once handled the office computersand then, only as word processors. Now computer literacy is a managerial survival skill and an automatic job expectation.
• Managers handle coffee cups on their own now too. Secretaries have become extinct, except at the highest levels, where they are true assistants. Starbucks has become the corporate coffeepot.
• Millions of people have been the victims of mergers, acquisitions, consolidations, downsizings, restructurings, reorganizations, and so-called right-sizings. Those who are unprepared to compete are more vulnerable than ever to predators out to eliminate your job.
• Millions of other jobs have been outsourced abroad to India and Ireland, China and Chihuahua. There is no such thing as a home team advantage on the competitive playing field anymore.
• The Bureau of Labor Statistics tells us todays grads will face 10.3 job changes in their lifetimes. That doesnt even take into account 5 career changes! Lifetime education and lifelong adaptability are paramount to survival.

Those are just some of the colossal changes. There are hundreds more in technology, marketing, human resource management, and all the other critical management disciplines.

Thats why this new edition of Swim with the Sharks has added important advice on:

• Personal networking in the PC and notebook age.
• Using sharper and updated databases to track customers and competitors.
• Employing state-of-the-art technology to save time and to reach out to others better.
• Recognizing the new personal models that are shaping management behavior.
• And knowing the behaviors that work and are accepted in up-to-date companies.

That said, there is something else that is true about sharks. They are about 400 million years old. The good news: most of their evolution stopped a couple hundred years ago. While you have to be on the lookout for those new shark skills, most of what you have to be worried about is unchanging, basic shark maneuvers. This is the heart of Swim with the Sharks. Let me mention just a few of those skills that have stood up over the last centuries, let alone the past fifteen years:

• The Mackay 66 (Lesson 4) has been considered the most effective and efficient profiling technique yet devised to collect and store relevant data on customers and prospects. If you want the take-home of the book in one key kernel, nibble here first. CEOs worldwide have told me this simple device has revolutionized their business. The Mackay 66 was a forerunner of the Information Ages data collection feeding frenzy. What does it still offer? A perspective and a focus for collecting and using that data.
• People dont care how much you know about them once they realize how much you care about them (also, Lesson 4). Thats the flip side of possessing all this detailed information. If you put it to the best use of the customer as well as yourself, you create classic win-wins.
• Smile and say no until your tongue bleeds (Lesson 20) and The single most powerful tool for winning a negotiation is the ability to walk away from the table without a deal (Lesson 24). Time and again, I still read advice about how to make a deal. Rarely do I see tips about when not to. One of the lessons a great dealmaker learns is when not to make a deal.
• I tell people, It isnt the people you fire who make your life miserable; its the people you dont fire who make your life miserable (Lesson 49). When I say this, I get more Amens than a Billy Graham sermon. And if you want to survive in todays cutthroat world, you better learn to fire others intelligently and ethically if you hope to survive.
• Make your decisions with your heart, and what youll end up with is heart disease (Lesson 30). The truth abides: Never make a significant deal on the spur of the moment. There is no more certain recipe for disaster than a decision based on emotion.
• He who burns his bridges better be a darn good swimmer (Lesson 29); Take a multimillionaire to lunch (Quickie 11); Its not only who you know but how you get to know them (Quickie 12). I used to say that networking is the most underrated management skill. Now I believe it may be the most important management skill, bar none.

So, thats the layout for Swim with the Sharks in 2005. For your convenience and instant use, each of the questionnaires included in this book can be found and downloaded from my website www.mackay.com.

Happy, safe, and successful swimming!

Harvey Mackay
December 2004

If youve just opened this book not knowing what to expect, youre in for a big treat. Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive is not one of those useless collections of worn-out business school wisdom, but an extraordinary treasure chest of information you can apply immediately to your business, your life, your relationships, and your goals. I have mixed feelings saying this because one part of me wants everyone to learn from the insights, genius, and creativity Ive come to love about Harvey Mackay, while another part wants to hoard the information for myself. In striving to build my own track record, Im convinced if I were the only person around who had this book Id lap the field. I know you will not want your competition to get their hands on this wonderful book.