17 Nov 2013 ... Sharks” became the success it did, especially ... title “Swim With the Sharks ... a
question or comment, visit harveymackay.com. Harvey. Mackay.
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Sunday, November 17, 2013
Good business concepts never out of style A
few weeks ago I wrote about the 20th anniversary of this column. This year I also celebrate another important anniversary — 25 years since I published my irst book, “Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive.” “Sharks” is still selling briskly around the world after all this time because the concepts haven’t changed. This is why “Swim With the Sharks” became the success it did, especially coming from a then-unknown author from the lyover state of Minnesota. Books from irst-time authors typically have print runs of 7,500 to 10,000 copies, which is only a couple of books per store. This makes it much easier for publishers to recoup their losses if the books don’t sell well. But I knew that to really give “Sharks” a chance, I needed a irst printing of 100,000
list for 54 weeks. As much as I love the title “Swim With the Sharks Harvey Without Being Eaten Alive,” Mackay a lot of people mistakenly United Feature thought I was advocating Syndicate becoming a shark. Rather, my message then and now is to give people the tools to get copies. We were meeting on along and work with sharks. the 28th loor of a New York I’m often asked to name skyscraper when I asked my the No. 1 piece of advice in publishers for a print run the book. No contest: It’s usthat size. They practically ing the Mackay 66 Customer told me to jump. Proile, which is available for Fortunately, I brought in free on my website, two huge briefcases with two harveymackay.com. The Mackay 66 is a tool that helps hularge Rolodex iles (rememmanize your selling strategy ber, this was 1988) containand take business relationing more than 6,500 names ships to a personal level. from all over the world, You can’t talk about including my connections with major companies, orga- business all the time, so it’s important to learn about nizations and associations. your customer’s education, That helped persuade the family, hobbies and interests, publisher, William Morrow, to print 100,000 copies. favorite sports teams, vacation habits, previous employ“Sharks” was No. 1 on The ment, professional and trade New York Times best-seller
associations, clubs, and so on. In other words, know what turns that person on. If you build a good relationship, you will not only get the order, you’ll also get all the reorders. And this is not just for customers. It’s also for suppliers. Use the Mackay 66 for employees and competitors — anyone you can beneit from knowing more about. Each time you encounter those people, you learn a little bit more about them and keep building your list. “Swim With the Sharks” sales lessons include: • It’s not how much it’s worth; it’s how much people think it’s worth. • The sale begins when the customer says yes (customer service). • Writing personal notes yields positive results. Fantasizing and projecting yourself into successful
situations is one of the most powerful means there is to achieve personal goals. Essential to successful negotiations are these ideas: • The most important thing in any negotiation is the ability to say no. • Everything is negotiable. • Agreements prevent disagreements. • The most important term in any contract isn’t in the contract; it’s dealing with people who are honest. • Make decisions with your heart and you’ll end up with heart disease. • If you burn bridges, you better be a damn good swimmer. Top management lessons include: • It’s not the people you fire who make your life miserable; it’s the people you don’t fire who make your life miserable. • You’ll always get the good
news; it’s how quickly you get the bad news that counts. • Little things don’t mean a lot; they mean everything. • You can’t solve a problem unless you first admit you have one. Sharing what I have learned in my decades of business has been pure delight. When I revised and updated “Sharks” in 2005, I challenged myself to see how much of my own advice I was still following. I can honestly report that my formula continues to keep me safe in shark-infested waters. Mackay’s Moral: People’s lives change in two ways: The people we meet and the books we read. Harvey Mackay is the author of the New York Times best-seller “Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive.” To send him a question or comment, visit harveymackay.com.
Amazon debuts two new original comedy series CULVER CITY, Calif. (AP) — There’s a new kid on the block at Culver Studios. Inside a towering soundstage, just around the corner from where such television comedies as TBS’ “Cougar Town” and Showtime’s “Episodes” have been ilmed, another production is in full swing. A set depicting a high-tech, twostory oice is hosting a boozy party scene for “Betas,” a comedy about a quirky crew of app creators in Silicon Valley. But unlike its neighboring productions, the new series will likely never air on TVs. Instead, it will stream on them, in addition to many other devices. “Betas” is one of the irst original series from Amazon, the online retail giant who’s taking a cue from Netlix and Hulu by producing its own shows that will be available only on Amazon Instant Video, a content service for paying members. “In the old days, I remember if you were a ilm actor, you didn’t do TV,” said Ed Begley Jr., who stars in “Betas” as a goofy, patriarchal investor. “That wall came down many years ago. Now, I think the same thing is happening on the Web. This isn’t just someone with a Handycam ilm-
The cast of “Betas,” Amazon’s irst original series, poses for a photo. The show, about a group of app creators in Silicon Valley, is the Internet giant’s irst foray into original television content. ERICA PARISE/ Amazon Studios/ Associated Press
ing something that looks like public access TV. This is a real show.” Amazon’s move into content creation is another click in the evolution of online video, legitimized earlier this year by the success of “House of Cards,” the political drama from online streaming service Netlix Inc. starring Kevin Spacey. That show was nominated for a best drama Emmy, alongside the likes of AMC’s “Breaking Bad,” which ultimately
nabbed the prize. Over the past year, Amazon.com Inc. has bolstered its streaming video library beyond typical movies and TV shows by locking down the exclusive streaming rights to such buzzed-about series as “Downton Abbey,” “Falling Skies,” “Justiied” and “Under the Dome.” The Seattlebased company is hoping to now build hype — and attract subscribers — with its own shows.
Amazon’s foray into original programming kicked of with Friday’s debut of the political comedy “Alpha House,” featuring Mark Consuelos, Clark Johnson, Matt Malloy and John Goodman as senators who live together. Goodman, an acting vet with a seemingly ubiquitous presence on the big and small screen these days, didn’t notice much of a contrast between “Alpha House” and the other TV productions he’s worked on. “The only diference was that we could curse very heavily, but that’s the only diference,” said Goodman. “We have a fantastic studio in Queens and locations all over New York City subbing for Washington, D.C. I actually know nothing about how they are going to present this (show). It was so much like a regular television show. I just don’t care.” Amazon reportedly spent $50 million to produce “Betas” and “Alpha House,” along with three children’s shows, for Amazon Prime, a premium service that provides free twoday shipping, streaming video and other perks to members who pay $79 a year. The company ordered full seasons after ofering up 14 pilots for Amazon customers to stream and
critique. “It was a super unconventional way to go through the pilot process,” said actress Maya Erskine, who plays the acerbic love interest on “Betas.” “We didn’t have a network just determining our fate right away. Amazon was actually giving this a chance to be seen. I think it takes awhile for audiences to see something and get hooked, especially on the Internet.” The irst three episodes of “Alpha House” became available free to all Amazon customers last week — same for the irst three “Betas” installments when it launches Friday. The rest of the episodes will then be available only to Amazon Prime subscribers each week. That means no binge viewing — for now — a deliberate decision by Amazon to get viewers tweeting about the shows. “When you release all the episodes at the same time, our intuition was that it gets in the way of you communicating with your friends about a show because you don’t know how many episodes they’ve seen,” said Roy Price, director of Amazon Studios. “It removes that whole watercooler aspect of watching a television show, which is part of the fun.”
