BOOK SUMMARY 111 The Mackay MBA of Selling in the Real World
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Summary written by: Peter Nakamura
“Look
at yourself in the mirror. If you like what you see, capture the same positive
energy every morning of your life.”
– Selling in the Real World, page 21
Harvey
Mackay is a world-renowned business speaker and sales guru. He’s written
multiple New York Times best-selling books and his work has been recognized by
sales leaders the likes of John C. Maxwell and Jeffrey Gitomer. In his latest
book, The Mackay MBA of Selling in the Real World, Harvey
shares with his readers the keys to becoming a top performing salesperson and
lessons that he’s learned from his life starting as a newspaper delivery boy to
becoming the CEO of a $100 million company.
The
book isn’t so much about the latest sales tactics and strategies. Harvey is
pretty old school when it comes to his approach, but the core of his message is
about the intangible aspects that makes a sales superstar. His book comes in
highly digestible, bite-size pieces so you can pick-up the book from anywhere
you want and there’s always a nugget that you can easily apply to your life and
career.
To me,
this book was all about the mentality of what makes you successful in sales and
in life. (Aren’t we all in sales after all?) Chock full of inspirational quotes
like “make a second effort your second nature” and stories with a powerful
message, this book will give you a greater sense of confidence and motivation
to be the best salesperson you can be.
The Golden Egg
Be a Hungry Fighter
"If
I had to name only three traits that make a great sales representative, they
would be: hungry fighter, hungry fighter, hungry fighter."- Selling in the Real World, page 1
Right
from the get-go, Harvey stresses the importance of being a hungry
fighter. I love the term hungry fighter because it captures so much of what
it means to be in sales. According to Harvey, being a hungry fighter means that
you’re driven and have a passion for what you sell. It’s about having a strong
work ethic and a high energy level. It’s about being willing to work longer and
harder than your peers especially when the times are rough or
the economy is poor.
The
theme of being a hungry fighter appears throughout the book and for good
reason. Sales is a contact sport and being able to handle rejection and
maintain a positive attitude is something that all salespeople need to be able
to do. Vince Lombardi, legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers once said,
“It’s not whether you get knocked down. It’s whether you get up again” and a
hungry fighter always gets back up.
Gem #1
Maintain a Positive Attitude
"Success
may not be predictable, but its achievement nearly always relies on a spirit of
positive thinking."- Selling in the Real
World, page 153
Maintaining
a positive attitude is critical for sales success. When faced with
a sea of rejection, the salesperson that is able to overcome the self-doubt and
pressure always comes out on top. Winston Churchill was famously quoted saying,
“I am an optimist. It doesn’t seem too much use being anything else.” A hungry
fighter is one that can appreciate the realism of a challenge but is willing to
do whatever it takes to overcome it.
Optimism
pays off as well. A psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania found that
optimists are more successful than equally talented pessimists in business,
education, sports and politics. The study showed that optimists outsold
pessimists by 20 percent the first year. During the second year, optimists
outsold pessimists by 50 percent!
Harvey
is an eternal optimist and he believes that there is nothing we can’t do if we
set our minds to it. It helps to be realistic but not when it limits your
potential. Most of us will not pitch in the World Series but we can still set
an ambitious goal to achieve in our lives. A hungry fighter with a positive
attitude starts the day getting pumped up about the day and spends the rest of
the day fighting the self-doubt and worries that might paralyze action. How are
you developing and maintaining a positive attitude each day?
Gem #2
Embrace failure and learn from it
"People
are successful because they face adversity head-on to gain strength and skill.
They don’t take the path of least resistance."- Selling in the Real World, page 132
Just
as important as maintaining a positive attitude is the ability to embrace
failure and learn from it. Four hall of fame coaches in the NFL – Tom Landry,
Chuck Noll, Bill Walsh, and Jimmy Johnson – earned a total of 3 wins in their
first seasons coaching combined. All four of them also failed to
make the playoffs the following season. But when all was said and done, they
won 11 Super Bowls between the four of them by the end of their coaching
careers. Some might say the adversity that they faced during the first couple
of seasons set them up for subsequent success.
Harvey
believes that there are three key ingredients to success: don’t quit; don’t
quit; don’t quit. Theodore Geisel (aka Dr. Suess), author of The Cat in
the Hat, didn’t write his first book until he was 33 and had to go through
28 publishers to finally get his book published. Failing is the admission to
success and hungry fighters look for adversity to challenge them to get better.
I really appreciated this piece of advice because some of the greatest lessons
that I’ve learned in my life came from my failures – not my successes.
So how
does one become more resilient and seek out challenges? Prepare yourself
mentally and physical to grind it out. Professionals dedicate over 10,000 hours
(that’s about 10 years of their lives) of diligent and purposeful practice that
separates them from the amateurs. Find out what gets you in the zone.Getting
in the zone is about committing yourself to excellence and looking for
coaching/mentorship to get you better. Practice perfect. Learning from a
failure is great but if you continue to practice the same technique that led
you to failure, you’re just practicing a flaw. Identify the flaw, change it,
and then practice until it’s perfect.
The
Mackay MBA of Selling in the Real World is a
great book for salespeople – veterans and rookies – to pickup and study. I have
no doubt that I’ll be sifting through the book again for some inspiration in
the future. Lou Holtz – legendary coach of at the University of Notre Dame –
wrote the forward for the book and summed the role of a salesperson
beautifully: “You don’t sell anyone. You help people get what they want.”
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