Harvey Mackay

No one who has sold 10 million books is an unsung hero, but Harvey Mackay goes largely unnoticed today. I always think about Harvey Mackay a month or two before Thanksgiving but never get around to following his advice, which demands discipline and courage. That may be why the latest generation of sales professionals prefers gurus like Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracey, Joe Girard, Barry Maher and others.

Today’s top-level sales consultants (Ziglar, Tracey, Girard and Maher rank highest on SalesGurus.net list of The World’s Top 30 Sales Professionals) deliver excellent assistance to companies and individuals looking to improve sales performance. But, their methods are less rigorous than Harvey Mackay’s. Mackay, who did not make the list, purchased a nearly bankrupt manufacturer in 1956 when he was 26 years. He built Mackay-Mitchell Envelope Company into a $100 million company by making his sales people practice strict and unusual tactics that he revealed to the world in his 1988 best seller How to Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive.

Although Mackay is mainly a sales guy and his company almost 100% sales driven, that book has guided my views on the integration of sales and marketing, as well as sales technology, ever since then.

If I could only find a Thanksgiving card

Thanksgiving always reminds me why. Mackay’s employees have never been allowed to send Christmas cards to customers. They send out Thanksgiving cards to be ahead of their competitors and put his company’s message front and center when no one else is around.  The advantage seems obvious.  The genius was in taking the most worn out sales routine and turning it into a stunt worthy of the most cutting-edge marketing or PR campaign.  The problem is that no one sells Thanksgiving cards. So, every year I want follow Mackay’s advice but fail to put in the required effort. Probably, I am like millions of other Swim with the Sharks fans.

The Mackay 66 Customer Profile is the primal guidepost for successful customer relationship management (CRM) and sales force automation (SFA). Mackay’s sales people were required to answer in writing 66 questions about every one of their customers. I’ve done it, even created the template in my first DOS version of ACT!  It takes time and effort. But, Mackay wrote that:

“When you know your customers, some of their special interests or characteristics, you always have a basis for contacting and talking with them.”

Ideally, CRM and SFA should simply make it easier to process and manage the personal information sales people gather, helping to create  more of the relationships Mackay knew were necessary for success. Unfortunately, these technologies fail because their sponsors see them as shortcuts. Mackay disciples chew and spit out competitors who use easy-to-find, inaccurate, and impersonal information about customers.

Mackay has not fallen out of favor because he is 77 years old and out of touch. He has a great website and blog. You can follow him on Twitter and Face Book. Brian Tracey has a nice blog and you can follow him on Twitter. Zig Ziglar has ceded his social media activities to his son, Tom. Neither Girard nor Maher have any Web 2.0 presence.

He’s out of favor, not out of touch

Then, why does Mackay only have 1,200 Twitter followers, while Tom Ziglar has 26,000 and Tracey 11,000? Last year, I entered a Linked In discussion about the top sales gurus.  Out of more than 30 participants, I was the only one who mentioned Mackay.

Mackay’s practices are not for people seeking easy answers to complex problems. But, promises of instant success dominate the Internet and social media. Today, people expect automation to make things easier, not enable them to get more done in less time.  That may explain why too few of today’s sales professionals listen to Harvey Mackay and his inconvenient truths.   But, according to Harvey Mackay, it is easy and fun:

“I really don’t know why I’m here, I’ve only worked half days my entire life. I guess my advice to you is to do the same. Work half days every day. And it doesn’t matter which half … the first twelve hours or the second twelve hours.”

Happy Thanksgiving Harvey.