Make the Sale Happen Before Lunch: 50 Cut-to-the-Chase Strategies for Getting the Business Results You Want (PAPERBACK)

RULE 39 Build Your Proposal Around Core Objectives

When Swifty Lazar negotiated the rights for Richard Nixon’s memoirs, the superagent of superagents did a masterful job of unearthing critical information around which he could build a plan that “made sense.”

In speaking with Frank Wells, who was then head of Warner Bros., Lazar learned that Wells had big plans for his book division. Up to that point, Warner Books had been strictly a paperback house; it had never issued a high-prestige hardcover of its own. Wells didn’t flinch at Lazar’s $2 million price tag (a headline-making sum in 1974); he saw a “name” book with the chance to draw massive amounts of publicity for Warner Books and establish it as a top-tier publisher.

Lazar moved on to discuss ...