Five Business Lessons from ‘Newhart’
“Selling isn’t so bad, Stephanie. It’s just talking to people and getting them to see that they need your product.”
After first liking Newhart through my parents’ enjoyment of it during its original run on CBS from 1982-1990, recently I started rewatching it on Amazon Prime.
One of my takeaways from my rewatch is how tried and true the business lessons are that are shared by certain characters, or made clear based on what happens in some of the arcs over 23 minutes.
Here are five business lessons I’ve gleaned from the first five seasons of Newhart:
1. Charge what you're worth
Throughout the series, some guests of the Stratford Inn attempt to haggle over their room rate due to issues both real and made up. Innkeeper Dick Loudon holds the line, only discounting the rate when something the inn did interferes with the guests' experience.
2. Keep the big picture in mind
In S2 E16, Kirk — after an entire run up to this point of mostly being an annoyance to Dick and his staff — redeems himself when he refuses to sell his business, the Minuteman Cafe, to a fast food restaurant chain that wants to erect a tall, unseemly structure in its place. Kirk chooses to turn down a big payout in favor of earning less, but continuing to work next to his friends.
3. Keep your sales message simple and go where your buyers are
In S3 E5, Joanna helps turn Stephanie into an effective saleswoman when Stephanie accidentally signs up for a Mary Kay-like company and needs to unload $600 worth of cosmetic kits. Stephanie succeeds by soliciting the inn's guests — in a move that we ignore for TV since Stephanie would likely be called out by a real employer for moonlighting on company property/time since she also works for the inn. The takeaways here are that a simple sales message trumps a complicated one, and to master one sales channel where your buyers are before embarking on additional channels.
4. Be friendly with your employees — but know that at the end of the day, they are not your friend when it comes to your contractual arrangement
In S3 E7, Michael (Stephanie's boyfriend and producer at TV network WPIV) makes a mistake that many supervisors have made over the years: based on his personal relationship with Stephanie, he hires her as the network's receptionist without verifying her skills. When it's clear she's not good on the phone or manning the front door to ensure that walk-ins don't make it back into the studios, Michael makes his problem Dick's problem by promoting Stephanie to Dick's assistant. Because it's a sitcom where everything needs to work out at least reasonably well after 23 minutes, Dick fires Stephanie, but immediately hires her back as the Stratford Inn's maid.
5. Fulfilling requests from your top-performing employees (within reason) is a great long-term investment
In S4 E23, George asks Joanna for help redecorating his room at the inn. She agrees, and spends a decent amount of money on a new rug, bedspread, and other items to modernize his room. With George having worked at the inn since he was a teenager, this relatively small investment produces big dividends for the Loudons in the form of longstanding handyman expertise they can continue to rely on for years to come with a happier George.
What’s your take?
What do you think of these lessons from Newhart? Are there any I missed? (Something from Larry, Darryl, and Darryl, perhaps?)
I mentioned above that I drew from the first five seasons of the show. Should I write a part 2 post once I’ve finished all eight seasons?
Write me here and let me know what you think.
Related post
Staying on the theme of TV, a while back I wrote in favor of half-watching some shows, where you can let your mind wander to your business to maximize your productivity during your “down” time. Check out the post here.
