“At some point, every bully loses his powers. But that doesn’t mean the bully becomes powerless.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert (Click to Tweet)Click here to get the book!
“This Is What Happens To A Brazen Bully In A Negotiation”
People don’t realize; they’re always negotiating.
“She’s gone! It’s over. I guess all good things come to an end,” were her whimsical statements. So do bad things, was the response. And eventually, bad things happen to a bully, especially one that’s brazen. That’s occurred throughout history. A person gains power, abuses it, bully other people, and at some point, people gang-up on the bully to take back their power. Supremacy is always fluid, even while one is taking it from others. That whole process is an extended and drawn-out negotiation. Observe the following to gain insight into how a bully gains power, loses it, and what to guard against that may signal remnants of a bully’s power rising again.
“This Is How To Be A Very Dirty Fighter When Negotiating”
People don’t realize; they’re always negotiating.
When you’re negotiating, what type of negotiator are you? Are you fair – you want the other negotiator to feel she’s happy with the outcome? Or, are you someone that seeks to get the lion’s share? Good negotiators adapt their style of negotiations to match the individual with whom they’re negotiating. And sometimes, you must be willing to be a dirty fighter to put the other negotiator down and win the negotiation. The following is when you might consider darning that persona.
The story of the notorious Yeti cooler started in 2006, when two dreamers turned what was once a boring consumer product into an iconic American lifestyle brand beloved by outdoor adventurers, tailgaters, bull riders, beach bums, and novelty hunters across the nation.
The company more recently went public in 2018 and is currently valued at $4.3 billion dollars with sales expected to reach $900 million by the end of 2020. Yeti is living proof that innovation can be developed even in one of the most unlikely commodity markets.
But how did that happen? I mean, to be fair, this isn’t the next silicon valley tech start up, it’s a cooler designed to keep you beer colder for longer…
They took a product category that nobody was thinking about innovating since Igloo put wheels on a cooler in the 1990s. More to the point the company successfully transformed the icebox into a coveted lifestyle brand.
That’s an impressive undertaking even for a well-established business with access to unlimited resources, funding, and marketing experience. But the Yeti Cooler brand was born from a series of homemade paper drawings, a personal need, and an unwavering determination to create something the founders wanted for their own hobby.
Here is the story of how two brothers from Austin Texas started a cooler company out of their dad’s garage and turned what was once a low-end commodity into a high-priced, high-end, globally recognized brand.
Two Brothers, a Passion, and a Problem:
Ryan and Roy Seiders, spent their entire childhood making memories in the outdoors. Their passion for the outdoors was infused with business potential when their father Roger Seiders, quit his job as a teacher and turned entrepreneur decades ago after he designed a fishing rod epoxy called Flex Coat he has been selling since 1977. The brothers got to see up close how to take risks and turn a personal interest into a business by finding a gap in a market by creating a solution to a common problem.
After graduating college, the boys set out to follow the familiar footsteps of their father. They attempted to start a series of businesses ideas of their own. Ryan tried his hand at building a custom-fishing-rod business and Roy began building modified fishing boats for anglers, specifically those targeting redfish in the shallow, hot, coastal waters off the Gulf of Mexico.
Neither venture was a success by their own admission, but it was their first dip into the waters of entrepreneurship. Like thousands of entrepreneurs before them, they sought out to solve a problem for the customers they served until one problem presented a unique and unexpected window of opportunity for the duo.
The first hint of Yeti began when Roy was customizing fishing boats for his clients. A challenge emerged when Roy was tasked with determining the best spot to put a cooler on his clients’ fishing boats that had very limited storage space. He knew that many fishermen (himself included) liked to stand on their coolers while casting, but the conventional cheap plastic models would buckle under their body weight, ultimately getting damaged or completely ruined.
Not satisfied with the available coolers on the market, Roy enlisted the help of his brother Ryan to help identify a more durable cooler for the custom boats at the outdoor trade shows they frequented.
Their agenda was pretty straight forward. They set out to locate a heavy-duty cooler to purchase for the custom fishing boats they were selling. Only to find, there wasn’t one. They needed a cooler strong enough that their clients could confidently stand on, that would also stay cold in the hot southern coastal temperatures.
An Idea Emerged:
The coolers available just weren’t up to the outdoor adventures the brothers were experiencing with their friends and clients. Not only did the cheap lids cave in, the handles would break, and the latches would frequently snap off due to the heavy weight of the ice and cargo. Forcing them and their clients to replace their portable coolers after every fishing season. It was out of this frustration that encouraged them to solve the problem on their own.
The idea of the YETI coolers was founded by the Seiders brothers: two outdoorsmen who needed a solid, durable cooler that could also keep their catch, kills, and beverages cold for a longer period of time in the hot Texas heat.
On a Mission:
They quickly dismissed the popular idea that coolers should be cheap and affordable. Instead they turned their attention on building an indestructible cooler built for serious outdoor performance.
As their website states, they decided early on that product innovation would have to come from a place of necessity and firsthand experience. Not relying on market research and data analysis.
The mission statement for the emerging company was founded on the belief that life is about having a good time doing what you love. And for the Seiders brothers, that was getting primal in the outdoors hunting whitetail, catching fish, and spending time with family and friends making lifelong memories.
“We’re wild at heart. So our coolers couldn’t be anything less.”
– Yeti Coolers
Reinventing the Wheel:
While attending trade shows looking for inspiration, Ryan stumbled across a rugged cooler model from Thailand, and the brothers set up a business to distribute their coolers for a short-lived time.
But eventually they found, the product just wasn’t what they were ultimately hoping for. While at the time, it was the best cooler out there, the product quality wasn’t up to their standards, and the brothers weren’t in love with the design either. They traveled to Thailand to meet face-to-face with the manufacturer to suggest changes only to discover the manufacturer couldn’t actually fulfill on their specific expectations.
Ryan and Roy took more steps to realize the product they envisioned. They mocked up their own handmade drawings with specs and soon found a manufacturer in the Philippines who was willing to try their ideas and provide them with a working prototype. The game was on. But they needed seed capital they didn’t have to build the initial proof of concept model.
To help fund the idea, Ryan sold his fishing rod business, and the brothers pooled what little money they had to cover the cost of the initial prototype and tooling.
The New & Improved Yeti Design:
The YETI shell is made from a common plastic material called polyethylene in a plastic manufacturing process referred to as roto-molding, that infuses high temperature and low pressure to create one piece of solid piece of plastic molding. It’s the same process used to create durable kayaks, eliminating any seams and joints making them stronger and more insulated.
By making one solid plastic case equates to higher plastic strength integrity and allowed less cold air to escape the seams. The shell walls were additionally injected with 3 inches of industrial strength foam and they installed a freezer quality rubber gasket sealer found in high-end refrigerators to make the lid air tight.
The solid design, combined with the depth of the insulated walls, insured the cooler’s contents would stay frozen longer.
With their protoype nailed solid they had to focus on selling the product to regain their initial capital investment.
Paving a New Path to Distribution:
They soon realized they would have to sell their product for $300 apiece for their smallest model in order to cover the costs of the premium design. They understood what they were up against from a retail perspective from the start. Yeti couldn’t focus on high volume sales through traditional retail distribution in the beginning. Instead they went after a niche clientele willing to pay top dollar for a quality product.
YETI didn’t try to compete with traditional retail’s cheap $30 coolers available at big box retailers like Target and Walmart. Instead they focused their efforts on specialty sporting goods stores and targeted the outdoor trade shows they were familiar with attending. It was here, in their familiar outdoor network where they could attempt to capture the attention of their primary audience. The goal was to get the buy-in from hunting and fishing guides to build Yeti’s grassroots reputation.
In addition to outdoor tradeshows, they spent their early days cold calling local hardware stores, tackle shops, and small outdoor retail owners offering them a new value proposition: Why waste your time selling a $30 cooler only retain a $5 margin? When you can sell their premium $300 cooler and keep $100? The grass roots approach slowly made progress but it wasn’t an overnight success.
Growing Pains:
The brothers launched Yeti in 2006. Sales reached $5M by 2009, and by 2011 they were pulling in an impressive $29 million which would earn the company its third consecutive appearance on the Inc. 5000 listing for their explosive growth.
They started hitting their stride when they finally broke through to premium outfitters like Bass Pro Shops and other specialty retailers. But that win brought them a whole new set of problems. The coolers were flying off the shelves faster than they could meet the production demand. Yeti ran into a major supply chain obstacle. They were selling more coolers than their suppliers could build on time. The Seiders’ needed to outsource help, fast, and the brothers proved their resourcefulness once again.
Private Equity Partnership:
They were now in a dead sprint to find a partner to help them navigated the next stages of growth to help fulfill their growing supply chain constraints.
The Seiders reached out and vetted pitches from more than a dozen private equity firms.
In June 2012, they pulled the trigger and sold two-thirds stake of the company for $67 million to a private equity firm that specialized in leveraged buy-out transactions. The Cortec Group firm targets specialty middle-market manufacturing, distribution and service companies, particularly family-controlled companies.
Cortec, based in New York, was founded in 1984. Since inception, the firm has raised over $2.6 billion of capital across six investment funds and has completed more than seventy transactions to date.
Cortec had major strategic advantages with IP and manufacturing connections that Yeti desperately needed. Cortec proved invaluable in navigating the necessary trademark battles (including going up against and winning a lawsuit with Walmart and other large players) that soon plagued the popular brand.
Cortec also proved useful in helping the brothers expand the product line beyond $400 heavy-duty coolers to include drinkware (mugs and tumblers), bags, lawn chairs, and even an off-road electric scooter eventually dropping the “Coolers” name from the now Yeti brand. This product category growth would soon prove to future WallStreet investors that they were no longer a cooler company.
Additionally, Cortec offered a subjective external perspective the company needed for high growth, negotiating new venders, marketing agencies and process management for the now 700 employees under the Yeti label.
By 2014’s year end, they quickly grew to $147 million in retail sales as the brand started creeping into the new expanding brand categories.
Yeti went public in 2018 with an IPO valuation at $1.7 billion. They were well on their way to building a globally recognized brand.
Marketing a Household Name:
How does one make a cooler company cool? The answer in short; marketing.
Yeti developed a marketing strategy that told their story, engaging people on a shared love for the outdoors and the best equipment to enjoy them with.
The combination of high-quality, field-endorsed products and outlandish prices translated to high consumer interest and desire.
The company leveraged a network of influencers they named their YETI Ambassadors, who had already grown like audiences to endorse the brand. YETI’s influencers include hunters, fishermen, snowboarders, professional skiers, bull riders, and cowboys.
YETI Ambassador Video Example:
Embracing their audience on social media YETI currently has more than 1 million followers on Facebook and 1.4 million Instagram and are leveraging Youtube with millions of views across their 197 original videos to date.
They even share social proof of their brand promise claiming for example, that Yeti’s are even Grizzly proof.
Here’s the proof:
Yeti took their marketing strategy a step further when they hired Melisa Goldie as the company’s very first chief marketing officer. Goldie was formerly global CMO of Calvin Klein Inc.
You might think, why hire someone previously responsible to sell a clothing label to oversee their marketing strategy?
But considering over 70% of Yeti’s consumers are under the age of 45. Goldie came with a breadth of experience in lifestyle branding, promoting product lines across a wide range of consumer categories at multiple price points across a wide range of geographies.
YETI Business Strategy:
Yeti was a brand that arrived onto a product category that existed since the early 1900s. Instead of fitting into what others were doing they made bold moves to set themselves as far apart from their competitors as they could get in terms of price, quality, and speed to production, to gain a competitive edge.
In order to manufacture such a high quality product in mass, the company deployed an “asset light” strategy. They outsourcing the production and distribution their products keeping their overhead low while focusing on growing sales year over year.
While forgoing profits by investing in third-party production, they were able to capture faster market share as the first premium quality cooler brand while other copy-cat brands started following their coat-tails.
Yeti recognized the need for strategic help to grow the company by partnering with the Cortec Group. This deliberate decision rapidly increased operating efficiency to overcome supply chain growth deficiencies.
Similarly, Cortec was essential in diversifying the product lines for Yeti into drinkware and soft (bag) travel coolers which accounts for nearly half their sales which is something Wallstreet investors rewarded in their IPO. Their experience in strategic licensing positioned the company as a global player.
The brothers scaled by bringing in the right growth partners yet again by hiring outdoor-retailing executive Matt Reintjes to replace Roy as chief executive officer. While Roy remains the Chairman of the company, by giving up some of the control as founder to an external CEO, the Seiders were signaling to Wallstreet that they were playing the long game of strategic growth by putting all of the right players where they needed to be positioned.
While the company is experiencing peak growth their story is very likely far from it. The Yeti Ice Monster started out as an idea, turned opportunity, and ultimately into another great American business success story.
Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys are a staple of customer satisfaction surveys. We have all had exposure to them. When we buy something or interact with a company, consequently, we get a message from the company asking us to rate how likely we would recommend the company itself, or the product or service we recently bought for a friend or colleague. We fill in our answer on a 10-point scale. A score of 10 means that it is incredibly likely that we will recommend the product or service, and a lowly 1 means that it is extremely unlikely any recommendation will be forthcoming.
Those who select a 9 or 10 are called “Promoters” as they are likely to talk about the product, service, or company in favorable terms. Those who choose a 7 or 8 are called “Passives,” and those who select a 6 or less are called “Detractors.” Promoters are loyal to the company, Detractors are not, and Passives can go either way.
Fred Reichheld of Bain & Company invented NPS in 2003, and implementation has soared rapidly since its first introduction. NPS’s output is a single number from -100 to +100, and the calculation to get to the NPS score is relatively straightforward: the percent of Promoters minus the percent of Detractors. The aim is to have as high a number as possible. So, if the percent of the Promoters and Detractors are the same, the NPS becomes 0. An NPS score below 0 means a general dissatisfaction, between 0 to 30 means the company is doing average, and above 30 means customers, in general, are satisfied with the company’s product or service.
NPS’s goal is to provide an easy to understand snapshot of how satisfied, or not, a company’s customers are. Unfortunately, that is a promise that NPS does not deliver. In fact, the whole premise of NPS is flawed. While the question: “Would you recommend?” means that a buyer can sum up the complex mix of feelings and assessments related to a purchase or interaction with a company, into a single number is brilliant, as that is how actual decision-making works. Still, the rest of NPS simply does not work. And here is why! Take a look at the following:
1. Survey respondents’ bias.
In a statistically significant consumer survey conducted by my company Atenga Inc., during September 2020, we found that the majority (58 percent) of the population will only fill in an NPS survey if they are already fans of a company or a product or service, while a smaller portion (32 percent) say they may or may not fill in an NPS survey. (See charts at the end of this document).
Only a very small percent of those who are directly dissatisfied with a product or service (6 percent) will fill in the survey. This means that the reported NPS is not even a close approximation of the satisfaction profile of a company’s customers; the resulting NPS score will be much more positive than the actual customer satisfaction really is. This by itself will render NPS virtually useless for almost all purposes.
2. The dangerous Passives
While Detractors are unlikely to buy from your company again, Passives may. And the way that NPS is calculated, Passives are totally ignored; they are not part of the calculation. This is a big problem because if a company has a large number of Passives, NPS may indicate they are doing well. Yet, they will have few returning customers or a significant “churn” rate if what the company sells is a subscription. And this leads to the next issues with NPS.
3. Actions resulting from the NPS
The next issue is, what should a company “do” as a result of its NPS score? Well, if the score is high, the CEO of the company can “waltz” into the boardroom and joyfully proclaim to the board of directors: “We are doing really well.” Good for him or her, but that’s about all that it will do.
If the NPS is not so good, it does not tell the company why the score is not good. It does not tell the company what to do to improve the score. It does not say if customers are dissatisfied with the experience of dealing with the company and what part of that experience needs to improve. Also, it does not say which aspects of the company’s product or service might need to be improved. Again, making NPS pretty useless.
Furthermore, as a company’s NPS score typically is separated from its competitors’ NPS score it is seen in a vacuum. But NPS cannot be considered by itself, simply because no marketplace is a vacuum with only one choice for the buyers. There are always alternatives, and a company that does not know how it compares in satisfaction among those who make choices other than buying from the company are at a great disadvantage to those who are in the “know.”
So while the very basis for NPS is solid, that of a customer who sums up the complex mix of emotions, preferences, and perception that leads up to a single decision, buy or not to buy, the implementation of NPS is not. What then is the remedy?
NPS surveys should not be conducted by the company itself but by an independent agency to greatly reduce survey respondents’ bias.
The survey should include NPS for both the company and its key competitors.
The survey should also include details of the company’s product and/or services and the interaction with the company.
All the data then captured in the NPS survey will then need to be segmented. For the company itself and each of the competitors covered in the study.
For NPS to “work” it becomes crucial to know what drives those who are Detractors to become Detractors. To understand exactly what aspects of the product, service, or interaction that makes them unhappy. Only when companies are aware of what drives customers to become Detractors can they take actions to remedy the situation and to minimize the number of Detractors.
Furthermore, it is important to understand precisely what makes Passives to become Passives. Understand what they are missing with a company’s product or service. Understand why they are not enthusiastic about the interaction with the company. In short, why they are lukewarm. And then, of course, take corrective action. Alter products or service, or the way customers interact with the company, to make Passives into Promoters.
It is also essential to know why Promoters are Promoters so that the company does not remove a feature, function, or benefit that Promoters particularly appreciate. Because only with this knowledge can a company view itself from the buyer’s perspective and get to know what aspects of its product or services or customer interactions or activities will affect customer satisfaction to reduce the number of Detractors and Passives.
So now, what will you do? Continue regular NPS surveys or take these to a whole new level of practicality and value for your company? I know what I would do.
“This Is How To Make The Best Negotiation Decisions”
People don’t realize; they’re always negotiating.
“I wish I’d thought the whole thing through before I made my decision and gave my response.” So, why didn’t you, was the question posed? “I don’t know. My mind was not right,” was the reply. That should have been all the more reason not to reply, let alone continue in the negotiation, was the response.
In a negotiation, you must maintain a focused perspective for the best outcome – you can’t be diddling around, less you place the negotiation outcome in jeopardy. If you lack focus, your reasoning will become skewed. And that could lead to bad decisions that can leave you in unwanted positions.
Since you make countless decisions every day, wouldn’t you like to know how to make the best decisions in your negotiation and your life? Discover how to do that in this article!
Many CMOs struggle with how to try our new things within their overall marketing plan. Things are moving more quickly than ever and the pandemic has further accelerated change in what “works.” The optimal paid and earned media mix now and in 2021 is clearly going to be quite different than previous plans. I had the pleasure of catching up with Jeanniey Walden the CMO of DailyPay, a BtoBtoE (E is employees) business/platform that makes cash easily available to employees of companies that use the platform. Jeanniey has also lead marketing for several consumer and business brands.
The full interview is available as well, and highly recommended.
“Tweets can alter a negotiation’s path. If alterations are to occur, make sure you’re the tailor controlling them.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert (Click to Tweet)
“This Is How To Negotiate Better Against Social Media Tweets”
People don’t realize; they’re always negotiating.
Warning: Don’t discount the following information about tweets in social media and the profound impact they can have when you negotiate. Not taking heed of the following insights could be deadly to your negotiation efforts. And as you know, you’re always negotiating.
A tweet can have the impact of hundreds, if not thousands, of unseen allies working for you or your negotiation opposition. That reason alone is why you should consider their potency, how a negotiator might use tweets against you, and how you might utilize them when you negotiate. To quickly dismiss the power a tweet can have during a negotiation can be foolhardy at best and a tool that decapitates your negotiation efforts at worst. You’ve been warned. Now, take heed of the information that follows to protect and increase your negotiation efforts.
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“When you treat someone in an exemplary manner, anything less than that becomes ordinary to them. Beware of the expectation triggers you setoff in others.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert (Click to Tweet)Click here to get the book!
“This Is How To Trigger Someone In A Negotiation”
I heard music that brought back memories from many years ago. As I listened, a broad smile captured my face. The music was the trigger of that occurrence.
When you’re in a negotiation, are you aware of the triggers that motivate your actions, your thoughts? Do you consider how the other negotiator is driven by what’s triggering him? You should be astutely aware of what’s occurring below your mental state of consciousness in both cases. Because therein lies, what will dictate the degree of success you’ll have in the negotiation. Observe the following insights about triggers, how they work, and how you can use them to motivate someone to take action in your negotiation.
