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The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are
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solely those of the hosts and their guests and not
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those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We
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make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
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or products mentioned on air or on our web. No
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liability explicitor implies shall be extended to W FOURCY Radio
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or its employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should
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be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing
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W FOURCY Radio.
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Welcome to Powerful Business Strategies, where you will find out
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that everything you have ever learned about growing your business
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is wrong. Finally, a show where you'll learn the right
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way to grow your business by learning business and financial
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strategies that your competition isn't doing. And now here is
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your host. President of Next Step CFO Michael Barbarita and
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joining Michael for today's show as an executive moderator is
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chooky obia.
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Yes, this is chokey, and I believe that gratitude is
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undefeated and growth is about the next step, So it
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is an honor for me to moderate today's discussion with
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my good friend Michael.
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Michael, how are you great?
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How you doing?
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I am doing well, doing well.
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Hopefully you had a nice Fourth of July week and weekend.
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Well, you know, sometimes I can't I can't tell all
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my secrets about how much I love my business.
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So well, there you go.
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Yeah.
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Look a quick disclaimer.
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Michael and I are both affiliated with a number of
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different organizations and I currently serve as the managing director
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of business Development for Veta Price, a global business focused
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law firm. In addition to that, I collaborate with Michael
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to moderate business roundtables really across the country, and then
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we document the insights that we get from those business roundtables,
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and we've actually pulled a number of those insights into
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our book, Powerful Business Strategies.
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So same name as a show.
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Now, please note that the views expressed on this show
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are our personal views based on our successful experiences, and
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my mission today as your fearless moderator, is to ask
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the right questions to help you and help me candidly
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learn the best business strategies that the competition isn't doing. So,
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with that all out, turning over to Michael.
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Thank you, Thank you, Jocky.
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So my name is Michael Baberrita, or the president of
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Next Step CFO, and Next Step CFO is a fractional
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CFO and strategic implementation firm, and our vision is to
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ensure overwhelmed business owners achieve the time, freedom, and consistent
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profits to build a legacy and the life they desire.
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Our mission is to empower small business owners to earn
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multiple six figures in profit and income and build seven
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figures and business value. And this show, Powerful Business Strategies
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and our book of the same name is a step
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toward accomplishing that.
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Vision and mission.
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So with that, I'd like to turn it back over
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to our my co author and moderator for the show,
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choky Obia.
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Yes, so, Michael is interesting, and you mentioned legacy and
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I really love your reference to the legacy and even
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just thinking of the name of the business next Step CFO.
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Legacy is about that next step, taken that next step.
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And one of the ways that we've organized these episodes
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is to have an impactful story that we share and
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then we connect that story to a strategy. So in
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our first episode, we had started to talk through just
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this incredible story, Michael, of your career trajectory to what
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led you to establish the business at next step CFO
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and candidly some of the victories that you've had, some
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of the vulnerabilities that you've had.
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So I was just really inspired by that.
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And folks, because we've got a number of our people
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listening on look, if you've not checked out that first episode,
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I would highly.
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Recommend you check that out.
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Michael put together a really inspirational story just as part of.
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His business background.
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Now, we talked about the conversion formula, right, the conversion equation,
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and a big part of that, Michael, if you recall,
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I mean, we got into a really good discussion and
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we didn't get through all the points that we wanted
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to get through. So let's complete that discussion. And then, Michael,
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there's a piece of that conversion equation that I want
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to ask you some questions on as it relates to
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how business owners can make compelling offers in the way
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that the competition isn't doing. Okay, so let's pick up
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on that first with the conversion equation.
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Okay, thank you, Chickie.
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So, as Chicky said last week, I talked about the
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conversion formula, and this is a formula that converts prospects
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to sales. I got to the fourth and final step
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of the conversion formula called the compelling offer, and we
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ran out of time.
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So today, uh.
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I'll tell you a couple of ways that I used
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a couple of the components of compelling offers. Then I'll
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review the conversion formula again, and then I'll go over
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the five components of a compelling offer, and hopefully we
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have time for all of that. So my first business
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was a specialty retail business, and we grew the company
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from two and a half.
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Million to eight million in five years.
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Wow.
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Now yeah.
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A contributing factor to that growth was a strategy called
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a risk reversal, where the seller in the transaction takes
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all or most of the risk. And one of the
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problems that the customer had in the ski industry is
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they really never knew if the ski they were being
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sold by some hot shot ski salesperson was yeah, was
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the right ski for them? And a lot of you
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know a lot of people were intimidated by those hot
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shot ski salespeople. We learned in we actually learned that
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in survey's jooky you know that you know, they come
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across really slicked with their you know, we have steling
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go and it's it's very intimidating to a to a prospect.
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Yeah, amazing, remarkable.
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So he said, Ski Lingo, there's a whole dictionary and
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encyclopedia of ski.
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Yeah, I wish I knew it. I'm not a hot
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shot ski tale person.
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So we implemented what we call the ski guarantee, where
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we let the customer ski the ski three times. If
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it wasn't right for them, they could take it back
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and would refit them with a brand new pair.
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Now chooky.
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Just so you understand, when when a ski, a pair
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of bindings goes on a pair of skis, it depreciates substantially,
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not to mention, it appreciates even more when it gets
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skied on. Ah.
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Yeah.
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So so my employees and managers thought I was nuts. Yeah,
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but you know, I knew that no competitors would actually
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do it. So, you know, and and since the the
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the prospect was pretty intimidated by that hot shot Lingo,
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they really never knew until they get up to a
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mountain whether the ski, whether the ski was right for them.
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So we implemented this and we sold eight thousand pair
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of skis the first year we implemented it.
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I was a twenty five percent injuries and only eight
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came back the next year. Remarkable.
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Yeah, next year, eleven thousand apparently fourteen came back.
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You know it. It's testament to the fact that customers
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love to buy. They just don't want to be sold.
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That's true, you know, because as long as they had
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that assurance that they could ski the ski and determine
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on their own whether it was right for them, they
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weren't looking to put one over on the store, you know.
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I mean eight thousand pair of skis, eight came back,
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eleven thousand pair of skis, fourteen came back.
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That's one.
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That's one percent, I believe, or last It just it's
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just a testament to the fact that customers love to.
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Buy the yeah, just don't like to be sold.
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It's interesting.
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And Michael, look, I mean you and I we've both
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been in business a while.
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Certainly you've got quite a bit of experience.
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I'm fascinated by how much emotion is involved with buying decisions.
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Even just to pick up on that comment about how
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people don't like to be sold to, right, they feel
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like salespeople are pushy or you know, when they have
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a bad sales experience. It's always described in kind of
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an emotional way when they have a bad sales experience,
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and then when they have a good sales experience, it's
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also described in an emotional way. Right, it seems like
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buying decisions really revolve around emotions.
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Yeah, there's no question about it.
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And when we get to the conversion formula, because I
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do have one more story about another component of the
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compelling offer. But yeah, when we get to the conversion formula,
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we'll see how we can actually get into the mind
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of the prospect based on two emotional issues.
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Brilliant.
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Yeah, and so so we'll get to that. But another
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contributing factor to the growth of of our ski business
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was a strategy called packaging and bundling.
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Ah.
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Yeah, you know, everybody in the ski business, everybody packaged skis,
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bindings and polls. And when I say everybody, I mean
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I don't I don't know if there was a store
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or a ski chain in America that didn't package skis,
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bindings and polls. And I'm pretty sure, though I'm not
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up on it, I still think that's the case today. Well,
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we also did, right, but we also packaged clothing.
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Wow. Yeah, So yeah, I.
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Want to pinpoint this, So you folks were doing a
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lot of what the competition was doing and just having
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kind of the.
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The ski package right, right, But.
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Then, if I understand what you're saying correctly, Michael, it
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seems like you introduced this new kind of bundle that
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the competition was not doing.
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Correct.
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Please tell me a little bit about that and maybe
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even some of the resistance that you may have gotten
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with that.
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Okay, Sure, So we also packaged skis, but you know,
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we we we decided that that packaging is a part
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of a compelling offer, and so we packaged clothing, and
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we packaged a Parker, a ski pant, a sweater, and
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a hat packaged up for ninety ninety five and chooky,
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we sold out every time, every single time, every single time.
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And the management was against it because well they felt
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it was an inventory nightmare. Ah, yeah, which I will say,
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I will admit it was an inventory challenge, but not
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quite a nightmare if you buy it right, and you know,
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you and your few merchandise it right.
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So they were they were a little there.
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So they were a little shy gun shy about doing
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it because of that. But you know, everything was all
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color coordinated, not only the clothing pieces were color coordinated,
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but also they were color coordinated with many of the
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ski package combinations and so yeah, so it was a
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way for the person who who came to the store
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that was just interested in clothing, yeah, to actually show
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them a package that matches the clothing package that they
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just bought.
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That's interesting, Michael, I want to pick up on that, right.
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I mean, from my perspective, this connects to that whole
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emotional buying experience. Right where you mentioned color coordination. I imagine
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there's maybe a sense of pride, maybe some kind of
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an image that these customers wanted to portray with having
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matching components to their ski outfit. Just give me a
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sense of that.
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How much of that was sort of emotional?
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It's like, oh, you know, I've got this kind of
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blue get up or I've got this red get up,
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and you know it's sort of all coordinates.
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Yeah.
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Well, it was a problem that they had. They had
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two problems, Jookie. One was they really didn't know if
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the ski they were being sold was the right ski
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for them.
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Interesting, and their.
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Other problem was more of a fashion problem.
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Exactly, you know, are they being able to make a
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fashion statement when they go on the slopes, and you
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know that it was both male and female. It wasn't
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just a single gender on that it was both male
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and female that wanted to make sure that they were