Build your product
Fadel’s first job was working as a caddy
and then in the shop at a golf course in his
Ohio hometown at age 15. One day, Sammy,
the course pro, had to give a lesson when
the IZOD rep was coming to fill the shop’s
annual order, so he told Fadel to just order
the same thing as last year.
When the rep arrived, he was annoyed that
the pro wasn’t there, but Fadel told him he’d
handle it and to bring in the line. Instead of
ordering the same thing, he specifically
picked everything. Over that next year, business improved, so when the rep came back
the next year, he instead asked for Fadel,
and Sammy eventually turned the whole
shop over to him.
“I was the one in the shop selling the product to the members, so I knew what they
liked,” Fadel says.
By offering better products, he was able
to improve business then, and he knew
that same concept would be key to freeing
Ashworth’s customers from the state of
polyester that they, the company and the
industry were all frozen in.
“All industry experts will agree that the only
way you’re going to make business better is
through improved products — innovation,”
Fadel says. “You have to have innovation. You
have to have improved products. You can’t
fake that. You can’t do it with hype. There’s
plenty of product out there, so you have to
have products that are better than your competition. You have to differentiate yourself.”
Ashworth traditionally had been a cotton
house, and he had an inkling that they
should refocus on cotton, but he needed to
do some research first.
“Your customers tell you what you do
best,” he says. “The results show.”
Fadel says to go out with your team on
sales calls to talk to customers.
“Don’t just stay in your ivory tower and
do it from spreadsheets,” he says. “Go and
actually mix with the people that are part
of that group.”
He says that the most successful companies have open communication.
“You may not like everything they say, and
you may not agree, but still listen,” he says.
Listening is sometimes a challenge, and
Fadel says that he’s a headlines guy, so he’ll
often pinch himself to keep focused on
everything the person is saying instead of
waiting for the headline.
“Be patient,” he says. “Let people finish
their thought. Don’t interject until they finish their thought. Quick to listen, slow to
speak. Just let them talk and take your
time.”
Also, ask questions, but do so without
making them feel like it’s an interrogation.
“If it’s too forceful on the questions, it’s interrogation,” Fadel says. “Once you get them
talking, you should ask questions that are led
from the conversation. They may mention a
fact about their business or something, and
you can ask, ‘What do you mean by that?’ and
you get more information on the areas that
will be more meaningful in understanding their business.”
Once you get feedback and input from
people, you have to figure out what to
listen to and what to pass on.
“Write down some bullet points,” Fadel
says. “You always start out with the end
in mind. What is it that you’re trying to
accomplish, and what information do
you have that you think is beneficial to
helping you accomplish your mission?”
Also look at why you do what you’re
doing. If you ask why something is the way
it is, and the response is, “Well, we always
did it this way,” then you need to dig deeper.
“That leads me to believe that we don’t
know why we’re doing it, so why do we
think we did it before?” he says. “When you
get to a point where no one knows, then you
might have to change.”
After going through this process of talking
to people, it confirmed Fadel’s gut feeling
that Ashworth needed to deviate from the
pack and refocus on cotton.
“There’s always people saying, ‘You
ought to do this; you ought to do that,’ but
you can’t do everything everybody wants
you to,” Fadel says. “There’s a reason
there’s chocolate and vanilla — you’re
never going to please everybody.”
