Lunch With Norm
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[LWN] ☕️ Fired Over a Cup of Coffee...

[LWN] ☕️ Fired Over a Cup of Coffee...

Lunch With Norm's Weekly Newsletter - Failed Inspections, Negative Reviews, and SORA

February 19, 2024 • Estimated Read Time: 13 minutes

☕️ Fired Over a Cup of Coffee…

Did I just fire my #1 sales guy because he didn’t make a cup of coffee?!

What you’ll find in this week’s newsletter:

☕️ Fired Over a Cup of Coffee [True Story]
🔎 5 Mistakes to Avoid After a Failed Inspection
🗞️ Amazon News & Updates
💰 3 Apps With Incredible Lifetime Discounts

☕️ Fired Over a Cup of Coffee [True Story]

Back in the 90s, I had a hyper-growth company.

I worked seven days a week, 25 hours a day.

I decided to read the E-Myth, and I fell in love with creating systems and SOPs.

I decided to delegate certain people to certain tasks around the office with these SOPs and policies.

One of the tasks was making the coffee in the morning ☕️

Anyway, I had a sales manager. He was my #1 guy, and he was making roughly around $120, 000 a year (plus a 3% override on all sales).

Let’s call him Ted.

We decided Ted would make the coffee in the morning.

He was the first person into the office… It made sense.

We voted. It was decided.

Ted outright refused.

I should also mention we had something similar to the “Three Strike” policy back in the day.

I tried to reason with him that this policy was general operations. We voted as a company, and we all agreed.

Still refusing, he said, “But I drink tea! I come into work at 5 AM every day. I am NOT making the coffee Norm.”

So the first day, he came in. No coffee was made.

I told him, “Sorry Ted, but I have to write you up” still trying to explain to Ted about my reasoning for my policy.

Day 2, no coffee.

Again, I said, “This is part of our culture, Ted. This needs to be done and unfortunately, if you do this tomorrow, I will have to let you go.”

Ted was shocked, “You’re not gonna let me go over bloody coffee!? Do you know how much money I make for this company?”

(Ted was right. He was my all star and he knew it.)

I finished with ”If you can't follow a simple coffee policy, how are you going to follow anything else?”

It finally set in.

He made coffee every morning after that day.

When running a company, it's so important that everybody buy’s in to the overall goals.

SOPs and policies are only as good if they're followed.

And that’s how I almost fired my number one guy… because he didn't make a cup of coffee.

Enjoy the rest of the newsletter.

— Norm

BIG NEWS!

Grab your ticket to the Virtual Billion Dollar Seller Summit happening this week. This 3 day event is put together by the one and only, Kevin King. Kevin pits his speakers against each other, offering the best presentation $5000! So you know it’s going to be good.

Feb 20 - 22 - BDSS Virtual Event - Code: BDSS2024 for $150 Off

And if for some reason you still aren’t signed up to Kevin’s Billion Dollar Sellers Newsletter… Sign up!👇

	Billion Dollar SellersCutting Through the Clutter for the World's Top Amazon & E-Commerce Sellers

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS THE BEARDED GUY?

Can you find Norm in the picture below? Scroll to the bottom of this newsletter to see the answer!

FIVE MISTAKES TO AVOID AFTER A FAILED INSPECTION

Provided by Steven Selikoff of the Product Development Incubator

#1 Do NOT make the supplier pay for the second inspection

YOU always pay for re-inspection.

This is China. Regardless of anything that you said, texted, emailed, or signed; whomever pays for a service is the boss (culturally, if not legally.)

You need to be the boss of the second inspection.

Stipulate in your factory agreements that if a second inspection is needed they will reimburse you the cost of the inspection. This way it comes of their pockets, eventually, and you do not give up your power over the process.

#2 Do NOT hide the failed inspection report

Share it and discuss it.

You should have a cooperative relationship with your supplier, not a combative one. There is absolutely nothing to be gained by hiding the report.

There’s no ‘gotcha’ moment.

If the supplier starts getting defensive or dismissive of the defects simply stand your ground.

Don’t give in to their excuses. If they couldn’t provide what you had originally contracted for, then they should not have accepted the contract.

#3 Do NOT accept their offer to re-make or fix the defects…

Unless they first agree do the following:

Agree to review the entire order and fix all defects, not just the ones found in the inspection.
Identify the cause of the defects and resolve it.
Whether that is a problem with a mold, a component, a worker, raw material, or a process. Make sure that the resolution is reflected in updated SOPs if appropriate.
Agree to destroy all defective units.
It’s not uncommon for defects to be sold to a trading company at a discount, and then your defective products find their way onto the market.

#4 Do NOT ignore that nagging feeling of distrust or lack of confidence.

Increase the AQL level for your re-inspection, or increase the sample size, or decrease the acceptable quality levels.

Do whatever you need to to make yourself feel more confident that the quality issues will be address and defects identified.

This will ensure good quality on the next inspection, and it will make their internal QA more vigilant on future orders.

You may get some pushback on this, so always include it as a requirement in any factory agreements prior to beginning production.

#5 Do NOT feel dismayed at a failed inspection.

You can accept the products if you feel that the defects are meaningless.

Review the inspection report but use your judgement.

Imagine you made a 2000-unit order of sneakers, and the inspector found that 13 shoeboxes had a style sticker on the outside of the box slightly mis-aligned; and 4 boxes had at least one small tear in the tissue paper inside the box. All of these are minor defects.

The shoes were perfect.

That totals 0 critical defects, 0 major defects, and 17 minor defects. That exceeds Level II Acceptable Quality Levels, and the production run has officially failed inspection.

Make an executive decision.

If you feel that the defects will not result in customer dissatisfaction, then inform the factory that you approve the production run.

You own the business, so you own the final determination.

PRO TIP

If you are in China on the day of an inspection, feel free to visit the factory. You will be amazed at how much you will learn about your factory and inspections by being there and observing them.

Learn more ➡️ Product Development Incubator

WHAT YOU MISSED LAST WEEK

👇 Highlights from last week’s Lunch With Norm podcast episodes👇

How I Sold $238,790 in 24 Hours

Watch the full episode here

Main Takeaways:

Customer-Centric Approach: Prioritize customer satisfaction and engagement. Build a community, offer exceptional customer service, and encourage feedback
Email Marketing Mastery: Send personalized, plain-text emails that initiate conversation
- Ask questions to boost engagement, receive valuable feedback, and ensure emails land in the inbox, not spam

How to Create Custom Software For Your Amazon Brands

Watch the full episode here

Main Takeaways:

Price It Out: Will you see the return on custom software you build?
- Custom software is aimed for high 6 or 7 figure sellers
Automate What You Can: Look at repeatable, time consuming, and costly tasks as opportunity to automate

Start With This Custom Automation!👇 Integrate Amazon SP API (old Amazon MWS) with Google Sheets and collect data on your orders daily

➡️ Full code available here

Out-Smart Amazon Hijackers in 2024

Watch the full episode here

Main Takeaways:

I was joined by 2 surprise special guests…
- Nir Raveh and Joe Reichsfeld
Protect Your Listings: Be proactive against hijackers.
- Your best defense is using high-resolution images and updating your listings with unique content
Leverage Mobile Optimization: Given the increasing trend of consumers browsing on mobile devices, prioritize optimizing your Amazon listings for mobile viewing

TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE

On the back porch in Canada 📍

Back in 2018, my old buddy Sabian use to join me for a cigar. He always pretended to have one with me. Little did he know it was a bullystick…

THREE UPCOMING PODCASTS

You can watch all episodes on YouTube or on my Facebook page at 12 pm ET on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday!

**Guests and topics are subject to change**

Monday - How to Avoid Amazon Delistings

Lesley Hensell - Co-founder of Riverbend Consulting
Personally helped hundreds of third-party sellers get their suspended Amazon accounts and ASINs back up and running

Watch LIVE 👉 Sign up here

AI Wednesday - Removing Negative Reviews On Amazon Using AI

Danan Coleman - Tracefuse
Danan also helps run Wizards of eCom Tampa Bay, owned and operated by Carlos Alvarez. Wizards of eCom is the largest Meetup group of Amazon sellers in the world

Watch LIVE 👉 Sign up here

Friday - 5 Amazon Tactics You Should Be Trying in 2024

Brett Bercaw - FBAexcel & AMZrolodex
After 10 years in corporate, got tired of working for the man so I quit my corporate job in 2021 and now helps other sellers scale theirs through his services
Watch LIVE 👉 Sign up here

🗞️ AMAZON NEWS & UPDATES 🗞️

What’s happening in the world of Amazon today…

Introducing Chat GPTs incredibel video to text 🤖 Take a look at what SORA can do!
Amazon Prime Video Ad Tier Sparks Class Action Lawsuit From Subscribers 👨‍⚖️ Uh oh that’s not good…
Amazon argues that national labor board is unconstitutional 🤔 Joins SpaceX and Trader Joe’s
Why Jeff Bezos Sold $6 Billion of Amazon Stock This Week 💰 It's all part of the plan…

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Plan content optimized for search engines by researching keywords, analyzing SERPs, and extracting high-ranking content
an AI Copywriter analyzes the competition and helps you write content that both readers and search engines will love.