That had left the business people on the manufacturing side dumb-founded.
Speechless at first.
“You’ll be out of business in a month.”
“That’s not how it’s done”
“There aren’t cheap paddles like others, offering returns will cripple us.”
I had heard it all.
But there was one thing they didn’t know, that I did.
No other paddle played this well.
And for those that had arm pain, once they found the antidote to allow them to play pain-free, they would never play with anything else.
The negotiations were intense, but I finally made a bold proclamation…
That truly scared me to death and put a huge lump in my throat after saying…
“I’ll cover the cost of the refunds if we have an unsustaining amount.”
I was willing to put my money where my mouth was.
Reluctantly, everyone agreed.
There’s something about putting your money where your mouth is that helps you get your way.
Anyways.
The time had come to unleash the Power of ProKennex to the Pickleball world.
We had our paddle, our price, our website and we were ready to rock-n-roll.
It was a scene right out of a movie.
We launched the paddle and had a big celebration.
There was so much hype around the launch and everyone in my community that played with the prototype paddle had fallen in love with it.
What could go wrong.
It was 10am PST and the ProKennex Pro Flight was launched.
But the orders didn’t come.
I had a pit in my stomach that I’d never experienced before.
“What had I done”
Just in the preliminary stages of a full anxiety ridden melt-down we got a notification that Ralph Gustav had bought a paddle.
I’ll never forget that name.
Then another came in, Lauren Hilary.
Then another.
And another.