Jan 30, 2014 By Thomas Oriol

A Master Class in Sales

in Sales

On holidays in the wonderful city of Istanbul, my girlfriend and I visited the famed Grand Bazaar. I thought we were “just looking," but we ended up buying two magnificent carpets. Here is the tale of a master class in sales.

Qualification: Don’t skip it

It all started when we spent a few seconds too many in front of a carpet shop. Mehmet spotted us and invited us in for a larger sample of his goods.

We accepted, looked at a few carpets and chatted for a while. We thought Mehmet was selling to us, but actually he was just qualifying the potential sale. This became apparent when after 10 minutes he invited us to his real showroom, in a quieter section of the Bazaar.

Needs Analysis: Nice and thorough

There, the serious selling began with an extensive examination of our needs and tastes. What room did we want a carpet for? What was the style of the existing furniture? What design patterns did we like?

All the while and based on that information, Mehmet kept showing us new carpets that helped us assess our options and him understand his opportunity.

Note that he never mentioned budget during that phase of his sales process. He was entirely focused on our needs.

BANT: Narrowing down the choice

The budget discussion came next and very naturally, “Now that I understand what you are looking for, I must ask you what budget you have in mind.”

At that point the question was legitimate for many reasons:

My girlfriend and I had invested in the sales process, so it was clear to us that we would probably end up buying a carpet.
Mehmet had invested in the sales process too and it was fair for him to ask.
Budget was now a key element for narrowing down the choice of carpets to the half dozen we really might buy.

And that is exactly what Mehmet did once we gave him the answer. He showed us his best selection based on the previous 45 minutes of interactions.

Telling stories

But of course the sale wasn’t closed yet, which is why he started to tell us great stories about these carpets.

These are classic but efficient tactics. We were not buying stuff, we were partaking in the long tradition of oriental craftmanship. It helped that our conversation was taking place in the mythical Grand Bazaar around a nice cup of tea.

Patience and creativity

I actually enjoyed the price negotiation which, while quite serious, was far from the haggling clichés. What made that step of our buying process a success was Mehmet’s patience and creative use of his options: carpet size and quality, number of carpets, design patterns… We could really work hard to find an outcome that was mutually satisfactory.

And we did find it (four hours after we first paused in front of that shop window). But patience paid for Mehmet: we started with a €2-3K carpet in mind, and we left the Bazaar with an €8K invoice for two carpets.

Service

I wouldn’t have writen that story if Mehmet’s service hadn’t been as good as his selling skills. We ran into a few difficulties when shipping the carpets from Istanbul to our home, and he was extremely helpful.

So thanks for the master class and congratulations for perpetuating that great tradition.