I am lucky enough to have just returned from a weeks holiday in an affordable paradise a lot of us Brits have made our annual escape, Egypt.
The day I arrived back in the good old green land I love to call my home, tragically, as we all know too well, there are the troubles in Cairo, although where we stayed far away in Hurgarda it was so peaceful and relaxed you wouldn’t have a clue that you were in the same country, that was until you happened to walk past a shop, or anyone selling anything for that matter, when all of a sudden you were bartering with one of the locals whether you liked it or not and being plain rude was sometimes the only way to say no.
Now don’t get me wrong it was my first time in Egypt and I fell in love with the country immediately, striking me as a place blessed with 365 days a year of sunshine, amazing history and tourist attractions. Even hosting one of the seven wonders of the world along with a coast line that rivals that of the Caribbean and to top it off at a recession friendly price with an all inclusive deal that left me musing over it like a countdown numbers game of how the tour operators even made it pay?
Then it all became clear, on arrival at the Airport the Egyptian humidity hit me almost as hard as the sellers at the Airport, just after we had landed, who on earth tries to sell something to you on arrival when all you want to do is get to your Hotel, throw some shorts on and jump in the pool? The Egyptians, that’s who, as they are desperate for the sale.
The next morning we were met with the same aggressive sales tactics whilst making our way from the restaurant area to the pool, “My friend, come and buy” and “English” was blurted out by a row of shop keepers simultaneously whilst each one tried to usher us into their market arcade style shop. I hate this style of hard sell and the truth was we were actually looking for a lilo, but were put off by this aggressive approach.
The next day we visited the harbour and looked around the shops for that all important souvenirs (and of course the lilo we still hadn’t bought) and were met with the same hard sell time after time with pushy stall holders trying to sell us mainly counterfeit goods at inflated prices. This time, ready and willing to buy, I did just that at about 20% of the price that they first stated and whilst I was at it tried to make them realise that the hard sell isn’t always the best way and sometimes actually alienates people into not wanting to buy off you at that moment or worse still, ever again or even walk past the place. As you can imagine my Egyptian is not great and a lot of what I was trying to say was lost in translation, although what was unmistakable was the raw thirst in their eyes for a sale, which seemed to override anything else, the raw thirst that I had on my first day trading at 19, the one that didn’t see going home empty handed that night as an option.
This thirst for a sale is the type of motivation that is key to maintaining a healthy bottom line and for me is maintained by constantly setting myself new targets. Although of course, like anything, it has to be controlled and used wisely, to be on the buying end of the deal instead of a selling for a change did me the world of good and made me realise that there is a very fine line between being persuasive and being pushy, being a bit of a maverick and being a mither.
Our Markets are a great place to shop, visit and just have a good old walk round, it is our job to make sure that we continue to make everyone’s trip to see us an amazing customer experience. Promoting the atmosphere Great British Markets are famous for and ensuring people visit our markets again and again, week after week, year after year, getting value for money on amazing products with a customer service to match. In doing so, spurring on our next generation of traders for the long term and of course our valued regular customers.
You can catch up with my own brand at www.Adamcorbally.co.uk Twitter @TheAdamCorbally
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