Istanbul: the History of Sales in a 5-Block Radius
Buttery jackets and coats, near-perfect craftsmanship, wide variety of styles, and matter-of-fact professional service.
Prens Leather has been a family heritage boutique store for three generations. Located in the old city, Prens stands on Vezirhan Street between the Column of Constantine and Nuruosmaniye Mosque, close to the Grand Bazaar.
The store has two levels, street and below. Walls are lined with racks of primarily leather jackets. The company sells quality and style and treats its customers impeccably.
Their quality styling and craftsmanship enables Prens to set trends with its own boutique styles, as well as tailor made-to-measure individual designs in leather, fur clothing, and accessories. The store’s signature is fine quality and workmanship. Prens also stocks a large, colorful range of traditional and contemporary Turkish designed leather jackets.
Staff is extremely friendly, knowledgeable, professional, and courteous. Here the customer is king (or queen). The quality of their work is wonderful.
Key to sales success: The best way to sell something is to have something to sell. Prens does. The Prens brand has three generation of equity behind it and that brand equity is leveraged, not assumed. The products do the talking, with the sales staff playing a secondary, supportive role. Prens appeals to a market segment. They know what they are and are not. Although located mid-block in a neighborhood of unrelated styles and approaches, they do not waver from how they operate. A first class operation that would flourish in any city in the world.
There is much to learn about Turkish carpets. While shops like this one (above) are plentiful, Motif is a good place to start.
#2: Motif Collection (carpets and kilims)
Kabasakal Caddesi, Istanbul 34122, Turkey (Old City, Sultanahmet)With 20 years experience, Motif Collection provides high quality, handcrafted carpets and kilims. Carpets are a Turkish tradition and have been hand-knotted for thousands of years. Kilims are flat tapestry-woven carpets or rugs used for decoration or prayer rugs. Recently made kilims are popular floor-coverings in Western households.
Turkish carpets and rugs, whether hand knotted or flat woven, are among the world’s most respected works of handcrafted art.
Creation motivations are rooted in Turkish society. Influences include religious, cultural, environmental, political, and socioeconomic conditions—all of which have created artistic inspiration among tribal and ethnic Turks.
Carpet design flourished during Ottoman Empire, and most modern export production honors that historic period. Hereke, near Istanbul, blossomed as the cradle of great Turkish carpets starting in 1891, when Sultan Abdulhamid II, the last to reign over the Ottoman empire, opened the first carpet factory—with 100 looms. Hereke carpets were (and are) known for their fine weave. Silk thread or fine wool yarn is blended occasionally with gold, silver, and cotton thread in top quality carpets. Even today Hereke carpets remain among the world’s finest woven carpets.
Carpet construction differentiators include materials, construction method (knot style: Turkish or Persian), patterns and motif, geography, cultural identity, and intended use.
Carpet quality is also influenced by knot density. For example, palace wool carpets had 60–65 knots per square centimeter—which is about the size of a dime—while silk carpets had 80–100 knots. Because silk is a finer thread, it can be spun tighter than wool.
While predominantly Turkish, Motif’s collection also offers carpets from around the world, including antique pieces and rare fragments. The store also sells handcrafted Turkish ceramics and giftware.
Motif is a customer-centric shopping experience. Every effort will be made to create a positive learning experience rather than subject a customer to a Grand Bazaar-like hard-sell. There is a lot to learn about carpets and carpet making and Motif is a fine place to learn. The staff is expert in its field. They are proud to share the history and provenance of each carpet and kilim, while explaining each rug tells through its intricate details.
The store’s blend of fine products with a professional staff provides a memorable, authentic Turkish experience. Questions are welcome and the staff is not pushy.
From a selling perspective, Motif works hard to maximize its “hit rate” of those who visit the store. This, of course, is smart business: High revenue, high margin products sold with regular velocity can create a lot of profit. Since the carpet business has a lot of good guys, bad guys, and money involved, it certainly helps a merchant to develop a solid reputation with good word of mouth support among those potentially interested.
As per Turkish custom, once invited inside you will be offered a seat and tea. If you have a particular interest, you will be patiently showed precisely that. Since Motif gets most of its carpets from families in the Turkish countryside, each carpet is unique with a history.
The carpets you will see are not mass manufactured new, but older carpets with stories and character. Quality is high and prices are fair.
Kindness and competence sells. So does allowing the customer to select what they like—the buying experience, rather than the “selling” feeling so many other vendors provide. Doing business here is pleasant, much more than shopping.
Motif is where pride in company, passion, and knowledge come together to leave with more than just a carpet.
This approach flies in the face of the all too common hard-sell, selective disclosure approach that lacks respects and trust. There is no hard sell here, especially in comparison to the industry majority around the city.
Key to sales success: Motif is a “palms up,” good faith carpet merchant willing to invest time and open sincerity in honoring their industry with unimpeachable business ethics. In a crowded, confusing place like the Turkish carpet business, this sets them apart from the annoying masses that permeate too much of Istanbul.
When we look at high performance selling in the value industry, three things are necessary for sustained success: knowledge, skills, and attributes.
Thousands in Istanbul know the carpet business. These guys check that box. Skills is defined as “the demonstrated ability to deliver desired results over time.” In order to sustain success, a salesperson must create an overlap between what he or she sells and what the buyer needs. They do that too.
Which brings us to attributes, the intricacies that make us each unique. The customer-centric willingness to patiently place teaching ahead of selling is a differentiator. This is the key for Motif. They demonstrate all three things—knowledge, skills, and attributes—day after day, customer after customer.
Jennifer’s Hamam offers the best in Turkish towels.
#3: Jennifer’s Hamam
Arasta Bazaar Ordu Cad. No:135 Eminonu/Cagaloglu, Fatih, Istanbul 34400, TurkeyJennifer’s Hamam is a small, quaint mid-row shop in the Arasta Bazaar, a short walk from Motif and the Blue Mosque. Its specialty is high quality towels that will last for decades. Also for sale are shawls, robes, and linens. Nine local Turkish families use Turkish materials to impeccably make these organic cotton, linen, bamboo and silk products. The cotton grows even softer with subsequent washing.
Here too the merchant is extremely respectful of the artistry and tradition linked to the towels she sells, and is very generous to share knowledge about the process and products she sells. Towels and robes are hand-made using traditional techniques by nine rural families. Creating this luxurious output by hand enables their livelihood. Their hand-loomed work is beautiful and fairly priced.
The buying experience here is refreshingly different than the mayhem of anxious bazaar merchants trying to pressure you into buying what they have rather than what you want or need. Not the case here. These products are truly Turkish made. Most towels and robes you will see around town are not; or they are mass-produced and Turkish by name but not by traditional quality.
The staff is patient, knowledgeable, and easy to work with. You will feel welcome and not pressed. There are three shops, each with slightly different inventory, but everything for sale is handmade top quality. You will be inspired by their commitment to serving their customers honorably while promoting and preserving Turkish artisans using sustainable materials.
In some ways, Jennifer is trying to preserve a bit of a dying but legendary Turkish art. If you pause inside for a visit, you’ll be hard-pressed not to help her.
Key to sales success: This is a WYSIWYG (“Wizzywig”) business: What You See is What You Get. Jennifer has carved out a niche borne from her uncompromising passion for people, tradition, and product quality. Her prices are fair, which is all most value shoppers need. In the high sales success world, “Value” is formulaic: Value = Benefits (minus) Cost. Jennifer’s business model respects and delivers value.
In summary
The beauty of sharing the sales success secrets of diverse businesses is that there are always lessons to be learned from smart people, regardless where in the world you go.
Modern selling is all about managing the emotional experience. All three of these top-notch businesses do that beautifully.
If in Istanbul, go see for yourself. But bring an extra suitcase.
Tomorrow:
Part 5 of 5: How Selling Will Change in Istanbul