Selling, a true art!

Welcome to our fourth installment of ‘Interview the Professional’.

In today’s session, we explore the world of sales with one of the most prominent figures in the field: Tiziano Meglioranzi, the sole administrator of ARTEP, formerly known as ‘Il Mercante d’Oriente’.

The art of sales goes beyond simple commercial transactions. It is a sophisticated skill that requires emotional intelligence, empathy, and a deep understanding of the other person’s needs. This interview will focus on the intricate dynamics of sales, delving into the peculiarities that have made Meglioranzi a successful salesman.

We live in a globalized and increasingly digitized era where the art of sales is much more complex than in the past. Today, a combination of strategy, communication skills, and creativity is required. Through Meglioranzi’s words, we will explore the hidden art of sales and be inspired by the genius of one of the masters of the trade.

Hello Tiziano, it’s a pleasure to interview you today. Could you tell us more about yourself and what you do?

I’m Tiziano Meglioranzi, the sole administrator of ARTEP (the current name of the historic brand Il Mercante d’Oriente), a company that currently focuses primarily on the design and production of textile flooring, including high-end carpets and rugs for the international market. We also sell antique and contemporary carpets from our warehouse, which holds over a thousand specimens.

How did you get into the world of carpet sales, and what was your initial experience in this industry?

As soon as I graduated, I was ‘hired’ by an uncle who had a carpet showroom in Bolzano. He suggested that I organize carpet sales in furniture and antique shops. At the end of the 1970s, there were not many shops specializing in this product, but the demand was growing. I organized the first ‘sales’ in two hotels in Basilicata, one in Policoro and one in Matera: it was a resounding success! But I only realized it a few years later.

In the art of sales, how important is the ability to communicate and convey emotions to potential buyers?

On my mother’s side, I come from a family of traveling merchants specializing in the sale of high-quality fabrics for clothing. Many quality tailors from northern Italy were their customers, whom they supplied seasonally, starting from the post-war period. I often traveled with them from a young age and witnessed the stories they told their customers about the origin of the materials, techniques, and craftsmanship, and I noticed that customers were captivated. I think the ability to emotionally engage the customer is one of the most important qualities a salesperson must have.

What characteristics do you consider essential to be a good salesman?

First of all, don’t think of yourself as a ‘salesman’. I always felt more like an expert consultant for my client than a salesman. When, in the early 1980s, I had the opportunity to open my own shop, operating in a sector that until then had been a ‘monopoly’ of sellers of oriental origin, with customers who told me they had purchased from a ‘Persian’ relative of the Shah… and then another and another… I thought that the only way to carve out my own identity as an operator was to present myself to my customers as a modern ‘Marco Polo’! Thus was born the brand Il Mercante d’Oriente.

Can you tell us about a situation where you had to face a challenge and how you solved it?

Since there wasn’t an Oriental ‘merchant’ who wasn’t ‘related’ to the Shah and therefore considered ‘expert’, but who in reality wasn’t at all, I decided to focus everything on the culture and history of the product I was dealing with. With the aim of having cultured and prepared customers who could understand when someone was telling them ‘the story of the bear’. And I specialized in the sale of antique carpets. I organized the first courses in Italy on ‘carpetology’, open to individuals and professionals in the world of furnishings. Courses supported by thematic exhibitions on various types of antique carpets, publications of catalogs, and books. I was no longer a ‘salesman’, but rather an ‘expert’, a ‘consultant’ in the eyes of my users/customers.

What is your approach to creating a connection with customers and understanding their needs when it comes to purchasing a product?

The first thing I do is ‘listen’. Only by listening can you understand a customer’s true needs, so that you can enter into an empathetic and consultative relationship. I try to understand what their real knowledge is about the product they would like to buy so that I can guide and satisfy them, perhaps by advising them on a product with different characteristics from the idea they had. Always positioning myself as a consultant rather than a salesman. Many customers tell me they perceive a real passion when I talk about my work and the things I deal with and do. It is essential to be able to do this because people today are not just interested in buying the product, whether it is art or industrial: in this sense, the approach and involvement on the experiential and emotional side win over everything.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to enter the world of sales?

Perhaps the best advice is to first learn to be a ‘good customer’. Let me explain: by buying from multiple sellers, you can more easily understand and distinguish the ‘good’ from the ‘bad’ in order to avoid attitudes, behaviors, and mistakes when you then move ‘to the other side of the counter’.