Yes, I want no relationship

29 Wednesday May 2013

Tags

dental sales, dentistry, mint tea, relationship, rugs, sell, selling, shopping, souq

Buying things in Morocco is a big commitment. You don’t just buy something, you create a relationship with the shop owner. It’s not easy.

Massive quantities of mint tea are consumed during the process and endless question-answering like where are you from? Or, is this your first trip to Morocco? And lots of comments, like: our insert-product-here are made by women, we offer fair prices, if you don’t buy, that’s ok, just look. Or, “Now we are family. You are my sister. I offer you family price when you return.” It’s actually sweet. They do a good job.

But having bought many, many rugs (or whatever) in my past, I know what I want and I don’t want the bullshit that goes along with it. I don’t care about the relationship. Well, it’s not so much the relationship I don’t want, it’s that I don’t want to invest the time it takes to make a purchase. Sit! Have some tea! Let’s get to know each other! Argh. “No thank you,” I plead. “I’m just here to buy a rug quick.” I ask for a neutral-colored, small rug. “3×5 rug in light color?” he confirms. I nod to the affirmative and he shows me a room-sized red rug. Again I tell him what I want and emphasize it this time with ‘I don’t have time to shop.’ To which he pulls out about 25 more rugs for his man to unfold (and later put away!) for me.

They figure if they show me everything I’ll be more apt to buy one. But that’s not true! If they show me what I want, like he eventually did, I will most likely be torn as to which of these beauties I will purchase and I might buy more than one, like I almost did this time! I had a hard time selecting just one but I stuck to my guns and named my price and sat there until he agreed, bantering back and forth about how I just can’t do more than $X. Thankfully, he considers me his sister and even loves me (or so he says), so I got the deal. And it was a good deal for both of us and we were happy.

This makes me think about selling in my profession: dentistry. It’s a relationship business we always say. Well, yes, it is but only if the customer wants a relationship. But some people just want to buy and we need to make it easy for those people to buy, too! A big lesson for me.

It all goes on and on

14 Thursday Mar 2013

Posted by seejanesblog in Observations

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

chet spivey, cologne germany, dentistry, IDS, ivoclar vivadent

Everything here goes on and on. The bread and cheese: it’s prolific. Served everywhere and for every meal. The meat! There’s never an end to the variety and quantities served and eaten. Our tiredness: each day we’re more and more tired but the energy of the event(s) pushes us on.

The beer! Unbelievable. it never, ever ends. Served in glasses that we might drink juice from at home, the glass is replaced as quickly as we finish it, with the waiter marking hash marks on a coaster for each new one delivered in order to tally our consumption. You know how they draw four lines, then cross diagonally to indicate the 5th? Well, I will not reveal how many “5’s” a certain two of us had in a very short time before moving on to the next place or function where we continued mounting up our 5’s.

The multitudes of people! At the IDS show floor we are packed like sardines. Crammed into the aisles, packed in the food court, clumps of us at crosswalks, long lines to the train etcetera. It all reminds me of visiting Disney World on Christmas or New Years Eve, both of which I have done. It starts to drive you crazy with all these people.

The exhibition itself: it goes on and on, floor after floor, building after building. Honestly, no one could prepare me for this event. People kept saying, “You won’t believe it. It’s amazing. It’s huge!” All of the above is true – – but to a degree much greater than those words described.

Each day snowballs on to the one before and I feel like I’m on the Tea Cup ride at Disney. When I went on that ride with my friend, Chet Spivey from Ivoclar, he turned that wheel so fast and so fast and so fast that my head literally spun and I laughed uncontrollably screaming for him to stop but loving every minute of it. That describes the IDS and this experience.

I’m fortunate to say that the laughter among colleagues is something that doesn’t end: the tireder we get, the funnier everything is and the harder we laugh. It goes on and on, and thank god for that! Because along with that laughter and comraderie comes passion. And it’s that passion that drives this company. The people who work for Ivoclar are passionate about our products, our role in the company, and the company itself. I have worked for two amazing companies: 3M and Ivoclar Vivadent and each one, at the time I’ve been a part of them, has a group of people that invigorates and energizes me. An organization’s most valued asset has to be its employees – – it’s team – – in order for this passion to exist and I’m lucky to be able to thrive in an environment such as this!