If you’ve ever been to Thailand, you’ll more than likely know about the overwhelming nature of the street scene: the explosion of colours and sounds and smells that you won’t find on a similar level anywhere else in the world. A trip to the markets is an experience really worth taking advantage of, and not just for cultural purposes – you can also learn a lot about sales.
Competition is incredibly high in Thai markets, and salesmen and women aren’t afraid to do whatever it takes to beat their competitors to selling success. They often make their wares themselves, and are proud of them. This is truly reflected in their sales techniques and the obvious confidence they have in their profession.
Attracting customers
Often, market stalls on the streets of Thailand are very small, and can’t say very much for themselves appearance-wise in the way that a bigger retailer or online merchant can do. This means that salesmen and women rely mostly on themselves – and their sales techniques – to attract customers while they are passing by.
One thing you will notice about Thai street salesmen and women is that they will always greet you with a smile. Friendliness is one of the most important factors in any business when it comes to making sales, no matter what it is you’re selling and to whom. Whether this means having an approachable social media presence, or employing staff who are open and happy to chat to customers face-to-face, you’re far more likely to make that good first impression with friendliness.
Along with a smile will usually come a nice comment – which, it’s important to note, isn’t always an immediate hard sell. While some Thai street sellers certainly will shout about their wares in your face, the majority will take the more pleasant approach, which might mean asking you questions about where you’re from and how long you’re travelling for (tourists are usually pretty easy to spot). This approach works effectively to stop potential customers for long enough for them to check out the store’s wares.
If a street seller does immediately jump in with a hard sell, it will usually be with an offer you seemingly can’t refuse. Perhaps they claim that their wares are the cheapest on the street, or that you won’t find another bag/belt/perfume/whatever it may be like the one they’re selling in the immediate area.
Thai salesmen and women understand the importance of uniqueness – even if what they’re telling you about the products is unlikely to be the truth. Still, the value of originality is worth bearing in mind when it comes to business sales; even if your product is very similar to products already out there, you have to find a way to make it stand out from the rest, so that customers choose you over your competitors. Although it’s probably not recommended to lie.
Haggling
Haggling is something that many people have very little experience with, and that’s because of the way our retail system is set up – there are certain instances where haggling the right way is almost acceptable, but in general, if the product costs $20, you can expect to pay the full price or walk away with nothing.
This is definitely not the case on the streets of Thailand. You’re expected to haggle to bring the price of your desired product down (and you’re foolish if you don’t). Having customers haggle for products is certainly an interesting sales approach as it means there is no actual value on any item for sale, which can seriously work to the salesman or woman’s advantage on occasion. In Thailand, it’s not unusual to be asked to pay three times the amount of money for water at one market stall as at another, which is why it’s important to know your currency and name a price with confidence – or you’ll more than likely end up getting taken advantage of.
Not a lot of people are big fans of haggling, but from a sales perspective, no-one can say it doesn’t work. Should you be able to determine your customer’s willingness to pay for the product that’s on offer, you can adjust your starting price and how low you’re prepared to drop down to, and go from there. Bargaining allows you to tailor your prices accordingly in order to make the highest amount of sales possible – but by doing so you are arguably undermining your product ever so slightly, as you’re not sticking to a certain sales value.
Final thoughts
There’s a lot to take away from the streets of Thailand when it comes to sales. With a far more personal approach, it’s clear you can attract customers through conversation alone, rather than how most sales are approached these days – through advertisement of the product.
But securing that sale is where it gets difficult. Thai street sellers are often willing to negotiate their prices because they have been able to produce or batch-buy their products for very little value in comparison to their sales tags. If you’re selling a product that was high cost to produce, bartering probably won’t work for you. Add that to the fact that in the UK and the US, if you were to walk into an average retail store and demand to pay for a pair of shoes for half the price at the till, you would probably get kicked out.
So, does that mean Thai salesmen and women are doing it better than us? Perhaps not, or perhaps their sales techniques only work well in their situation. That’s not to say that there isn’t anything to learn from their approaches, though, namely the importance of exercising persistence and friendliness when negotiating a sales deal.
Perhaps our more Western negotiation cultures may prevent us from haggling in our stores ourselves, but the future is uncertain. All that is clear is that the Thai street salesmen have been in business for decades, so they must be doing something right.
