sales – Shared Knowledge

January 7, 2019January 9, 2019

Selling Luxury Properties in Egypt for High Net Worth Clientele

I was living and working in Egypt – Cairo, from 2006 to 2009. At that time, real estate field in Egypt was booming. I used to work in Cairo for the American number one real estate agency – Coldwell Banker, and, one of the biggest luxury development companies – Damac Properties, from Dubai. In 2007 Damac Properties just entered Egyptian market and they’ve been recruiting senior sales professionals from the real estate or similar fields of work, which had the same clientele. Those were the seven or five stars hotels and other leading real estate agencies. Our clientele at Damac Properties was only 2-3% of the total market share in Egypt (high net worth clientele). In this post I’ll share with you this challenging method of sale…

How we sold luxurious Damac Properties?

Selling for Results

I’d like to share with you a challenging method of sale that we used while selling luxurious Damac Properties. We were selling an idea in a project, a unit that is to be built in the next 3-4 years, nothing tangible. Basically, we were selling a “fog”. Start of the project construction was planned in the first year and project completion was expected within the next 4 years.
The minimum price for a Damac property, whether it was a small retail unit, office space, or a villa, was around or not less that a million Egyptian Pounds (cca $250.000). Now, most of the sale was done within a pre-launch period. This was a period with the lowest prices and an excellent opportunity for a real estate investors to earn up to 25 % only by putting their trust in Damac and buying a property 3 to 4 years before it’s been constructed. What Damac’s sales experts had in their hands was Damac’s superior training called “Selling For Results”, conducted by a sales couch sent from Damac’s headquarters in Dubai, property info, sketched floor plans and an expensive project catalog. As a part of Damac’s marketing efforts, a pre-launching event in a seven star hotel was also organized, where we invited all of our qualified prospects. “Selling For Results” training lasted for a couple of days and it helped us strengthen our sales, communication, persuasion, negotiation and closing skills and techniques. After thorough preparation and a pre-launch event, our clients started visiting us in Damac’s offices spread out through luxurious Cairo suburbs. Now comes the peak of the selling challenge – clients were supposed to pay 25% of the property price on the spot. Namely, the procedure was to visit us at Damac’s office, bring a check and sign a reservation form. I can tell you, this kind of challenging sale I never had again in my whole life. That’s why I appreciate all of my ex Damac’s colleagues. They were really the best of the best sales professionals in the market. Not to mention, how challenging Egyptians are as clients. In the world of business, they are known as the best negotiators and they are also tricky and foxy in business. When they are buying something, it’s a common thing with them to give promises, schedule meetings, give their “words”, show interests etc., but, until they actually sign a contract, you cannot count on them actually buying.

If I put aside all the stress related to this challenging process of sale, I can still conclude that I’m grateful for this valuable international experience. It has definitely increased my capabilities, my selling, negotiation and persuasion skills. Also, my driving skills have improved. Even though I’m a very good driver, it’s widely known that Cairo traffic is crazy and it’s very rare to see a foreigner driving there. I’m proud of being able to adapt to a new culture of this Northern African country and to get known with the Cairo real estate market within the first three months. At that time Cairo’s population was 18 million and I met a lot of Egyptians who would get lost if they moved from one part of Cairo to another. Being able to get known with the geographical area without a GPS was really something at that time. In order to achieve that I started driving in Cairo almost immediately after my arrival and I spent a lot of time by driving around and figuring out the region, city parts and its streets. This process was made even harder by the mentality of Egyptians. Namely, if I asked somebody on the street for a direction, they would mainly direct me in a wrong way. Later on, after I’ve been living there for more than a year, I’ve found out that it’s because they are ashamed to admit that they don’t know. Well, I don’t classify people by their income, education or similar, however, mainly a bit less educated people would act like that. On the other side, I’ve had a lot of positive experiences with Egyptians as well. They are, in general, very welcoming and they like to help others even if they don’t know them, especially foreigners. I remember once, something happened with my car. My tire was a bit flat, so I stopped aside in a street with a very busy traffic. A couple was walking by. As soon as I stopped, went out of the car and looking at the tire, this couple approached me and a man asked me if I had a spare tire. He then took it and replaced it in less than five minutes. They just went their way afterwards. It was like, they didn’t wait for me to ask for their help, nor they expected me to say “thank you” after they helped me. They just did it and went their own way. Amazing…

December 28, 2018December 28, 2018

Mastermind Networking

Since I enjoy networking and I’m also in the stage of getting known with the city, establishing new connections and figuring out how it all goes here, I’ve decided to start with my new networking adventures.

Last week I attended a gathering of a new networking group in Louisville. It’s established by two young professionals working in the field of real estate. Their vision and goal was to connect with potential prospects, people with similar interests and to hear other people’s opinions and business ideas. Finally, the master mind group is established to give each other support or advice related to our company start-up or a new business adventure.

It was interesting to hear courageous and business minded people from different fields of work. In this session, four people interested in establishing their own real estate business participated, three of us are from the marketing field, one from the field of finance and one was an innovator.

Of course, we all have different reasons why we came to this networking event. One of them, owner of the marketing agency, was really struggling surviving in the market. According to what he said, he is in this business for twenty years now, but he constantly has only one or two clients that keep his business alive and he never knew what will happen to his business after the current client leaves. So, he doesn’t like keeping all of his eggs in the same basket and wants to find a solution. In my opinion, his challenge is that he’s not keeping up with current trends in marketing field. But, I can understand that. World today, in general, is changing very quickly. Therefore, lifelong learning is crucial for success of any of us. Other thing is that some fields of work are changing so rapidly that it has become quite a challenge to follow up with its constant progress. This is especially related to the field of marketing and IT. Actually, these two field have become so much related that today’s marketing guru actually must be almost an IT expert as well. Digital Marketing and Social Media Marketing are the core of all marketing campaigns nowadays. I, myself, as a marketing professional, find it, pretty challenging, to follow up with this constant changes. I’m constantly learning new things, but sources from which we can learn are numerous and it’s all time consuming. No wonder that we often feel overwhelmed. This is one of the burdens that professionals in this field must count on. Another issue in today’s world of marketing is that people tend to misinterpret marketing. Nowadays, many think that marketing equals advertising. Others just jump-in in this field although they are technology, and not really marketing, professionals. Marketing is much more than being skilled in new technologies. It’s a science. An IT expert may know all digital tools to market a product but he’s unknown with creation of marketing strategies. And without the right strategy, tactics don’t make much sense.

The way I see this group is the way I’d want it to become… Namely, I read once in on of those business psychology books that it’s very beneficial for professionals to have their own mastermind group, where they will gather regularly and brainstorm on solutions of the problems any of the group member might have. I personally, find it fascinating and a great way to share our knowledge mutually and help each other with advises, ideas, information sharing and similar.

More on this topic is yet come… :). Till then, stay in a good health, happy and prosperous!

December 16, 2018January 7, 2019

US vs Europe differences

Since I’ve moved to the USA recently, three months ago – to be exact, I couldn’t help to notice some of the differences between Europe and USA. In this post, I’ve decided to share some of them with you. So, here we go:

Traffic lights – European countries have fixed traffic lights and the ones in USA are, kind of, hanging on some kind of wire. I’ve found this pretty strange when I first arrived here. For me, it looks like some kind of old fashioned traffic lights and it gives an impression of instability, read – danger.

Trucks – one of the first differences I’ve noticed are the truck shapes in USA. They are definitely much different from the ones you can see in Europe. Picture tells more than a hundred words. So, take a look at the picture bellow. Since this has intrigued me a bit, I did a little research on this topic. This is what I’ve found out: The main difference you see between American and European semi-trucks is the overall design of the tractor unit. In Europe we usually see cab-over trucks. This means that the cabin is situated above the engine. This allows creating flat front surface and the entire truck with its trailer has a cuboid shape. Meanwhile trucks used in US feature something called “conventional cab” design. This means that the cabin is behind the engine. Drivers are sitting further away from the actual front of the truck and look over the long engine cover when driving. In US there are many truck owners-operators. The trucks typically have big and more comfortable compartments while in Europe space is at premium. Conventional cab trucks are more economical because they can have bigger cargo and pull heavier loads and therefore use less fuel that two cub designed trucks. The engine in conventional cab trucks is easier to maintain and fix because it is very easy to reach. In Europe Semi-trucks are limited to 90 km/h, but in some places in US trucks reach 129 and even 137 km/h.

Bureaucracy in USA – no need to bring copies of the documents to the official agencies. Original documents are good enough.

Self-service at retailers – As of Q2 2018, 95 percent of American consumers had encountered at least one form of self-service retail and 49 percent used them on a weekly basis at the supermarket. Recent studies show that 29 percent of self-service users pay with credit card, 28 percent of shoppers would frequent a non-grocer more if it had self-service checkouts, 87 percent of self-service store users do so because it’s faster. Self-service at retailers, in all other countries in Europe, except of UK, France and Sweden, is not present at all, or it’s present at a very low percentage. When it comes to Germany, as one of the biggest and economically most developed EU countries, strange enough, only in January 2018, a self-checkout was introduced into the shops in Hamburg, well developed city and a harbor on the north of Germany. In the last two years there’s been a slight increase in this new technology in Germany but it’s still very much in its infancy stage. While there are roughly 200,000 cashiers in food stores across the country, there are still only 1,450 self-service terminals. Supermarket Rewe is considered a trailblazer in Germany because it started trialing self-service checkouts way back in 2012. It now has a grand total of 62 self-service terminals across its 3,500 stores. This is how Martin Fassnacht, a professor at the WHU business school in Düsseldorf, explains on Germans being so slow in picking up on new technology: “Germans find it particularly difficult to get used to new things. Many Germans simply don’t see the point.”

Most common cars to be seen in USA: Ford, Toyota, Chevrolet, Honda, Dodge, Nissan, KIA. And, let’s not forget to mention that they simply love pick up trucks. It’s no surprise to see some German car brands too. BMW, Mercedes, Audi and some VW cars can also be seen on the streets of USA, however, in a smaller percentage. According to the data compiled by Kelly Blue Book and Business Insider, the Ford F-Series, Chevrolet Silverado, and Ram Pickupare are the top three best-selling vehicles in America through the first half of 2018. Pickup trucks and crossover SUV’s dominate the American market right now. Jeep Cherokee, Jeep Wrangler, and Toyota Tacomaall saw major year-over-year sales increases compared to this time in 2017. Most common car brands in Europe are: VW, BMW, Audi, Mercedes, Volvo, Peugeot, Fiat, Ford, Porsche and Opel-Vauxhall.

Some of the differences when it comes to schools in US and Europe. Schools in USA are more focused on instruction (teaching basic Math, Science, English, etc.), less strict in regards to discipline and respect, more strict regarding dress code or smoking cigarettes, more focused on standardized testing. Schools in Europe are much more focused on education and culture (Philosophy, Art, History, Geography, Languages, etc.), are more strict in regards to discipline, respect and studying requirements are much higher, less strict regarding dress code and smoking cigarettes, more personal environment (no changing of classrooms)…

Driving culture: Although it’s regulated, you can still get your driver’s license in US by age 16 while required age in Europe is 18. True, a 16-year old first needs to obtain a permit for the first six months in order to get a driving license after that. Overall, it’s pretty easy to obtain a driving license. As in Europe, you need to pass a written and a road test. However, the cost of it is as low as 20 dollars, while in Europe it can cost even 700 dollars. Road testing in Europe is far more strict than the one in US. In some European countries, especially SEE, road testers – instructors, are doing their best for the new driver to fail the test. Opposite to that, US driving instructors – testers, are supportive and patient while testing a candidate. More like, if you fail, nobody’s happy, if you pass, everybody’s happy. One other thing I couldn’t help to notice in US is that Americans tend to form orderly car queues in one line of the road, even though they have one more lane available, which goes or turns in the same direction. And, finally, something very uncommon for European countries is driving through the red light. In USA, when vehicle is turning right, can turn on red if there is no ongoing traffic, or if there is, he should yield on them and then turn right. In Europe, it’s strictly forbidden to pass on red traffic light and is punished strictly by revoking drivers license or similar.

Measurement units: miles vs kilometers, feet vs meters, ounces vs g, pounds vs kilograms, Fahrenheit vs Celsius… Well, it takes some time for a European to switch from ones to another.