Learn First. Only Then Sell.
Over time, my role at FAEMA began to change. I no longer only installed espresso machines. Little by little, I was also given the opportunity to visit customers, advise them, and help them make the right choices. For me, this was an important step. Everything I had learned in the field about espresso machines, grinders, and coffee could now serve me in my conversations with customers. I did not merely have to explain what a machine was capable of doing.
I knew how it worked. I knew its strengths. But also its limitations. That was where I discovered what would later become one of the foundations of my way of selling. Learn first. Only then sell. Many people think selling means above all knowing how to speak well. My experience taught me exactly the opposite. The best salespeople I ever met were, first of all, exceptionally gifted listeners.
That is what I always tried to be myself. When I entered a café, I never began immediately by talking about a new machine. First, I observed. How did the café owner work? How old was the espresso machine he was using? How was the coffee stored? How was the grinder adjusted? How many cups were served each day? I asked questions. Many questions. Not to show how much I knew.
But because I genuinely wanted to understand. Sometimes a customer was convinced he needed a new espresso machine. After half an hour of observation, I would discover that a simple grinder adjustment would be enough. At moments like that, I sold nothing. On the contrary. I said honestly:
"Your machine is still in excellent condition. Let us try this first."
Some people may have found me a strange kind of salesman. A salesman who did not sell. But a few months later, those same people called me again. Not because I had persuaded them to buy something. But because they knew I would never recommend a machine they did not need. That was how the philosophy that would accompany me throughout my professional life was gradually born. I never tried to sell people something they did not truly need.
I may have lost a few orders because of that. But in exchange, I received something far more valuable. Respect. And customers who remained loyal to me for years. Later, when I became a representative for several Italian ceramic tile manufacturers, I worked in exactly the same way. First learn about the products. Understand the factories. Study the market. Listen to customers. And only then sell.
Still later, when Marco and I began dreaming of software for the tile industry, we started again with the same question:
"What problem is the customer facing today?"
And many years afterward, when the first practical applications of artificial intelligence fascinated me, I asked myself exactly the same question again. Not:
"What can this technology do?"
But:
"What problem does it truly solve for the people who will use it?"
That may seem obvious. To me, it never was. I met too many entrepreneurs who had fallen in love with their own product. But who had forgotten to listen to the people for whom that product was intended. I always tried to avoid that mistake. FAEMA gave me far more than a profession. The company taught me that technical knowledge is important. That professional competence is essential.
But above all, that you can only offer credible advice when you understand what you are talking about yourself. No machine, however perfect, is more important than the person who must use it. That lesson remained with me throughout my life. And if I could give one piece of advice to a young entrepreneur today, it would be this: never sell something you do not understand yourself. Begin by listening to the person in front of you.
Try to understand what they truly need. And only then offer a solution. When I think today of that young sales representative, I see someone who still had an enormous amount to learn. But I also see a young man who possessed one great advantage. He was never afraid to admit that he did not yet know everything. Because the more I learned, the better I understood how much remained for me to discover.
Perhaps that attitude was precisely one of the most important qualities to accompany me throughout my life. Not the conviction that I was always right. But the willingness to learn something new every day.