Dubai Abra Souq Station
Now selling is an art of scraping the needs, finding the value, connecting the client emotionally to the need+value+benefit and sell them the solution.
Clients are not interested what you sell – they look for convenience and solutions which make their lives easier.
Selling in UAE or working as a salesman doesn’t lead you to a dignified position. The focus of businesses is solely profit. But who’s making them a profit..? The sales guys of course. But in the Middle East, the situations is starkingly odd and different.
More or less, the employer is himself a misfit who assumes, business is won through, Waasta (personal references) and there is no such thing as Sales as an art and research.
The oil-rich region is abuzz with investments, business, networking, opportunities and just lots of money and glamour. What misses is this, Sales guys are not respected and are not highly paid executives.
On the other hand, Indian nationalities have done equal damage too – bringing the market rates to a level where only cats and South Indians can survive – on bones.
A market which sends its workforce, in sultry heat of June-October, expects to meet the targets is salaried at just a meagre Dhs.2000 (USD 544). Now how will Sales prosper..? Upon that 14 hours of gruelling work hours with traffic jams and harsher living conditions for expats. See also how expats spend their lives in such living conditions. Welcome the Paradise of Middle East – Dubai.
And this is how corporate companies in Dubai treat employees.
In such a dillemma, where no proper framework exists to allow Sales to grow out of perceptions – the old tabboos of doing business the traditional way is prevalent. Hawkers and sellers pitch by the road side.
Influence, emotionally connect and deliver value form the basis of stronger sales. UAE has just not learnt the right way of doing it. It might never would. WAASTA will give you PASTA in Emirates.
For your reading pleasure, check how expatriates live in UAE. And, how companies work in UAE and rob employees of their salaries.
Kaptain Korner 
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