In November 2018 I walked onto the Big 5 show in Dubai. It was my first time in the region. The furthest east I had ever been was Egypt, on holiday. I had never done a day of business in the Gulf.
I came home with a different view of how selling works. Here is what I learned, and why it still decides who wins and who waits.
I started in direct sales in the mid 90s. The Western model I grew up in is agenda driven. You agree a purpose, you agree next steps, you leave with a date in the diary. It is efficient and I have closed plenty of business that way. I still do.
The Gulf runs differently. You build the relationship first. Family, life outside work, football, Formula One, whatever common ground you can find. That trust is what earns you the right to pitch. Nobody is being slow or rude. The relationship is the qualification step, and it comes before the commercial one.
Each GCC country has its own flavour. The principle is the same across all of them.
In the West the agenda earns you the meeting. In the Gulf the relationship earns you the agenda.
After one day I knew the stand was the wrong place to sell. So I did not try to drill into projects with people walking past. I told my MD I was coming back in two weeks, and I booked about four days of office meetings.
That was the whole plan. Show up, meet people on their ground, and let the conversation start somewhere other than the product.
My first meeting was on a construction site in JVT. There was barely anything built there compared with today. I drank my first Arabic coffee. The Lebanese contact I met struggled with my accent.
Nothing came of that meeting.
It still set up everything that followed. It opened the door to a great many meetings and a lot of business in the region over the years that followed. The return came later and it was far bigger than any single order.
Most overseas manufacturers do the opposite. They fly in with a deck, a target list and a three day agenda. They ask for the specification, the budget and the decision date in the first hour. On paper that is professional. In the room it reads as someone who wants something and has not earned it yet.
Then they go home and wait. A tender comes out, they price it, and they wonder why the same names keep winning.
The names that keep winning were in the room long before the tender. They knew the engineers, the buyers and the people two levels above them. When a problem came up, they were the first call.
This matters beyond the Gulf. The same pattern runs through EPC procurement with firms like Técnicas Reunidas, Saipem and Tecnimont, and through any market where people buy from someone they trust. The agenda driven approach works when the buyer already has a need and a process. The relationship approach works earlier, when the need is still forming and somebody has to shape it.
Relationships take time, and time costs money. So you need a method, not just good intentions.
First, separate the show from the selling. Use the exhibition to meet people and book dated meetings in their offices. Do not try to close on the stand.
Second, go back quickly. I went back in two weeks. A short gap shows you meant it. A long one tells them you were collecting business cards.
Third, accept that the first meeting may produce nothing, and plan for that. Judge the trip by who you met and what they would say about you afterwards, not by the quote count.
Fourth, keep the commercial discipline. Relationship first does not mean commercial last. Once you are trusted, lead times, bonds, terms and pricing still have to stand up. Trust gets you in the conversation. A sharp commercial case wins it.
If your Gulf strategy is a deck and a list of tenders, you are playing the Western game in a market that plays a different one. Change the order. Build the relationship, then bring the agenda.
If you want a straight read on whether your route into the region is built that way, Ground Truth is a paid go or no go call, direct with me. It is a $250 refundable deposit, credited in full against Commercial Launchpad or the Fractional retainer if you proceed, and refunded if I decide it is not the right fit. You can book it at https://cal.com/scott-robinson-hn8vga/ground-truth or start with a 20 minute call.
Ground Truth is a paid call that gives you an honest go or no-go on your market, direct with Scott. The $250 deposit is credited if you go ahead, and refunded if we are not the right fit.