Software Business in the Middle East

I studied Computer Science in the University. The majority of experience about how to promote and sell comes from my own mistakes. I guess that some kind of business education might help in my work, but I don’t have it (yet).

Thinking about how education might be helpful, I wonder if it is really necessary for successful career and business. I will not take a well known example of Bill Gates; instead, I’ll talk about one example from my personal life.

It was summer 1996 when my friend and I started to work as programmers in one of the insurance companies. We just finished our third year in the University, so we could work full time during that summer, and part time during the next year. Our manager was a brilliant man. I think he was one of the best managers I ever had – dispite the fact that he had no education at all. After the school he worked in Electronic Workshop fixing TV sets. Then he started working in insurance, and at the time we came in he was Insurance Director.

I guess I had the same brilliant manager one time more afterwards. That guy also had ordinary Bachelor degree he got in a college in Boras.

All other managers I had were good enough, and some of them were really stupid guys. The education is good, but it cannot replace the common sense.

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It happened during my last trip to Saudi Arabia. I was sitting in the hotel lobby using free Wi-Fi Internet very late at night. It was about 1 am. The only thing I wanted was to go to bed, but I had to finish couple e-mails first. Suddenly, a guy in Arab cloth sat down next to me on the sofa. People in Arabic countries are normally very social; it is very different from frozen Scandinavia

The guy asked me something about where I came from, what I did in Saudi Arabia and thousands of other questions. I was answering trying to smile and showing I was really busy and wouldn’t want to continue talking as I had some urgent stuff to do.

When he asked me about what I did for living, I told him a little bit about our drug database. And you know what? That guy was a pharmacist. Even more, he was a chief pharmacist in Ministry of Social Affairs! He asked me for a demo CD and we exchanged business cards.

Yesterday we got a purchase order from Ministry of Social Affairs for five-year license. By the way, it is our first customer that has purchased a license for such a long period of time. And I was very close to clearly tell this guy that I was sorry, but I needed to make my job done…

The conclusion is that you would always have a demo CD or booklets with you. You never know where you might get a new customer. Probably, business card with a web address of your product works also fine, but folk here in the Middle Eats prefer to get something they could touch.

And the main thing - always talk to the people. It is probably the easiest and cheapest way to market your product.

Have you ever had an unusual situation when a new customer just came out from nowhere when least expected? Tell your story in the comments.

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