Software Business in the Middle East

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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