Notes from My Middle East Trip
Salaam Alkiaum!
I’m back! It was a great trip, but it is REALLY good to be home. It’s been a thrill to share my experiences via Facebook over the last week (go to www.facebook.com/JeffShoreCommunity to see videos and pics). Hope you enjoyed the updates.
A few random thoughts from the trip:
1) Selling in Abu Dhabi is remarkably similar to selling in North America. It’s still all about connecting, understanding, advancing and serving. The cultural nuances fit quite well into my existing sales process.
2) The people in the United Arab Emirates are wonderful! Gracious, fun, interesting, eager to learn – everything I could have hoped for.
3) Selling in the UAE is about patience. People move at their own schedule. Even our 9:00 sales training sessions started at 9:40ish (or whenever people showed up). Frankly, it made me appreciate the punctuality I am used to.
4) Saadiyat Island (https://www.saadiyatisland.ae/) is the single most amazing development I have ever seen. The Manarat Experience center (https://www.saadiyatisland.ae/experience/manarat-al-saadiyat/) is truly remarkable. The theater-in-the-round shows you an amazing look at the future of the community. The interactive 3-D displays were breathtaking. Everything about the place spoke of energy and excitement.
5) The upscale homes were not substantially different than what you would see in a higher-end community in the United States. Well-appointed kitchens, spacious master suites, large family rooms with high ceilings. I could have been in North America. The separate en-suite rooms for maids, nannies, and drivers were a nice touch!
6) There is a high premium on quality touches throughout the Abu Dhabi infrastructure, often through a no-expense-spared approach. The freeways are lined with landscaping, trees and flowers for miles on end. Of course, none of the vegetation is natural. It’s hundreds of freeway miles all neatly planted and irrigated with desalinated seawater.
7) If you’re interested at all in architecture, put Dubai on your “bucket list”. The buildings and layout are spectacular. We are so used to cities that morphed into what they are today. In Dubai it’s all from scratch and all new money. Oil changed everything about this place.
I come away with a new and profound respect for life in the Middle East, but also for an appreciation of my own country. It was a pleasure to be there…and to change a whole different part of the world!
