Doing business in Saudi Arabia

This is such a big topic that I am going to cover this over a lot of posts.

Business in Saudi Arabia is personal. What i mean by that is personal, face to face contact and interface counts for everything. It counts for even more when conducted in a social environment, out of the office.

Yes emails are used. Yes phone calls are made (better). But in order to do business and make money here requires trust.

Saudis take time to evaluate and get to know the people they plan to work with. There are no shortcuts. Coming to Saudi and expecting to "do a deal this trip" rarely happens - time is everything.

Business is based on trust. A Saudi's word is his bond and he will only give it once he knows and trusts you.

Saudis find it difficult to say NO. They will find all sorts of "nice" ways to avoid such a direct "confrontational" position. We Westerners are used to this and in fact expect it. We want to know where we stand. Tell me yes or no and I can move on or stay. Well, it is not so clear cut here.

The successful Westerners in Saudi take time to get to know the people they want to work with and they learn to read between the lines. rarely is there a straightforward "yes" or "no".

Finally, because Saudis find it difficlut to say no and inherently want to be respectful to everyone, do not get upset if you find your host accepting phone calls during your visit or even allowing people to come in to the room to have a discussion about something that has absolutely nothing to do with you.

At first this may be frustrating but on the other hand it is interesting and allows us to hone our skills at reading people rather than being dependant on words alone.

Even we Westerners acknowledge that actions speak louder than words.