Swagelok UAE “Middle East” Sales Connect Conference

Swagelok UAE and Swagelok Saudi Arabia organized a three-day sales event in Dubai, UAE between the 9^th and 11^th of December, 2019. The Middle East Sales Connect was attended by Swagelok UAE and Swagelok Saudi Arabia sales associates, new construction sales specialists, regional field engineers, agents, and resellers. Participants gathered from more than eleven countries to engage in this sales event. The conference reviewed the sales achievements of Swagelok UAE’s service area in 2019 and discussed the execution of the distributor annual business plan for 2020.

Distributor Principal Gretchen Kaimer kicked-off the event by highlighting the importance of strategic focus and alignment for organizational growth. She also announced the transition of Swagelok UAE to its new facility in the Jebel Ali Free Zone. “This outstanding new facility is part of our strategic growth plan and will help us deliver Swagelok products, solutions and services to our customers in the region across our full spectrum of local resources and capabilities,” said Gretchen.  Kurt Kaimer, Managing Director of Swagelok UAE based in Dubai, added that “We are proud to continue to add to our world-class product and service offerings through the addition of this facility as part of our global sales and service center network.”

At the event, associates participated in training sessions that laid out the sales road map for the next strategic plan cycle.  The sessions were conducted by Hesham El Banna (Swagelok Saudi Arabia Sales Manager and Field Engineer), Samson Jacob (Chemical Market Manager and Field Engineer), Mark Bollinger (Oil & Gas Market Manager), Scott Scarborough (Director of Operations), and Stanley Azijnman (Director of Sales).

The Middle East Sales Connect emphasized the strategic markets, applications, and products that have the biggest growth potential for the region. “We want to drive growth strategically,” said Stanley Azijnman.

Scott Scarborough added, “Implementing a new business system in three different locations simultaneously was a challenging task that the team accomplished successfully. One of our objectives for the event was to ensure the operational alignment that SAP B1 provides across territories to support our growth initiatives.”

The conference was held at the Amwaj Rotana, one of the finest five-star luxury hotels in the world located by the beach on Dubai’s glamorous and cosmopolitan leisure and retail promenade. “Time for networking and connecting is the number-one ask of our agents and resellers attending the event. So we took a hard look at the agenda and prioritized making this happen,” explained Mark Bollinger. Participants had collaborative lunches, dinners, and team building competitions.

Hesham El Banna and Samson Jacob stress the importance of organizing a Sales Connect seminar in the UAE. “It gives our sales associates and agents, from countries with high level of risk in our region, the chance to learn from other Swagelok experts, network with their peers, learn best practices and enhance their product and application knowledge,” they explained.

The three-day sales conference was supported by corporate Swagelok associates. Ed Ormerod, Regional Construction Manager EMEA, and Danny van den Burg, Regional Manager Field Engineering had a clear added value: helping to ensure that borders are not barriers. Bringing our sales associates, agents and resellers responsible for selling into eleven countries in the Middle East allowed all parties to discuss the execution of the DAP 2020 as “One Team” while encouraging creative thinking to come up with new ideas to win competitive New Construction projects and selling Field Services.