Sales and Marketing Executive International, a non-profit professional development association, has opened a series of chapters in the Middle East.

Abjad Consulting, a leading sales and marketing consulting and optimising company in the Mena region, will be responsible for managing SMEI Arabia in Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries.

The agreement will allow Abjad Consulting through SMEI Arabia to present professional certification programmes in sales and marketing in the region.

The certification programmes include ‘Certified Sales Executive’, ‘CSE and Certified Marketing Executive’ – dedicated to sales and marketing managers and ‘SMEI Certified Professional Sales Person’ dedicated for the professional sales person.

Ammar Shami, president and chairman of SMEI Arabia, said: "The distribution network of companies and the expanding structure of the organisations in Middle East have made sales and marketing management as a first priority to investors. Sales and marketing, however, has the most unstable departments in the Mena region.”

“Challenges of competition on the market share within the globalization context has put much emphasizes on sales and marketing," he added.

According to a survey in Gulf Business News, the highest salaries paid in 2012 are for senior sales and marketing positions with an average of $12,000 per month.   

Currently, SMEI Arabia has members from pharmaceuticals, food, biomedical, construction, FMCG and agribusiness sector. - TradeArabia News Service