How much do UAE’s sales and marketing executives earn?

In early 2009, there was not much steam left in the career of a sales and marketing professional as the first wave of recession hit the UAE.

With not many firms looking to actively expand their presence and lesser still looking to hire or promote sales and marketing talent, things were looking quite bleak.

Most marketers were – and perhaps rightly so – concerned about their employment security as companies of all sizes were then looking to make cuts, and the marketing budget was unfortunately often the first place they started with.

“The sales people were the first one to be shown the door,” said Sona M, a sales executive working in a Dubai-based media company. “The first pink-slip sounded the alarm bell for all of us… we were in a game of Chinese whispers… who will be the next one,” she reminisces.

Undoubtedly, sales and marketing professionals were perhaps the first ones and one of the worst hit during the past few years. But now, as the economy improves and businesses become stronger once again, this is one department that can expect substantial changes and gains, part of which will be to compensate the job shedding of previous years and part of it to gear for future expansion.

“We really suffered as there was actually no business then, but we could soon be the centre of action once again as it’s the sales department that gets the money in,” quips a sales manager at an electronics shop in Dubai’s Mall of the Emirates.

While that may well be the case, what in fact are the job prospects of sales and marketing executives in the UAE, and what sort of pay-hikes and commission increments should they expect this year?

Headhunters in the country see 2013 as a good one for professionals in this department and the trend was very much set last year.

First and foremost, the demand for candidates in sales will go up this year. “[We] definitely see a demand and this was evident through 2012 and all indications are it will continue,” Jack Khabbaz, Associate Director for Sales & Marketing for the GCC at recruitment