‘They will simply ghost you’: Dubai entrepreneur says Indian clients ‘don’t know how to be clients’

An Indian entrepreneur based in Dubai has sparked a debate over workplace professionalism after saying that many Indian clients are difficult to deal with, citing lengthy sales cycles, aggressive price comparisons, micromanagement and delayed payments.

Mahima Jalana, who runs an agency and has been building the business for nearly six years, shared her observations in a LinkedIn post titled, “Indian clients don't know how to be a client.” She acknowledged that the comment could sound harsh or derogatory but said her experience had led her to that conclusion.

Long sales cycles and constant price negotiations

Jalana said a typical domestic sales process for her agency could take about eight weeks and involve four meetings and at least 10 WhatsApp conversations. She also said prospective clients frequently compared her agency's quotation with those of five cheaper agencies and questioned why her services were not priced at the lowest level.


According to Jalana, another recurring issue was how some clients responded when they did not want to proceed. She said that rather than directly rejecting a proposal, they would often stop responding.

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She also complained about what she described as extensive micromanagement and expanding expectations after a project began. Constant calls, delayed payment cycles and repeated follow-ups, she said, created the impression that clients were paying for her time instead of her expertise.

Moving business to Dubai changed her client experience

Jalana said these experiences were among the main reasons she shifted her company to Dubai. She contrasted her experience with clients in India with her dealings with customers in the Gulf Cooperation Council region and the US, which she described as “a completely different experience.”

She said international clients typically moved faster, with sales often taking two calls before an invoice was issued and work began. She also said these clients generally respected her pricing, even when it was beyond their budgets, and were more likely to say directly that they could not afford the service instead of continuing to negotiate.

Jalana further claimed that clients from the GCC and US tended to give her greater professional independence, allowing her to work without constant micromanagement. She said they paid for her expertise, trusted her to carry out the work and sometimes referred her to people in their networks.

Entrepreneur urges service providers to seek international clients

Jalana clarified that she was not saying Indian clients were “bad,” but argued that service providers looking to increase their earnings while reducing micromanagement and payment-related follow-ups should consider working with customers outside India.

She encouraged other business owners to take on as many international clients as possible, saying this could help their businesses while also reducing stress.

At the end of her post, she asked professionals who preferred working with Indian clients to share their reasons, adding that she might be missing something.

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LinkedIn users share their own experiences

The post drew responses from users who said they had faced similar difficulties while dealing with clients in India.

One user described an incident in which they were working on a project and updating a system after informing the client by email that the task would take 20 to 30 minutes. The user said that within 10 minutes, the client began calling every five minutes to ask how much longer the work would take. Frustrated by the repeated calls, the user said they switched off their mobile phone for 20 minutes, which ultimately delayed the work by almost an hour, adding that there had been other similar incidents.

Another user said the issue was one where Indians needed to “evolve and adhere to professionalism.”

A third commenter said they “completely” agreed with Jalana, arguing that Indian clients could be difficult to satisfy when expectations expanded beyond the agreed scope. The user described what they called a sense of entitlement, saying some clients appeared to believe that paying for a service entitled them to additional work, including extra services without additional compensation.

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