Akhilesh S Kulkarni

Hi. My name is Akhilesh. I'm an MBA graduate in marketing. I have been into industry for 4 years into sales and marketing field. I started my career as a sales and marketing specialist in IT consulting solution firm. Later on, I have an experience into b to c sector as well, but also 3 years of b to b experience. I have been working as an SDR and BDR at Drevo and sister company called Pushout. I have been working into different geographies like US region and also ANZ or APAC region as well and with Indian region too.

How have you customized your sales approach to cater to clients in different industry? So I have customized a lot of times when it comes to approach. So it depends upon what kind of industry I'm targeting. If I'm targeting a vertical which is specific towards health or you could specific towards beauty cosmetic products. So it depends upon the messaging part. So mainly the approach towards messaging changes and looking out for some trigger points how exactly your particular product is fitting in. So for example, I am actually pitching out to some beauty products from Trego. So it majorly come down towards how the engagement is on the particular platform, either it is a website or an app, how exactly they are getting engagement with the messaging that they are putting out. So, also, my messaging also comes in the picture and putting there a particular trigger point, which will actually resonate with the client, why exactly I'm reaching out from Breville, and how Breville could be beneficial to them. That actually stands out. So that is how I change approach from industry to industry.

Describe the process you would use to analyze a client's budget and needs to ensure they receive the right services within the constraint. So to describe the process, uh, of how exactly I analyze a client's budget is to understand what is the like, how what kind of priority is there, first of all, to understand if the priority or the need is, like, on a short timeline. So, definitely, they are willing to spend a certain amount of money. And providing them the right services, it depends upon how exactly my product is fitting into their budget and what is actually required at the moment. So it gives me an leverage to actually have something on back of my hand. If something comes up in future or maybe after a couple of months, so I am able to provide them the services at the given moment. But for now, we could fit this into the budget, and let's move on, and let's start this collaboration. So it will give me a good understanding what exactly the client's vision is and how exactly we want to move forward.

Okay. So this is quite interesting question. So the negotiation skills for me, I have an example. I was walking into a b to c setup. There it was. The client is very interested. I'm so sorry. The client is very interested to actually onboard with the services, But the reason they are not actually getting onboarded is with a particular service that we aren't offering, which was towards creating applications for that particular client. Because we were not actually providing the hands on application services for their study abroad plans. But there, after after having an word with the management with my manager, so we came to a conclusion, like, we could actually give him a service where we could actually help him to curate, like, application from the base. Writing the SOPs and all sort of stuff. But the only catch was that he has to pay the certain amount on the same day if he wants to avail the services. There, the 2 key things that came up was to create an urgency and also to making sure, like, we are providing the services only to the specific client who is demanding that. So that created more towards building a relationship and building a long term relationship so that they could actually give this reference to their peers and other, uh, making their own circle so we could get more clients out of it. So that was the win win situation for the client as well and all also for the company.

Uh, so there was an example of create for an upsell, I could say. So I was walking into, like, a IT solution setup where already there was a account that was onboarded with us. But there was a very, uh, I was having, like, back and forth call with them. But a certain situation that came up was the website design that they were actually looking for or they actually asked asked for before. It wasn't delivered or you could say it wasn't up to mark after, like, couple of months. They were not satisfied with that. Uh, so that was, like, a concern to them because, uh, it wasn't appealing in their own eyes. So I turned this particular concern into an opportunity because at that time, I was handling the account only for different services. But this came in to understand because I build a rapport with that particular person. So he shared with me, like, I'm not actually happy with what exactly the website is looking at because he was exploring other websites to see how they look like and all those stuff. And after looking at the website, he wasn't that happy. So I came to a conclusion, like, definitely, we could move forward in this situation, and we could actually give you a better design because it was like the design was created with some other company. He wasn't satisfied with that, then the entire project was given to us as a company of Genica Technologies. We actually brought that project into streamlining process and then make it made it live. So that was the particular reason because, uh, 2 companies worked on a particular project and the client is not satisfied. So we actually revamped that and the upselling opportunity came after that because it was like a initial conversation we did. Like, I actually told them, like, we could do it. We changed their design without any cost. But later on, we actually had an, uh, contract with them, uh, annual monthly contract. We signed an AMC with them. That actually was an upselling for me. Before, AMC was not signed with them. AMC was very low. After that, we actually signed an AMC and also gave them gave them a particular, uh, renewal policy, you could say, uh, with their particular domain and also the particular server. Also, we provide them provided them a server too. So that was an upselling opportunity for me. So providing them so, like, for building a repo, I provided them, like, uh, certain service, which was, like, on the basis of, uh, creating relationship. But that opened up a door for me to actually upsell and retain that client.

So sales methodology, I find very easy is to follow the bank method, uh, or a CHAMP method when you are actually qualifying. Even the MEDDIC method is quite useful when you're doing the discovery calls or demo calls in the AU region. But speaking from my own experience, I have the qualified leads over the CHAMP methodology, which is challenges, authority, monetary, and, uh, priority. That actually is very easy for me to actually pitch in and pivot around the conversation that I'm having on an initial call with them. So it opens up the opportunity for me to understand even more and what exactly I have to, you know, ask when you are qualifying the particular customer. So it's very easy for me to actually, uh, follow this method and, basically, it opens up lot of doors to understand the particular client.

It's been a matter for preparing your client report that the lines with senior elevation expectations and provides. It's not an answer. Uh, so client report, I haven't been like, uh, I didn't had any experience, uh, to be honest, with the client report because everything was optimized, and we used to get the report on the dashboard of our CRM. So specific to client, we didn't have any chance. But when it comes to upselling or basically maintaining my own data, I used to follow Excel sheet. I used to write down the account names, what I'm targeting, what I'm in touch with. So where the activity is with that particular account, and also what kind of communication I'm having with them and at what stage that particular account is. So that kind of report, I used to maintain for my own sake, and I used to bring that up in weekly stand ups that we were having with the leadership. So it used to give me, like, a clear insight what exactly is happening with my accounts or, basically, with my work. So it was easy for me to deliver it whenever the leadership is actually asking about a certain account, certain things. It was easy to easy for me to bring that up.

Uh, so I have actually, uh, in terms of change in sales strategy, it came down to after, like, doing sales, uh, like, starting the sales before. So I was, like, uh, founding BDR for the particular region in India for Prego. So when I started, the entire market was, like, uh, they wanted to enter the Indian market before. So they were not, uh, you know, having an idea of how exactly the market would work, how the competitors are working. So after, like, uh, getting my hands dirty, started doing the cold calling, started doing the outreach, the entire process, then I came to know certain things. And after the market research was done for me, like, understanding market, like, in this particular market space or this particular vertical space, these prominent players are there and also where exactly our services stand. So that gave me an insight. So for example, now into current Indian market, it is mainly, like, 40 40% of, uh, the communications into marketing field are mainly related towards social media and messaging, which is which come down to WhatsApp. So these are, like, the trending things going on in the Indian market. So there wasn't into that particular space. They were mainly focusing on the emailing part. So they were actually quite, uh, like, confident, like, we would enter the market and people would go in for the email itself. They were actually building an entire 360 degree CRM suite. So that came in handy. And going into the pitch, uh, instead of just, uh, you could say, um, email marketing platform or the particular marketing platform, which is, uh, primarily focused on the emailing side. We actually turned it towards the geography and because of the geography and we turned it towards, like, we were actually the platform who can provide you, like, majority of the channels, which includes WhatsApp, also push notification, and wallet system to to actually gain the loyalty points for your particular clients and certain other stuff. So that was one of the example how exactly the market data actually changed my sales strategy.

Uh, so for example, when I'm calling a particular client so if client says, like, uh, the pain area is towards the engagement part, but they are not able to get the engagement. They are using channels like email. They are using channels like push notifications and also, uh, other notifications, uh, which are related to messaging, like WhatsApp or SMS, certain things like that. So the pain area for me to address is, uh, I have addressed is, like okay. You are using all the channels. That is understood. So how exactly you're doing this and what is the primary focus channel for you? So one, uh, the one answer I would care I got is, like, they are mainly focused towards doing the, uh, SMS part. So the same majority of SMSes, they are actually engaging with that particular client on clients with SMS part. And later on, the second channel, they prioritize email because of the mostly transactional email change of password, order delivery, and certain things like that. So that actually triggered me, uh, a solution in my mind, like, how exactly we could do it. So for that, for more understanding, I actually dip dig deep into the conversation and ask what is the exact open rate for your image and how exactly your SMS is performing for you, SMS campaign. So the numbers that they showed was significantly lower than that. They were, like, uh, just, uh, spraying and praying kind of method that they were using with their campaigns. So they were just shooting in the dark and they were expecting something in return. So that wasn't the that doesn't actually work in the particular field when you're doing the marketing part. So that is where the solution for us came in. So we showed up because, like, we are actually having the 98% deliverability rate with also we provide SMS, WhatsApp, and we also provide you a customer success manager. So they could actually help you to understand how exactly your campaign should be curated around the areas that you are focusing on. So you will be at a very good place for with the numbers that you are actually expecting from your campaigns. So that was the solution that I provided to them because they were actually struggling to understand how exactly the campaigns go are going to perform and what kind of campaigns they need to change. So by providing a CSM in that particular center in that particular with the particular solution, so that was a trigger point for them to actually get those, you know, the need to actually move in the right direction. And then the meeting happened, and the the demo happened, and then they onboard.

So prioritization would come down to, uh, what actually obviously, how exactly I could prioritize the task. Uh, so by being, uh, rightly, like, if there is another recent client issue, so I have to address that first because client would come first for me. And then rightly with the deadline, I have to be on top of that and to meet the sales report, like, I have to be on the timeline since day 1. They're only if the situation comes up with the sales report. So it it shouldn't be the case. Uh, I have to, like, prioritize my entire work schedule for the week. And if certain things comes up like this, urgent client meet, I have to be on that, uh, on the sales report beforehand itself. So I have to prioritize accordingly, manage my calendars, and work accordingly.

The b to b sales experience has been a roller coaster, to be honest, because it is, uh, it is difficult to actually sell our digital service to a digital customer because they are actually into a space where they are already having a particular tool or or they are completely unaware and they won't require anything. So for that to understand how exactly you could fit in that requirement or you could provide a solution or a value, that comes in at best. So you have to do your research. You have to do your homework. That is the main priority for any sales folks to do the b to b sales.