Nagaraj J

Hey. Uh, this is, uh, Nagraj. Uh, born in Bodup in Chennai. Uh, I completed my, uh, bachelor's degree, a BTEC in SRAM University, and started my, uh, search in a company called, uh, GREH. So there, we sell the the we we sold GRE products for, uh, masters. So it's an it's it's from EdTech. Uh, post that I started, uh, my career in SaaS, in particular with the US market in a company called, uh, Striker Price. So Striker Price is a company where they help to they help ecommerce resellers to give an exact pricing. Uh, they as a company, uh, we would onboard customers into, uh, different ecommerce platforms like Amazon, Google, and other companies. And from there from there, you generate, uh, revenue from them. Like, I'll say, this would be the best price to quote, and, uh, we we we give you a number of, uh, pricing for each and every product they sell. If you if you look at the ecommerce resellers, they'd be selling more and more products. So 1 reseller will not be selling 1 product. He'll be selling them 50 to 60 products. So we we we dive them into their competition, and, uh, we give them the exact price at which they can sell. We are for this, we compare the pricing with other ecommerce resellers and give them give it to them, so which would help them into their, uh, sales. And after that, uh, I dived into the SaaS industry. My first SaaS company was, uh, Aptivo. Uh, Aptivo is nothing but end to end business application where 60 plus apps are stitched together. Uh, it's like Zoho 1. So Aptivo is a product in which which was invented before Zoho 1, I would say. And, uh, I was I was leading the SDR team there. Um, I was the 1st SDR that we hired, and we had 5 member team. I was doing both inbound and, um, outbound SDR. But that SDR role was completely an account management SDR role. Like, you'd be given some, uh, 300, 400 accounts to us, and from that, uh, you'd be picking up the demos. We'd be scheduling demos for the product. See, as Aptivo was a was a price competitive product, it was easy to, uh, it was very easy to crack crack it and move forward on getting demos. Post that, uh, 2 years of rough patch, uh, 1 in Burdai, another 1 in, um, urban pipe piper. I went Piper, and, um, then I joined Freshworks, uh, mid market, uh, business management. I had 4 member team. So I I also performed, um, so I it should be an IC as well as Okay. It was an IC IC role as well as I should manage 3 member team. And my recent role was in factors dotai. I led the sales team, uh, complete sales team, end to end sales team, where I handle SDRs as well as AEs. And month on month, I'll be giving 3, 000

Major client budget has been reduced, impacting their ability to use. Oh, do you know we get this call? Okay. So generally, right, uh, if if it is a major customer, um, sometimes for few companies, logo matters. For few few companies, their revenue matters. So I'll just check what kind of companies they are they are in. It's a combination of logo plus revenue. Or this company, they're we are completely dependent upon their revenue. This should be the first thing. The the the second thing would be, uh, what is the constraint they have we have to see. For example, if they are paying, uh, $1, 000 to us. Right? Now they're they're coming to $600 a month. So the gap is $400. How can we restrict the gap within that, uh, you know, $400? For example, you'd be giving some 100 to 200, uh, uh, services and everything. Uh, what and all services in that 100 services, which is, uh, required or not required, has to be checked. Once once we check that, we we'll come to know that and what and all points we can reduce the reduce the cost. And if if we are doing certain level of price reduction for that customer, right, 1 thing we have to make sure that we have to give them a 4 year or 5 year contract, at least a 3 year contract in in that time so that, uh, we we would have them for next 3 years. See, there will be a situation where we'll neither gain a profit nor a loss, but still in the point of view where we have to hold the customer for next 3 years where his business scenario also changes. So we have to ensure that, uh, we are we are we are giving a a 3 year contract with the flexibility of the pricing in which he's expecting. And as well as, we have to also see that is nothing is burning our hands. So that should be the ideal point in which we have to take a call. So, uh, if he he's paying $1, 000 to us. Uh, his budget is $600. So there is a gap of $400. So out of the services that we which we are giving, what are the services we can reduce, as well as, um, how can we extend this contract for next 2, 3 years? See, generally, when when there is a budget constraint comes, right, uh, the there are high chances where the contract, uh, time period also increases. So, generally, in my experience, uh, when someone says I don't have budget, I have less budget, we we several times, I've given them discount. At the same time, uh, other 1 thing is I've also extended the contract, 3 year contract or 4 year contract or 5 year contract so that the pricing also is there. We are we are done the negotiation, and we are retaining the customers for next 3 years. We'll have that, uh, flexibility and ability to move forward with that customer.

See, generally, right, uh, KPI's are very important. So what we have delivered, that that is the most important thing. So what we have delivered, we want we have to tell them. At the same time, there must be an expectation from the customer when he would have signed the contract to us. So what we have we have delivered, what is the expectation of customer. And on the on the third part of the presentation, what we're going to do is we're gonna compare what we delivered and what is the expectation from the customer. So when we match both, so we will we'll come to a point in which where this where did our services stand in the last quarter? How much it is it has impacted the, uh, customer's business and how it has, uh, given flexibility and ability to the to the customer and us to move, uh, to take the project forward. So comparison is very important. And, generally, right, uh, percentage always matters on the percentage. Right? So, uh, what impact we have done, we have shown percentage wise. For example, if it is a revenue impact, we have to show show them on the revenue side. There's an increase of revenue of 20%, 30%. Um, and, uh, if it is a leads part, uh, you you have got so much leads, uh, after that after taking our services. For example, uh, you've got more than 80 leads from us. We are before you're getting, uh, when when we spoke earlier, you were saying we are getting, like, 30 leads. Now we are getting 80 leads. So so all the, uh, impact as we have done on the percentage part, very important. See, generally, right, when something is told to us, right, there's some some problems on there and we are taking the service, there'll be some points in which we could not do it. We should also mention, though, part those parts, and we should say that, hey. This 1 you said, uh, we are working on it, but we could not achieve it in this quarter. Next quarter, definitely, we'll achieve it. So you don't need to worry on this part, and we are working on it and show the progress on that, uh, the particular part in which we could not achieve our goals. So these are the 3, uh, of, uh, most important thing. And, um, if it is a very early stage of product, we are not going to pitch anything new. Okay? But if the project is with us for more than 1 year or 2nd year, it is a time to get, uh, time to do a cross sell or upsell from that particular account. So we have to see that is there any any opportunity there so that we can throw them and get them into our project. So it it is not going to convert on that particular quarter or in the 6 months, but down the line, it should get, uh, converted. So we have to see that opportunity also.

See, um, uh, 1 1 important strategy that, uh, which which has always worked for me is reactivation and process. Uh, we would be talking to a number of customers on the previous year. They would come on the demo stage. They would be on the lead stage. But, uh, they would be on the different stage, but they will not move to the sales stage. But these customers know our brand. So what we have what we have done here is the reactivation closest part is going back to the old leads, which is, uh, less than 1.5 years and not more than 3 months. So, uh, if something gets old by 3 months, and, uh, it should be within 1.5 years, right, Those leads can be tapped easily. These leads are easy revenues where you you get n number of, uh, uh, brand. They know our brand. They they they have the brand awareness. So what our product does and everything. So it is not it is not going to be tough to, uh, crack them or bring them into the, uh, the, uh, demo part or the other other, uh, initial stage, uh, sales stages, or they would have already crossed the sales stages. For example, there will be few customers who have seen demos. Would have we would have given proposal from that. At that point, it would have stopped. So we can eventually understand. Again, we can just go back to them and say, hey. Ask, hey. We we spoke to you last year, but still it's not. We could not go forward last year. Is there any opportunity this year where, uh, we can reinitiate the conversation? But I'll also make sure that I'll work on the pricing this time and everything. This this is 1 of the most successful, uh, sales part where it it eventually increased 20, 30% of your revenue. So this reactivation closure is a very strong result where many companies leave it as a open space. They don't they do not do it. Only few successful companies have a team for this where they go back to them, and they eventually talk to them, And they maintain the relationship in next 1 year. So once you maintain the relationship with the reactivation team and everything, right, he's not going to buy buy, uh, buy us today. But in future, next year, if he wants to take something, right, if he wants to take a new project, we should be our 1st trucks. So we should always be in that level because we can always take the cost in which we have invested for the lead or demo or anything else. At the same time, most of the products are in, um, trial. Even services, we have started giving a 3 months short project or 6 months short project. So after the short project, they also go. Right? We appoint in which someone from the reactivation team is always in touch with them. So reactivation closure team is always best. They they increase the revenue just like that by 10 to 20% in in in a matter of 6 months. In 6 months, you can see that there'll be an increase in revenue. So this is I've implemented, uh, thrice, and all the 3 times, it does improve the sales. In fact, in Aptivo, when when we did this reactivation closure, I I still remember the demos got increased by 60%. So they started coming and saying the demos again and again and again. So reactivation and closure is 1 of my best strategies, I would say. We have got n number of leads and closures from that.

How do you see your sales process? From okay. Yeah.

I I do have a habit. I've used HubSpot, Freshsales, and, uh, Salesforce previously. Right? So the first first and foremost habit is once a demo is fixed for us or once a demo or call is fixed for us, I take something I do something called prenotes. So what is a prenote? We have to see how much employees they are in, what is the company type, what what industry they are in. And, uh, there are tools like RapoTune, all the tools. You can see we can get the info information from them where, uh, what are all softwares they're using and everything. So you put it in prenotes. And once the call started, plea I I would I would always write it write it down on what we spoke. That is, uh, what he's looking for, what is the, uh, uh, carrier guidance he's looking oh, sorry. What is the, uh, what they are looking from the product. So, like, what problems they have currently, what is the situation they are in there in but they have budget and everything. So I'll take all the notes, and, uh, I I just put it in the CRM. So we we know the, uh, what what they're looking for and what is their current situation. And from that point from that point, what what we are gonna do is we are gonna get take follow ups from. So when can we meet next? So what is their time line? Understanding everything, and we we schedule follow-up calls. Calls. 1 follow-up call after every follow-up call, we're gonna put notes into the, uh, CRM and fill all the basic data that which employee, which industry, which I told you before. Once, uh, after mentioning everything, uh, into the after mentioning everything, and that has to be done. That has to be saved, and, uh, that has to be, uh, given as a closure. Very importantly, we talk about discounts. So we have to mention the discounts into the CRM. That is more important. Can you provide an example of how how you have upsell across all services in the previous role? Yes. See, uh, 1 thing here is, uh, with with with the SaaS products, right, they we we would initially board initially board them into the basic plan. After 3 months of usage, as I told you in the previous presentation, right, we give the quarterly update to them. Once we give the quarterly update to them, if we find if they have find value, they have said they've got 10 to 20 demos or 5 demos, the product has actually performed as they they're interested. Right? We would say that you can you can get this. For example, uh, there, uh, there was a client for us who who who used only our website visitor identification. Uh, but I I told to them, hey. The website visitor identification is actually working for you. Right? Uh, is you if you get account scoring in this website visitors, and now it is you can prioritize the accounts, which eventually worked them. We gave them 2 months trial. And 3rd month, he purchased it. So if you have find if you have given them value in the previous product which we have sold, it is easy to get an, uh, upsell or cross sell within the within the org. So we have to make sure that the upsell isn't happened. So for that, uh, a quarterly, uh, report is required. Monthly report is required. See, I would generally prefer, 1st 6 months, a monthly report. After that, I would send them a, uh, quarterly report. So after monthly report, I can show I can ease easily show a up and quarterly report. So, uh, it is very easy if we sell a if we upsell a product, if the customer is satisfied with the current services.

The time when you are negotiate with the client to reach mutually benefit agreement. Yes. There are several times in the last 8 years, uh, if you look at, uh, the GRE edge. Right? I was the first person to sell both GRE product and admission product in 1 go. That eventually happened. Where what happened is, first, the customer the the the customer was a student. He was, uh, in the 3rd year. So he had ample time with them. So the time was the the the point in which I can I can easily uh, sell both the products to him? And he had also budget of 60, 000. He can spend up to 60, 000. So what I did is III gave him a good yearly course for 1 year with an admission course for 2 years, so which was around 50 thou which was around 50, 000. And I also did something where I told him, hey. This product cost 80, 000. So if you are a 30 year student, you can give him a discount. So that that 1 time where we mutually agreed and it benefit us. And, uh, uh, second second time the second time is, uh, in Striker Price, uh, what happened is there was a ecommerce seller. So generally, in Striker Price, what we what what what we generally do is, uh, we sign for each and every product. So what I did is I I quoted them, uh, the from base by 2 into, uh, 0.75, and I boarded all the products. I told them, hey. If you have this, this is going to be very helpful for you. And the negotiation here the negotiation here happened only on the pricing. See, both the times, the negotiation point was pricing and time limit. Here, I gave him that, uh, you don't need to do an yearly contract, or you don't want you you don't wanna do a renew a yearly contract. But you pay me $10, 000, I can give you, uh, uh, the service for, uh, 5 years. So that won't happen. And in Aptivo I see Aptivo what what Aptivo is more of a cross sell from lower plan to, uh, upper plan. Uh, that was a very big logo. So what what, uh, I did was I I gave him the platinum the second plan for the base plan pricing itself. I said, hey. If you're signing signing with us for 5 years contract, right, the contract time for 5 years, and they did have budget. So once they did have budget, we signed it for 5 years, And but I gave it for the base price because when I gave the when I if if I pitch the discount and it comes, it will come near to the base price. But 1 thing was important was 5 years, uh, contract where we we got the cost also. We we also know that he's going to he's not gonna churn for next 5 years. And, uh, in in Freshworks, I I bought a multi opportunity, uh, for my where, uh, all 4 products, Freshservice, Freshdesk, Fresh, uh, Fresh CRM, FreshPick. All 4 products, I bought a multi product where I I negotiated with them. 1 thing which I promised was, uh, a 3 year service at, uh, 2 years cost. So you pay for pay us for 2 years and get 3 years, uh, service and my AE also done. In factors, we onboarded reference. Right? It it was, uh, a benefit for a customer where he referred 10 10 of them. I said once you refer, your cost would be reduced on using the product. He referred 10 logos for us, and it worked. So these kind of negotiation happens where we can hold the contract. We can get the money as well as we can get more, uh, customers.

What steps do you take to ensure that your products are exceptional? Customer's experience during the interaction with your client? Okay. See, to to give an exact and exceptional customer service, right, the first and foremost thing is to understand what is customer expecting. See, if customer expectation is different and you do a monologue, which you do every time, it's not going to work. Understand the customer expectations first. What he's actually expecting with us? And if you feel a product or or product or service is a mismatch on their expectation, please tell them upfront, and don't push what what we have within us. Right? For example, if if you're expecting something a and b and we have c, don't push c to them. Okay? First of all, understand make them understand that a and b is not with us. Okay? But, uh, we have another thing. If you want if you feel that it is okay for you, you can we can you can go ahead and see. If not, let's let's part away now. So give respect to what is required and this time. And, uh, third 1 is always, uh, give a personalized experience on calls. Don't take a monologue. For example, if saying if someone is saying that I'm I'm looking for something in which, uh, uh, I have to do this with the CRM. Right? You you you you'd have pitched your practice on a monologue type at this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this this. Don't ever do it. Always match your presentation or your demo on what customer is expecting from us. So it is easy for us to take them to the next stage. And, uh, 4th point is, generally, right, understand who's talking. Right? For example, if some VP is talking to you, right, you tailor the demo according to the VP. If someone in the, uh, I some ICs is talking to you, individual con individual contributor is talking to you, and he wants to take the product to the next level. Right? So you also make sure that you talk pounding to them. That is also very important. And you you always, uh, tell give them examples in which they can understand. For example, if they are from b f BFSI industry, take an example from BFSI, uh, from industry and tell them that, hey. My product has given these kind of, uh, uh, uh, uh, helped this kind of situation in BFSI. So this can he can always relate to you easily. Right? See, that 30 minutes and 40 minutes should be completely personalized, completely completely strategically. Uh, it should be that you should not even think that I wasted time with them, or he he should not ask you that, uh, can you do redo this call again? Right? If that happened also, it is not a good, uh, customer experience. So very simple steps. Uh, find what is expecting. Okay. Find yes, uh, is the right time for them to implement this, Who are their competitors? And, uh, if you have worked in their industry, just take example from that. And always match your call with their expectations. It is gonna give you a better best customer experience. If possible, uh, give them a free trial or something so that they'll also be happy at the end.

Yep. We have been tasked with an improving sales process for Australia and kind of health sector in some sense. See, um, to to first thing, are we doing a regular, uh, touch with the customer? Right? Uh, most most of the people, what they do is, uh, there is a strategy here. After sales, for the 1st 6 months, there should be a weekly connect. Okay? After 6 months, it should be, uh, it should become monthly connect or 15 days once connect. So my first and foremost thing is that that should be checked, whether we are doing a regular connect, whether we are doing a regular, uh, QBRs, uh, m MBRs and everything. And the second point I would check is what is the efforts that has been taken from our team, uh, on giving them the, uh, right feedback, or is there any concerns they have? Understand the customer concerns would be the next, uh, next point. And, uh, 3rd, when when when we have the, uh, sales data. Right? Uh, when we have the sales data, the first the first and the more important point is on what plan ideally we're getting sale. For example, I would divide if we have 2 plans or 3 plans with them. It definitely we're going to have. In which plan that sector is already in? Right? I would I would check that 1. So first is reporting. Uh, are we doing some connects regularly with the customer and understanding is there any pain point from that point? And second, what what product they have sold or what service they have sold, which which stage they are in, so either to upsell or cross sell or any kind of thing. And, uh, I'll also take something in which our successful customer stories. Right? For example, uh, if he's in, um, if he's an Australian client, he's in health sector. Okay. Uh, let's say we are, uh, getting more clients from chat. Directly, he's coming to chat. He's asking questions, and he's booking, uh, booking AAA appointment. Right? That is that is eventually increased in sale. And if that customer doesn't have it, we have to make sure that we have to call them and say, hey. In this 1st 3 months, you this this much of time, you have done this. But, recently, for this customer, we could see that, uh, we could we could, uh, we could see that through chat, he's getting more demos. So like that, we have to give more benefit like this, we are going to give more benefit values. So using this, uh, benefit values, right, we should ask a salesperson to, uh, pitch these benefit values and, uh, move forward on their sales. 5th metric, uh, III would see is how rigorous our salesperson was to get upsells. For example, if a salesperson doesn't, uh, contact them post the first sales, right, it's a it's it's a completely wrong thing. At least the account managers are in salesperson, is it? It? Perhaps it's an account manager. Right? How frequently account account managers are contacting with them? So take something which is impacting in the industry, right, and check how can what kind of reporting we do, how how frequently we connect with the customers, and start pitching through. Eventually, next 3 to 6 months, you can see a up up up in sales up motion in sales.