Shivaji Sengupta - Content Technology Professional

Articles Written

I am on a constant endeavor to collate best practices and write down
my experiences and have by now gathered a lot of white hair and info
but have been able to only pen down a few complete articles, some of
which were published by a leading business magazine in Bangalore,
India called Business Gyan.

Recent articles are:

India Based Sales - Happening or Not?

Tele-callers in India and around the world have been around for a long
time. The success or failure of these agents have largely depended
on getting hold of you when you are between meetings or when your
guard is down when one is off work. Basically the agent hopes he or
she is lucky getting hold of you in a good mood. However there is a
science to selling whether it is face to face or via email and phone.
This involves lots of preparation, practice and perseverance.
Innumerable management books would tell you that success in sales
comes from a simple but powerful equation:

"Knowledge of product or service" X "Number of people reached out
to" = "Success in sales"

Making of a Top Performing Sales Person

The major downturn in the economy from the last two years has
affected sellers everywhere. Hot prospects delay purchasing until
political climate improves / stabilizes or their stock value increases or
a variety of abundant reasons that are commonplace to hear
nowadays. Competition has never been tougher. Customers are
demanding more, at the same time their loyalty is plummeting - and all
they talk about is price, price, price! There is a New Way of Thinking,
which has come into town. Top sellers take on personal responsibility
for their future, believing they can make it happen. Here are some of
the things that one can do to be like these elite sales professionals:

Scaling new heights during challenging times - NEW !

Looking at any major magazine today will tell you that America is
going or gone into recession and predictions are afoot about a two to
three year recovery before we are back. Obviously America's
economy being dubbed the world's economy, this is pretty scary for
some of us in the outsourcing business who feel the end is near. This
combined with the much talked about the end of the labor arbitrage in
10 years presents a pretty gloomy picture.

While this looks gloomy, I am a firm believer that there is not only
going to be a fast recovery of the economy but also that the Indian
outsourcing scene here will gain and not loose from these challenging
times.

Fostering Empowerment through Entrepreneurship - NEW !

When the word empowerment comes to mind, we as professionals
immediately think about being a manager in an organization with a
certain set of responsibilities etc. I feel the greatest potential of
fostering empowerment is by encouraging entrepreneurship outside
an established organization.

The biggest employer and economy driver in the US is small business
and that is what I feel we should promote in India. According to the
Small Business Administration's Office, 44 percent of new jobs in the
United States are created by startup companies, 55 percent by the
growth of existing firms, and only 1 percent by relocation. These
startup firms create about 70 percent of new economic growth.

Older Articles are:

Overseas IT selling is a premeditated sport

We all plan our businesses; especially overseas marketing activities.
The only area where I believe we go wrong is when we plan only for
the year ahead. I believe that any planning needs to be done for a
minimum of three years. That this should be a micro level plan spelling
out all areas including revenues, expenses, staffing plan, number of
clients, infrastructure plan, etc. This is very important as this will give
you a true picture of what your budgets are, what revenues you can
expect, what pitfalls you can avoid and forecast etc. As they say - "The
devil is in the details".

Important business links in Europe

One of the most fundamental things one needs to do before
addressing any market place is to take a look at the business
community there by looking at the relevant web sites. Another
important activity is getting listed in all these web sites and doing
some initial spade work / prospecting through them. Since my area of
expertise is Europe I have tried to list down some web sites that not
only offer B2B exchanges, business directories and relevant news but
also a few companies who could offer business services in terms of
setting up an office, legal advise, offering strategy and advise on
business development among others.

Three batsmen and a home run

The depression of the post dot-com bust coupled with 9/11 is slowly
but surely giving way to much more energized and positive forward
looking US economy ahead. Despite a sluggish recovery on the
manufacturing front the services, financial, education and pharma
market are looking up.

Indian services have been creating quite a stir in the US with negative
publicity on CNN and leading magazines with headlines ranging from
" Your job is going to India" to " Another company shifts its operations
to India". Although this might sound bad but it really isn't the case.
Most companies have seen what a few months of sluggish markets
can do to their bottom line and are increasingly aware that they not
only have to outsource but also have to offshore to keep healthy
bottom lines.

Top IT Sales Myths 2002

As the saying goes, it is easier to digest facts than myths and the
same is true of correction too. In this backdrop, I felt it would be of
immense benefit to many a sales professional to highlight some myths
circulating as facts for what they are - Myths.