12: Hitesh Oberoi on building a winning sales team
Putting in place an elaborate sales channel, training an army of dealers and distributors, and executing an aggressive marketing strategy has been customary to several leading companies. However, in industries challenged with fierce competition and volume-driven topline, how can startups put together the most effective sales strategy for their business? “There is no science or logic behind sales, it is about who you can sell to and who is ready to buy”, says Hitesh Oberoi, Managing Director, and CEO of Info Edge (India) Ltd. Info Edge’s Naukri.com is India’s largest job portal and acknowledged as one of the most successful sales-driven organizations. Despite its humble beginning, Naukri.com soon realized that the key to their success was to drive unadulterated volume of sales. For Oberoi, building this sales DNA was critical to the company’s growth and it included years of hiring and relentless training of the sales team, appropriately incentivized and acknowledged for their contributions. From doing away with direct mailers and intermediaries to adopting new strategies, going Public, surviving the 2008 crisis and resurrecting soon-after to become India’s indomitable hiring giant, there is nothing that this ‘sales-obsessed’ company hasn’t encountered. Hear Hitesh Oberoi tell how to build a fierce sales team that acquires, develops, upsells and retains customers like none else.