Inside the Mind of a Champion

Viren Gupta, our colleague in charge of presales, joined us in 2014. He has techno-functional skills—a strong understanding of technology and business. Before GrayMatter, he was at Manthan Systems, a Business Intelligence and Analytics company.

In this month’s employee spotlight interview, Viren summarizes his role and its objectives, his view of ‘Transparency’ (one of our company’s five core values), and why he considers it an essential trait at work.

Presales encompass the activities, processes, and tasks that must be completed before a product or service sale is concluded. At this stage, I connect with potential customers to understand their needs and showcase how our product or proposed solution can meet their challenges and objectives. Presales are a crucial component of the sales cycle, linking marketing efforts with closing the sale.

I respond to RFPs (Request for Proposal, a formal document issued by a client to understand how various vendors plan to provide a solution, including costs, timelines, and technical details. Understanding a potential customer’s pain points and challenges is essential to propose an ideal solution.

I prepare a compelling and detailed proposal that includes a high-level logical solution architecture, the tools and technology required to support the architecture, the team, the timeline needed for delivery, and details of project governance and our commercial pricing.

The proposal prepared should reflect GrayMatter’s commitment to delivering the project within the budget and committed timelines while ensuring the quality of delivery. To proceed to the next stage, the client’s business and IT teams should be able to relate to our proposal and presentations.

My role demands that I strike a delicate balance between what business executives want and what IT wants. This means balancing the technical and business priorities. I then need to translate our offerings’ technical capabilities into business value. I also need to focus on the following.

• Avoid over-promising solutions that may not be feasible.
• Tailoring solutions and presentations that meet the needs of diverse customer domains and industry
• Responding to complex customer technical and business challenges.
• Manage multiple customer requests and prioritize high-impact opportunities
• Ensuring smooth transition and setup of the platform for the delivery team

Fortunately, I have had a satisfying track record of converting presales conversations to sales. Some of the recent high-value and impactful deals that I closed include:

• Hamad International Airport, Qatar: We are implementing an Enterprise-wide BI and Analytics solution covering Operations, Facility Management, Security, Finance, Commercial, HR, IT, Marketing
• Monotype: Our first digital transformation project. Our solution automates tasks and workflows and allows diverse teams to collaborate. The objective is to enhance operational efficiency, reduce redundant work, and optimize resource utilization.
• Cebu and Noida airports:Our new customers for our Store Sense product.
• Car Glass Finland: Increasing our footprint with Carglass from Denmark to Finland.

Transparency, which is one of our company’s core values, is essential because it builds trust, fosters accountability, and creates an open environment where everyone feels respected and informed. Transparency is necessary because:

• It enhances communication and collaboration so that the team is on the same page, thereby avoiding misunderstandings and creating a collaborative environment
• It helps build trust among team members, stakeholders, and clients
• Transparent access to information allows team members and stakeholders to make informed decisions.
• Transparency allows for the early identification and communication of risks, enabling appropriate actions
  for risk mitigation.
• A transparent environment promotes ethical behavior by reducing misinformation and unethical practices.

Our team faced significant technical challenges with a key project that threatened to delay our delivery timeline. Rather than keep silent about it, we decided to be transparent and inform the client by explaining in detail the technical challenges we were facing but not stopping at that; we gave the client a few alternative solutions and explained their pros and cons. We also ensured the client got timely and regular updates on our progress. Our transparent approach helped us build a strong foundation of trust with the client, who willingly collaborated with us to ensure the project was completed on time. Because of being transparent with the client, they treated us as a partner and not a service provider.

For some, telling the truth without hiding anything is natural; others must practice it. My request to everyone is that when dealing with your team or clients, please present the facts without hiding or manipulating them. Learn to be courageous in telling the truth, no matter how unpleasant. Suppressing or misrepresenting facts can harm your career. It is okay to make mistakes, but learn to accept them and ensure they are never repeated. If you practice Transparency, you will earn immense respect from your team and the customers you interact with and develop accountability for your decisions.