Interview: Ronak Rajan, Director & CEO of NovaVente –Transformative Sales Enabling Company

Ronak Rajan

An interview with Ronak Rajan, Director & CEO of NovaVente –Transformative Sales Enabling Company

In an insightful interview with Mr. Ronak Rajan, the Director and CEO of NovaVente, we explored the dynamic landscape of business consultancy.

With a wealth of experience and a vision for innovative solutions, Mr. Rajan shared his perspectives on navigating challenges in the industry and the importance of adaptability in today’s market.

Can you share your journey into the sales enablement industry and what inspired you to establish NovaVente?

Ronak Rajan: With years of field Sales across US, Europe, Middle East and Asia, for me the thrill of being on the field provides a completely different experience. You are constantly travelling for meetings whilst juggling with Paperwork, Presales, Internal Tech Teams & Clients for optimum deal making.

I have managed over 10+ countries in my recent regional roles, allowing me to understand the various nuances of direct sales, partner driven sales and what it takes to achieve multi-million-dollar targets. And I have always wanted via entrepreneurship to build a personal and global brand.

After a chance meeting with my partner-in-crime, Samrat, on the banks of River Rhine, Dusseldorf and in next 3 months we decided to quit our cushy jobs and go about to solve the problem.

Over the next few years, we built a razor focused “Sales Machine” and deployed well trained and experienced salespeople who took the responsibility to learn and sell the customer’s offerings – from prospecting to opportunity generation and closures.

The financial model we offered minimized the risk for the customers as our major revenue was linked to outcomes. The more we delivered the more we became profitable, and the more clients came in through their references.

Even now I am glad that my clients have allowed me to manage accounts USD 5M completely as part of my sales consulting expertise where I am responsible directly for the growth of a 100+ member team delivering complex technical solutioning every day.

Achieving 100% profitability since day one is remarkable. What strategies have you implemented to reach this milestone?

Ronak Rajan: For both me and Sam, growing Net Margin Profitability every year, has been sacrosanct.

We have imbibed in our financial best-practices, few simple yet key steps like focus on organic growth, investing back into the business, prudent managing cost centres, developing stronger client relationships to productivity and build a process that continues to boost profitability.

History has taught us, time and again, that growth cycles don’t last forever. It’s not if there will be an economic downturn – it’s when.

Both me and Sam, spent years understanding our business, value propositions and patterns to many markets, and constantly made changes to make sure we add boost productivity, continue growth trajectory and boost profitability.

Few other things we remain focused on is Employee retention, Salaries, Training and providing a safe work environment for all to prosper. Also, since last years or so we have invested in building new business verticals that remain core to our strengths in Sales enablement and imbibe our technology-first approach.

What unique solutions does NovaVente offer that truly set you apart in the sales enablement market?

Ronak Rajan: At NovaVente, we identify and respect this process and hence are building a Generative AI & Machine Learning Powered Platform called “SalesMinds” to help bridge this gap and allow Sales Executives to simple “TALK TO” a secure Corporate Sales Platform, which is fed into by PreSales & Sales together.

This will help throw out on-the-spot marketing replies, build right-fit case studies, assess complex technical queries from clients, assess complex bid or tender documents, evaluate historic pricing policies (to plan discounts or upsells etc) and create accurate commercial replies for prospects & clients, “ALL IN REAL TIME”.

Powered by the latest technologies including LLM’s (Large Language Models, Natural Language Programs, OpenAI tools, Gemini and other modern AI/ML algorithms, help with building excellent Sales/Marketing Acumen and generating multiple real-life case studies that are made available to build this platform.

Our team of 40+ Senior AI/ML engineers and project team are fully involved to make this platform robust and easy to use for all.

And finally, the most ambitious plan is around the launch of India’s First and only Accredited Sales Learning University – “The Sales School – by NovaVente”. We are looking to build a technology first sales university, that will be useful for Corporates and Individual jobseekers alike.

What are some of the biggest challenges currently facing the sales enablement industry, and how is NovaVente addressing them?

Ronak Rajan: Over the last decade, we have aimed to build a practice that uses traditional sales best-practices, coupled with technology & innovation to improve success and repeatability, thereby ensuring we remain profitable and grow every year in double digits.

Combing traditional best practices along with modern technology like AI and Gen-AI Platforms plays a key role in addressing challenges that plague sales professionals in India and worldwide. Few key areas like:

  • Keeping abreast of changing market & technology landscape
  • Great Story Telling
  • Standing apart from the crowd
  • Lack of Research
  • Access to decision makers
  • Ability to guide clients through the entire sales cycle

One recent success story is of a long-standing client – a Top 10 technology services companies in the world that was seeing stagnation in its growth trajectory. They had raised a large private equity funding and had to deliver multiple times in revenue and profits over the coming 3 years.

They had severe competition, and the technology services markets was very unpredictable due to the Covid situation.

We engaged with them at a strategic level, where worked with their CXO team to plan very tailored Inside Sales Program. This was based on certain hard facts that we had seen in the market for similar solution offerings.

Based on a thorough SWOT analysis, plus modern technology support (Data, Market & Persona mapping) we were able to identify the “Product-Market” message for what they had built and what the market wanted.

We designed the technology enabled, Sales Campaigns starting with a few select offerings & tested the outcome across markets.

After about 6 months we were convinced that we all were on the right track. Subsequently a healthy pipeline of US$ 4 MN was created.

Based on this success we were tasked with additional campaigns across other countries in Europe that over the next 12 to 18 months led to closed business in the range to USD 8Mn.

That was a significant return on investments and a perfect used case where modern technology marries old school sales principles.

What advice would you give to entrepreneurs looking to disrupt traditional industries like sales?

Ronak Rajan: Sales has remained unchanged over time, and at its core, it’s about offering a product or service and mastering the art of communicating its value in a way that captivates the audience.

At NovaVente, we believe that whilst modern sales strategies have evolved, the fundamental skill of doing research and presenting a compelling proposition, in-person, is a timeless skill – a skill that defines NovaVente and a reason why we are growing at such rapid pace.

We work closely with a lot of bright entrepreneurs and promising products, and I notice modern sales professionals lack art of storytelling, personalization and dealing with complex & lengthening sales cycles. These take both emotional and financial toll on founders, hence having an open thought process to Sales is very important.

I see daily in my clientele; how current economic uncertainties can lead to longer decision-making times and increased scrutiny from multiple stakeholders. Many organizations and their sales teams struggle to adapt and effectively leverage technology, and social media whilst managing leads and market campaigns. ​

At NovaVente, I work closely with our clients, every day to learn and address these challenges and get them to focus on communications, research and develop personalized outreach strategies for our global clientele.

Is there anything else you’d like to share about NovaVente or your vision for the future of sales enablement that we haven’t discussed?

Ronak Rajan: With years of slow organic growth, we have built up a very clear line of sight of our Future Strategic Goals and Global Expansion plans.

Our focus remains steadfast on growing NovaVente into a Global Sales Organization and reinforcing our focus on Technology Driven Sales Enablement and building supporting business verticals.

We recently picked up a strategic US 3M$ funding round, which we plan to double-down and grow NovaVente’s core Sales Enablement Business in the US, UK and Europe markets by setting up local entities and local sales offices.

This will help NovaVente work closely with its clients and provide local support and sales expertise. This will also help us to build partnerships with major technology, industry and corporate players.

We have made several Strategic Senior Management hires for Finance, Sales, Audit and Operations. We also have made significant technological and internal process change that that will help achieve the aggressive growth targets that we have planned for the next 3 years.

We will also continue to invest & build NovaVente’s – SalesMinds AI Platform into a more robust & Technology enabled Platform.

We are also investing in building an aggressive Sales & Marketing Engine to help increase Demand – starting with the Indian subcontinent where we already have multiple large brands as success stories to help expand our footprint globally within the Energy, Technology, Manufacturing, Industrial and Aerospace markets.

Mr. Rajan’s insights underscore the critical role of strategic foresight and client collaboration in business consultancy. His leadership at NovaVente is a testament to the transformative power of effective management practices.

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