In this era of rapid development, there is a dire need of empowering women to participate fully in economic life across all sectors, to essentially build stronger economies, achieve internationally agreed goals for overall development and sustainability, and improve the quality of life for women, men, families, and communities as a whole. Understanding this need, Priya Sachdev started her career in sales, and that too in Business to Business sales which was purely a male dominated industry sector. Often she worked with sales teams where she would be the only woman in the team, but these hurdles never brought her down; as she always believed in the philosophy of “fit in to stand out.”
Re-defining “Women Empowerment”
Priya Sachdev, Sales Director at Miller Heiman Group, believes that empowerment is not what others do for you but how you see yourself, and she feels that for all these things the credit goes to her family. Priya feels fortunate to be born and brought up in a family that did not ever differentiate between her and her brothers, and supported her decisions equally. This helped her in growing up with the conviction that she was equally right or wrong, irrespective of any gender biases.
Priya portrayed a new side of the word empowerment by saying, “For me the key word in empowerment is really equality. Not any extra privileges but just respect as an individual without bias. It’s about coexistence and codependent.”
Miller Heiman Group’s Distinctive Services
Miller Heiman Group is a global market leader in sales performance management partnering with organizations to enable more sales, and better sales. The company ensures to align their clients’ sales and service strategies, processes and enablement to keep the customers’ requirements at the core focus. Miller Heiman Group owns other sub-brands like Achieve Global, Huthwaite, Miller Heiman, Channel Enablers and their research division – CSO Insights, which conducts a global research on sales about the best practices which world class sales organizations follow to ensure that they stay relevant to the marketplace.
Being the Sales Director of the Miller Heiman Group, Priya takes a responsible position in the growth of their base in the Indian marketplace. While designing the strategies for the company, she keeps in mind that the most important decisions of the company are grounded and aligned specifically around the customer segments. Priya further states that the prime focus on the costs and resource utilization can be identified on the basis of right customer qualifications. According to this results driven leader, in business there is a critical role of the management board to device sales or marketing programs only after clearly differentiating the company’s long term and short term goals and also its milestones.
Priya is a firm believer and supporter of the idea that we should start taking small steps from now on to change the world for better, instead of waiting for others to do it. Even offering food to a hunger stricken old man or offering medicine to the sick can help change the world. To make her dream come true to change the world, Priya, has started Veer Trust with a vision to connect resources with causes and ensure the small changes that will build a global environment.
Unlearning, learning and relearning are the critical skills for survival, says Priya
In this world, which is filled with volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity of general conditions and situations, the process of unlearning, learning and relearning have been playing a critical role in the survival of every entrepreneur in this world. While working with large corporations, one has to have a large and strong support system available as it plays a crucial role to consciously collaborate and leverage their strengths. On the other hand, Priya said, “Working in a small startup environment while you don’t have a large team, it becomes critical to build a strong and robust core team with the ability to multitask.” It is a well-known fact that having clarity on objectives gives clarity in actions, hence giving an effective outcome.
While talking about the leadership roles, Priya shared her experiences and made an interesting comment by saying, “As a leader, I have also realized the ability to stick out your neck and take decisions that become really important so that the team can get clarity. Living in no decision loses faith and conviction. You can never have a perfect decision; there will be some decision that may not get desired results, however, it’s still better to fail fast in today’s fast changing environment.”
A Successful Entrepreneurs Success Mantra
While there are multiple things that would work for any successful person, Priya defined her success mantra and said, “Gain mind share, Get wallet share!” For any company, it is of utmost importance to deliver business results, however, it is significant to gain credibility with the customer as in the long run; this is what is going to bring successful results.
Priya’s career clearly reflects her strong mind power and will power and that is what she conveys to the budding women entrepreneurs while saying, “My message to woman is to be self-sufficient and self-empowered. Stop waiting for someone to come and make you succeed. Women have to recognize their abilities and leverage them.” She further adds that empathy, collaboration and engagement are key skills of a business leader and women are inherently good at them. Her life story apparently reveals that constant learning is critical for survival in this stiff competitive business world.
Staying physically and mentally fit to Elevate the Strategic Importance of Sales as a Profession
People are now becoming global citizens, hence, comes the significance of being physically and mentally fit. Maintaining a schedule for fitness is tough for busy entrepreneurs, so Priya ensures walking or working out at least thrice a week and to ensure situational awareness of her environment, she maintains a practice of regular reading. While witnessing the massive technological growth in the industry, Priya, along with her company, is devising programs to elevate the strategic importance of sales as a profession. She is taking steps to leverage the right tools to reduce the tedium tasks of sales professionals.
Priya established the future plans for the company by saying, “Social Selling, Strategic account management and effective funnel accuracy are some key areas we see being important in 2018.”
Source :- Inspiring Stories of Indian Women Leaders in Business
Priya Sachdev: An Ardent Sales Maverick Redefining Sales Strategies
