Today, the number of women working in the industry is at an all-time high. According to research undertaken by LinkedIn, women dominate the marketing industry, accounting for 60 percent of employees. Female representation in the marketing sector is strong and apart from holding a majority of marketing jobs, LinkedIn data reveals that the majority of women are leaders too.

One such woman leader is Anchana Chandrasekaran, a true leader who is unleashing her potential by setting foot into the marketing industry, and steering Gayathri Enterprises towards greater heights. A leading supplier of Quartz and Mineral Powders in Tamil Nadu, Gayathri Enterprises was established in the year 1988, with over 30+ years of industrial expertise, and the firm has made a name for itself in the Mineral Industry.

Currently, Anchana Chandrasekaran is positioned as the Chief Marketing Officer for Gayathri Enterprises. Engaging in a one on one interaction with Women Entrepreneur magazine, Anchana shares more about her journey and her experience of becoming a CMO at the young age of 23. Here’s the highlight from the same.

Throw Some Lights On Your Educational Journey And Prior Industrial Experience That You Bring Forth.

I have graduated as an Electronics and Communication Engineer, hence, getting into the Marketing Domain was a huge transition for me. While I had initially planned to pursue a Master’s Degree in Embedded Systems, however, owing to some personal reasons I had to let go of my plans, and eventually got on board with Gayathri Enterprises as a Trainee.

While at first, I was overwhelmed by all the different activities that were happening within the firm. I knew I had to skill up in order to contribute to the company’s success. This is when I picked up a three month Marketing Course conducted by one of India’s Top Digital Marketers, Sorav Jain. A course equivalent to a Marketing degree, and thanks to its hands-on training and coaching sessions, I had learnt quite a lot. I decided to experiment and implement everything that I was taught there, right from building websites to creating lead generation systems.

Since, Gayathri Enterprises is the very first company that I joined after my UG, it took me a lot of time to convince them. However,the firm has always been supportive and they eventually allowed me to prove myself as a Marketer. I always knew that I cannot risk the trust and faith that the firm had in me.

Hence, I decided to collaborate with freelancers and small agency owners in the Marketing field to get some real-world exposure. I took their advice and soon, I was up, running several Digital and Offline test marketing campaigns, before finally taking up the position as the ‘Sales and Marketing Associate’ in 2019.

Tell Us About The Various Roles And Responsibilities That You Currently Handle As The Cmo Of Gayathri Enterprises. Also, Share With Us Some Of The Challenges Through Which You Have Steered Your Way Over The Years.

As the Chief Marketing Officer of Gayathri Enterprises, my role involves taking care of all Marketing-related operations while ensuring that the firm gets consistent leads every month through continued marketing efforts. I ensure that we explore each and every possible marketing channel made available for the B2B sector, online and offline. Since I joined Gayathri Enterprises at a time when the firm was not very active into the Digital Space, with their website being inactive and most of their marketing operations being carried out offline, primarily through cold calling and door-to-door sales, it did not take me long to understand that I had a lot of work on my plate.

Hence, I brought to use all the tricks and tips which I had learnt from my course and study, and took up the task to revamp their website and set up various marketing campaigns for the firm. Like it is said, ‘With great power comes great responsibility’, and being a CMO is no different. One of the biggest challenges that I had faced during the early days was getting people to take me and my opinions seriously.

Since most of my interactions were with people who were much older and experienced than I was, hence, I had to work a lot on my self-confidence and skill to overcome this feeling of fear and self-doubt. Another stumbling block in my journey was that I had to showcase myself as a credible marketer. When it comes to marketing, everybody is constantly thinking about ROI when they invest. And if your marketing efforts go in vain even once, people lose trust and stop investing further.

In order to convince people that you know what you are doing, you have to let them know that you are in it as much as they are. While there are several instances when the Management at Gayathri Enterprises wanted to stop allocating funds for marketing. However, with my constant insistence, the team eventually understood its significance and appointed me as their Chief Marketing Officer.

What Are The Key Marketing Strategies And Tools Which You Are Currently Bringing To Use In Order To Achieve Your Marketing Objectives?

As compared to B2C and D2C, Marketing in the B2B sector isn’t a cakewalk. The channels for caring our marketing campaigns are different. The communication style also varies. To top it all, the target customers are also different in B2B industry. As much as I have gained from my experience, Content Marketing online and Networking offline works best for my industry. There can be times when your ideal customer may not know that they are in need of your product/service, in such scenario, one can try to create awareness by engaging with the audiences through informative content pieces.

As a company, this helps us build the trust factor and gain more traction over our consumers. When it comes to networking, I make sure that I reach out to the right people who are relevant to my industry. LinkedIn and Quora are the two channels that have been a boon for us, allowing us to find and connect with right individuals. There are also several networking events conducted by small scale enterprises and associations where you can interact with professionals of a similar industry in person.

The objective is not to befriend them and turn them into a client. As a CMO, my aim is to understand what challenges consumers face and the issues they have with their current suppliers. I try to analyze and see if I can help them solve these inconveniences. This usually results in them turning into our clients or them referring us to somebody who they believe will benefit from collaborating with us. Either way, it helps me contribute to my organization’s success.

How Do You Keep Yourself Aligned With The Industrial Advancements?

As the industries are facing towards digital adoption, ways of marketing are also advancing at a rate much faster than expected. In order to keep up with this fastpaced transition, I stay updated by following the works of some honorable marketers in the industry. I also make it a task to take up at least one course related to Sales and Marketing every quarter of the year in order to improve my knowledge in the field. Another great way to grow along with the industry is to attend coaching sessions and webinars conducted by mentors and leaders in the domain. What took them years to learn, you can learn it in a few hours through these mediums.

What Are The Major Milestones That You Have Achieved Throughout Your Professional Journey? What Is It, That Constantly Motivated You To March Ahead?

It is quite hard to pinpoint and consider specific achievements as milestones, because every decision, every challenge and every victory has played a huge role in bringing me here. However, if I had to pick one for me, I would opt the day when I became the CMO at the age of 23, which in itself is a huge accomplishment that I have achieved so far. The journey so far had been full of highs and lows, but it was truly worth it. I don’t think that the 13 year old me would have imagined holding such a prestigious title in 10 years.

At first, I believed that I was incapable of having such a designation at a young age. However, when I saw stories of children earning through their YouTube channels and teenagers kick starting their side hustles while studying, I understood that age does not define your capability and knowledge. Today, one of the major factors that has helped me stay persistent and determined throughout my professional journey is my Father. My biggest support and cheerleader since day 1, my father saw the world a lot differently than others and would often do things out of the norm.

Growing up in a time and society where he saw most women doing something that they did not want to do, or just doing it for family’s sake, so, when it came to me, he ensured that I had complete freedom to do what I wanted to do. It is my father who raised me into anindependent woman in all aspects and often encouraged me to stand up for what I strongly believed in. It is my innate nature to make him proud and that fire is what keeps pushing me to this day. Although, my father passed away a few years back, his lessons have shaped me into the human being that I am.

As Successful Woman Leader, What Would You Advice To The Young Women And Girls Who Also Aspire To Become Business Leaders And Entrepreneurs In The Future?

As humans, the biggest obstacle that stands between us and our dreams is our own limiting beliefs. We let our brains convince us that the journey is too hard and we are not good enough. The very first step that you have to take in order to become a business leader is to break these beliefs. Know that you are worthy of all the amazing things that the world has to offer. You can do this by simply changing your perspective. Instead of thinking why something is not meant for you, start thinking of reasons why something is meant for you. This could be related to an opportunity or a responsibility. Life does not throw around chances for people to prove themselves.

Sometimes, we have to create it for ourselves. If you want to be a designer, don’t wait for somebody to appoint you. Start freelancing or create some sample works in that niche. If you want to be a developer, dedicate an hour each day to create some sample web applications and sell them to your network. As cliche as it sounds, sometimes all you have to do is just start.