Customers are arguably one of the most critical component for a business and handling them requires skill, tact and expertise. Anuradha Bhan is an experienced business leader when it comes to devising key strategies to retaining the key customers and employees. Currently functioning as the Chief Sales Officer at Ampran Technologies, an IT Network Consulting Organisation providing world class IT networking services.  Anuradha a Bachelor of Science graduate with more than fifteen years of experience in sales. She looks after wired and wireless network requirements (New installation or upgradation of the existing network) of customer. She and her team evaluate the customer existing IT network and suggest them the best plausible solution.

Not only does she carry the responsibility of the whole sales cycle but also drives the sales growth at Ampran. A Dehradun based firm provides IT Network Appliances (Switches, Access points, Routers and Firewalls) along with configuration services on homogeneous or heterogeneous vendor environments to various SMB and enterprise customers. The company helps small to large organizations in maintaining their IT Network and also provides high availability clusters for mission-critical applications.

In an in-depth interview with the Women Entrepreneur team, Anuradha speaks about her journey at Ampran and her various areas of expertise. Here are some excerpts from the detailed conversation.

Take Us Through Your Early Educational Journey And Prior Industry Experience That You Bring To The Table. How Did You Develop An Affinity Towards Sales Functions?

After graduating with science in 2002 from Govt. College, Jammu, I started working with Nidheesh tours as a ticketing executive for domestic air travel. My responsibilities were to interact with the customers and process their air ticket information. After Nidheesh, I have worked with Airtel, Expedien Inc., and CGetech Info solutions. In these organizations I have interacted with the large customers and coordinate with the technical teams for the smooth flow of project execution. This brought me experience of working on large IT projects in IT infrastructure.

At Cgetech, I got a chance to talk to very large institutional customers and understand how to handle customer objections. I believe, retaining the key customers and employees are the two major factors of success in any business. I can proudly say that at Ampran we have retained most of our customers since our inception in 2019.

What Are The Various Roles And Responsibilities That Your Current Role As Director Sales, Entail At Ampran Technologies? What Are Some Of The Major Challenges That You Face In Your Current Role?

Since our inception in June 2019 Ampran has started working in the field of IT Networking and provided configuration services to some of large IT Networks in Utttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh. We have acquired these customers by our hard work and the domain knowledge of our team carry with them. Currently, Ampran is catering to Education, Telecom, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Export and oil and gas industries. Early 2021 saw us providing network services to a telecom service provider in West Africa. We are still providing IT Network expertise to them for smooth flow of internet and VOLTE network. My responsibilities in this project are to coordinate with different teams, preparation of documentation, negotiation and signing off the agreement. We hope, in coming future, we will cater to more industries and regions such as West and South of India.

I believe a Chief Sales Officer carries responsibilities for the whole sales cycle starting from the sales call till the agreement is signed. The most challenging aspect of my role is keeping myself as positive as possible because it is not easy. I have experienced instances where we lost projects or were delayed but it is always important to keep the momentum going and focus on the sales. Growth in sales, represents the coverage of the region and exploring other regions for new customers. New customer acquisition, is the key to growth. So we need to acquire more and more customers while keeping the old customers with care. My leadership mantra of growth to any organization is a strong sales team and have a long-lasting relationship with its customers.

“Business cannot built in a day, it requires bricks of hard work, cement of planning and iron of positive thinking”

In Between A Busy Work Schedule How Do You Balance Between Your Professional And Personal Life? What Are Some Activities Or Hobbies That You Like To Give Time To?

The weekend plays a vital role in maintaining a good balance between work and home. Normally, I give more time to home on weekends, so that I can work more on the weekdays. As my team is new and small so I need to give more time to Ampran, until it starts self-functioning. I love cycling, singing and dancing but I do not get much time to live my hobbies to the fullest. I believe, once I will make Ampran stable and successful, I may get time for my hobbies.

As A Successful Business Leader, What Would Your Advice Be To Young Women Aspiring To Become Business Leaders And Entrepreneurs In The Future?

I would advise upcoming women entrepreneurs to inculcate patience as a personality trait in them. Because it is the key to success in any business. Nothing can be achieved overnight. It requires a lot of hard work, thinking, planning and execution. It is also important to stay in the business. Then only one can get the advantage of planning and strategic thinking.

How Do You Keep Yourself Well Aligned With The Periodic Evolutions Occurring In The Field Of Sales And The Tech World?

If anyone wants to succeed in the tech world, they have to stay updated to the new technologies coming up in the marketplace. In the field of IT Networking, new things are coming every day. Today, we can manage all the infrastructural appliances like switches, access points, routers and firewalls through the cloud or in the cloud. These things were impossible to even think 10 years back.

Technology is providing more and more speed as well as less dependency on the devices of the systems. In today's environment, we can even work on a virtual machine located in the US sitting in India and provide service to Europe. So as a sales head, I need to upgrade myself and my team, for the new products or technologies coming into the marketplace. At Ampran we achieve this by attending seminars, webinars, and training sessions. 

Anuradha Bhan, Chief Sales Officer, Ampran Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

She is experienced Management Consulting professional with a demonstrated history of working in the IT Network, Telecom & Travel industry. Currently, with her diligent skills in Computer networks and Storage she is driving business attain heights experimenting and exploring their fields.