Kiran Karnik, the interim chairman of the Indian government appointed board of Satyam, said that it is up to Tech Mahindra to decide the way forward for Satyam. And of course, it shouldn’t be any other way. Tech Mahindra now has a wide array of restructuring projects as it tries to merge/rationalize Satyam’s services into its overall IT services portfolio.

Often, there is so much rework at the last stages of proposal development just because some team members involved in the proposal were not aware of the full picture and customer business needs. If you are the manager, you have probably been giving your tips to the team every time you have a proposal.


In fact most companies, and that includes some very large companies, don’t have a clear business proposal checklist. It’s very much left for the sales manager to train his team — again and again. If you have been there, you will know exactly how it is like.

So make a note of this page and use it the next time you are submitting any business proposal. And more importantly — share it with all your team members who are involved in making your business proposal.

The Incredible India@60 event is currently running in New York City (Sep 23-26). It was inaugurated at the Lincoln Center, New York City amidst a large of the Indian Americans and American businessmen and diplomats. Incredible India@60 is organized by Confederation of India Industry (CII) and the Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India showcases the vibrant, participative democracy that is India; presenting the face of a changing nation to an international galaxy of top political, business and media leaders who have congregated in New York for the UN General Assembly.

The CII and its business leaders, including Nandan Nilekani and Sunil Mittal, have done a great job of using their collective business experience and applying that to create a super-professional India package.

This video was selected by WeShow

My reading of the situation: it’s not bad at all compared to the difficult times we have seen before over the last 2 decades; so let’s not get jittery for every pothole on the road. And as far as I know, businesses that are using online channels today to reach customers worldwide are really growing at an attractive pace. So if you are deriving over 90% of your revenues from offline methods – BDMs, Sales Staff, Channel Partners, etc- you are at risk. I have absolutely no doubt in that because your cost structures are just too high compared to your competition which may be using online methods to get up to 50% of their revenues. I can say this because we recently helped a business in increasing the online sales component while reducing the sales force effort. It’s possible and it’s happening.

Stay Tuned!
Shankar AVSB, CEO, MyOrbit.tv

This video is about software solution sales and marketing, but equally applicable to other technology sales. There is a great pressure to achieve results fast by trying to qualify a buyer and trying to move ahead. And to make things more difficult, a Booz Allan Hamilton study found that 85% of a company’s brand value is projected through the interaction between the buyer and seller (so all the previous branding can fall flat easily)- that makes it very challenging to differentiate yourself when you have just about 20% of the buyer’s time.

So one of the biggest challenges facing today’s software sales forces is their ability to have “perfect conversations” with executive buyers. Too many conversations are centered around value propositions that are not aligned and not tailored to an executive buyer’s key business issues and personal motivations.

Chris Deren, CEO of SellMasters, was a keynote speaker at the SLAM (Sales, Licensing, Alliances & Marketing for Software Companies) 2006. He defines “the perfect conversation” and its essential ingredients — and how software companies can align and optimize their sales, marketing and product teams for them. In this video, Deren discusses how to:

• See the world through the eyes of executive buyers – Avoid being delegated to—and filtered out by—procurement. 90% of all IT vendors are considered non-strategic by buyers. So how do you move into the elite 10% club? Become executive centric to understanding their motivations and their cherished initiatives. Its difficult but that’s the differentiator
• Turn complex product portfolios into simple value-driven stories
• Create “last mile” marketing content that salespeople crave
• Achieve and maintain “trusted advisor” status critical to success

About the Presenter: Chris Deren is the CEO of SellMasters, which offers sales performance optimization (SPO) services. He is a high-tech industry veteran with over 25 years of experience in building entrepreneurial teams, leading world-class sales organizations, and identifying and executing against winning go-to-market strategies for companies such as IBM, Xerox and Dun & Bradstreet.

Over 75% executives who responded to the survey intend to maintain or increase their investments in Web 2.0 technology trends that encourage user collaboration, such as peer-to-peer networking, social networks, and Web services.

The report also talks about some executives wanting to these technologies for a sustained competitive edge.

Now, in our view, while ‘sustained competitive edge’ is unlikely by any people driven Web 2.0 technology, it is already bringing benefits and profits for those early adopters who are able to understand what to do.

For example, are you able to use your websites to pre-sell your services? Or are you collecting enough information from your online clients and prospects? Or do your teams collaborate enough, and also keep client in the loop?

All these things can earn more revenues while reducing costs = more profitability. And this isn’t not some textbook equation…it’s happening already!

So if you haven’t got a clue where to start in your business, contact us, and we will show you at least 2 ways to rapidly benefit.

If you are into any forms of customer interaction or sales, you will benefit from this interesting sales training video by Dan Lappin of Caskey Training, where he shares “why sales deals stall”. It’s just 6 minutes long and worth watching full. You’ll learn three sales strategies that can improve your ability to control the sales process, improve your credibility, and will have your customers pursuing you. This video has been popular with audience at Myorbit from the time we started last year in 2006. So thanks very much to Dan Lappin.

MyOrbit.tv is a member-driven Internet video channel focused on business and professional development. Our viewers and members are worldwide, making this an attractive platform to view and share professional experience and promote new products and services – all this at a fraction of current costs involved in marketing, new product launch, and customer interaction.

Of course, this channel won’t solve it all for you, but we have a plan – to add beneficial functionality and information – few at a time, so that a majority of our members can benefit from them. The discussions and videos on this channel are by active professionals and business executives, and we believe it offers great value to our viewers and members. This video shows how you can benefit from this channel.

We will pushing the boundaries of Internet streaming video. Some of the benefits for our Members and Viewers will come from applications like:

• Industry discussions and debates with members – this gives original content, which everyone wants to watch.
• New product demos by companies (eg. a medical diagnostics company demonstrating the benefits of its new diabetes management product, a SOX consulting company showing their solution framework, etc)
• Career Development (eg. sales training and commercial presentation videos, job candidates presenting through video; crash the recruitment process through private videos)
• Promoting professionals or new businesses (eg. a warehouse business showcasing its premises, security facilities, and client endorsements)
• Pre-approved advertisements (by our Member council) launched by the viewers