Sales and Operations Manager: Puven Sangaran of REA Group Asia

Puven Sangaran joined the recent podcast of Sales Operation Demystified and shared his knowledge of the sales operations. Check out all the other episodes of Sales Operations Demystified here.

Connect with Puven and REA Group Asia here:

• Puven Sangaran
• REA Group Asia

 

Tools

• Salesforce

Key Takeaways

A passion for sales operations

Puven started his career as a manufacturing engineer who spent his time and efforts optimizing the production lines. He had a certain fascination with sales representatives that would visit the factory and was impressed with the numbers they shared, so much so, he began his own start-up which was quickly acquired. Needing something to do, Puven then joined Talco because of his fascination with big companies that had “coffee machines in every corner”.

He joined a training program with an airline company and then moved to working in their treasury department. During this time, he was headhunted and joined a small company that would then grow to become one of the largest e-commerce organizations in South East Asia. While Puven said he enjoyed the work, it wasn’t what he wanted exactly – so he joined a seed-stage start-up company in a strategic role. 

He was once again scouted by the same headhunter and joined the REA Group where he has continued to work.

Incentivize towards efficiency, effectiveness, and motivation  

Puven can’t attribute one single factor when thinking about boosting the efficiency of a sales team, but he does believe in three core concepts: the efficiency, effectiveness and motivation of the sales team. Without these three, there would be absolutely no improvements to the sales process, and to encourage these ideals, Puven cites revisiting classic incentive structures.

While it is important to have company goals in mind, Puven also wants to have achievable goals to incentivize the sales team to perform better – by aligning the wants of the company with the needs of the team; Puven describes how efficiency in its truest form is met.

Trust remedies any negative effects of remote work

For Puven the current situation hasn’t shaken the level of productivity of his sales reps and he this to trust. Trust between the members of the team and their relationship with the company as well. Puven says that the company has been instrumental in building a culture based on trust, this means that regardless of the mode of communication… the organization can still function effectively.

How is trust built

When asked if the trust that is guiding the sales team through the difficulties of remote working was due to REA or Puven himself, Puven stated it was a combination. While a strong level of trust takes time and effort to built, it also helps that REA’s own culture promotes these same ideals that Puven implements on his team. Communication is key – not only to demonstrate what you are doing, but also to show you were capable.

#1 Sales Metric – repeat customers spend

Puven does not believe in choosing a single sales metric… but if he had to choose one, it would be “repeat customers’ spend”. It is crucial for the health of the business, says Puven. It shows that the product is working and customers are satisfied, which is a useful measure when comparing oneself to competitors. It’s a more broader, more wholistic metric from Puven, which makes sense due to his background in entrepreneurship.

Puven’s biggest influence:

His biggest influence was a man whom he had a lot of praise for, who acted as his contact from Australia during his early days in sales ops:

• Jim Geary – Contracting and Sales Operation, Realestate.com.au 

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