About the guest Vinod Venkatesan is the Vice President of Sales, Strategic Accounts at Amkor Technology Inc. He is one of the emerging leaders at Amkor and is a results-oriented, technology-focused sales executive. Vinod is a problem solver at heart, questions the status quo, passionate about impactful leadership, and is driving change to continue to deliver growth for his organization. Connect with Vinod Venkatesan Key takeaways Understand your customers thoroughly by learning about their business, market position, goals, challenges, and future plans Offer a diversified portfolio of solutions to manage risk and provide solutions for multiple customer needs Build strong relationships through mutual respect, acting as a problem solver rather than taking sides, and having open conversations Stay informed by reading competitors’ reports, listening to industry podcasts and talks, and regularly networking with contacts in your field Quotes “You really need to learn everything about what your customer is doing, their market position, and more importantly, where they’re headed.” -Vinod V. on understanding customers. Highlights from this episode How is being US-based an advantage for Amkor in the current geopolitical climate? Vinod explains that being a US-based company has always been a strength for Amkor, but it has become an even more significant advantage in the current geopolitical climate. With trade wars and a focus on regionalization and onshoring manufacturing, Amkor’s customers now view the company as a more strategic partner both in the short and long term. Amkor has a broad global footprint through its factories worldwide, but its US base provides reassurance to customers during times of geopolitical uncertainty. Without sharing too much secret sauce, can you share some specific strategies that helped enable 40x growth? Vinod shares three specific strategies that helped enable Amkor’s 40x growth: Understand the customer – Learn everything about the customer’s business, market position, goals, and future plans. Educate the organization on the customer’s direction. Have a very diversified portfolio – Maintain a diverse set of solutions to manage risk and meet multiple customer needs, just like a diversified stock portfolio. Knock on every door – Talk to as many people as possible at customers and ask to be considered for new opportunities. Remain connected as customers and contacts move within and between companies. Can you share some tips for building effective relationships with key decision-makers? Vinod provides the following tips for building effective relationships with key decision-makers: Have a high degree of self-awareness so you stay true to yourself in interactions. Develop mutual respect with decision-makers so you can have open conversations even if you don’t always agree. Be a problem solver rather than taking sides. Look for solutions together that solve both parties’ problems. Foster open communication so you can understand what problems the customer is trying to solve beyond just selling your solutions. Build relationships over time as there is no playbook – it requires going with the flow and building on shared principles. Along the lines of understanding customers, what steps would you recommend for a salesperson to better understand their customers? Vinod recommends the following steps for salespeople to better understand their customers: Ask questions to understand what the customer wants and their specific challenges. Leverage relationships to get customers to openly share more about the problems they are trying to solve. Work with cross-functional teams within your organization to gain a more holistic view of the customer. Ask “how” and “why” questions to identify any gaps in your understanding of the customer’s business, needs, and goals. Determine if your organization truly understands the customer at all levels and is aligned on supporting their objectives. Consult your network and do additional research to expand your knowledge about the customer’s industry and market trends. Resource recommendations Leadership podcasts to gain different perspectives from various roles and industries TED Talks for innovative ideas and insights Industry-specific newsletters Earnings calls, 10-Ks, and investor presentations for valuable market intelligence
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