Gautam Kapahi

PRESALES

• Actively manage the available presales resources (people, infrastructure & technology) of the organization to maximize the return on investment for Lumina Datamatics
• Coordinate and schedule resources in collaboration with other departments within Lumina Datamatics to maximize quality and delivery of customer focused value propositions
• Drive pre-sales cadence for meetings, activity, reporting, structure, retention, replacement and ensure that sales engagements are successful
• Provide coaching and guidance for the pre-sales and sales team to ensure development and promotion of excellence
• Work closely with the Lumina Datamatics USA and global sales team(s) to engage with specific prospects, provide solution related guidance and help position Lumina Datamatics in a favorable way to all prospects
• Converse with customers to understand and map customer requirement. Recommend the right services to customers based on their specific needs.
• Provide accurate customer information and requirements to the sales team for sales meetings.
• Pitch solutions to customers and explain all the features and benefits of a LD’s services
• Prepare cost estimates and detailed proposals such that it meets a customer’s requirement
• Prepare and respond to a request for information (RFIs) or request for proposals (RFPs) from customers

SOLUTIONS

• Analyze existing services and help a develop and improve solutions to resonate with the customers’ requirements.
• Design, develop, and maintain collaterals, brochures, marketing materials, case studies and other materials for each of Lumina Datamatics’ distinct service offerings
• Prepare, with the presales and sales team(s), industry specific tool kits including PowerPoint, Business Models, Demonstration scripts, demo data, and white papers

KEY ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT

• Develop and mentor a team of Account Managers that manage the relationship between Lumina Datamatics and Key Customers
• Develop and maintain strategic long-term relationships with key clients to accomplish organic growth and long-term company objectives
• Measure, track and analyze key account metrics

PROJECT TRANSITIONS

• Plan and oversee (for new Projects) the transfer of key information from the customer and the presales team, necessary for the support, operation, and acceptance of deployed solutions
• Ensure that project transitions are planned and executed to schedule, budget and scope
• Build & Implement transition plans in conjunction with the Project Manager
• Assess, analyze, develop, document and implement required changes to the Project Plan

PROJECTS

• Content Moderation: Successfully Setup and Transitioned the seed team of 25 FTEs for a Content Moderation project for one of the leading marketplaces in the US. The team moderates content (Product Titles, Descriptions & Images) to ensure compliance across 500k+ products per month
• Merchandising Services: Optimized and Streamlined operations and processes for an project of 100+ FTEs providing attribution, categorization, search & browse audit, item pinning, and other merchandising services to one of the largest marketplaces in the US, enabling the team to optimize more than 5M product in the year.
• Item Setup: Successfully Setup, Project Managed and Transitioned multiple new Item Setup Projects across a period of 2 years with a total combined team size of 120+ FTEs. The largest project included the end to end item setup process of more than 1M UPCs per year, including vendor coordination, content audit, style & page creation, attribution, imaging and online publishing. The clients TAT was reduced by 50% and accuracy was greater than 99.9%. Other clients included a popular US pharmacy (omnichannel item setup) and a Global Multi-Brand adventure sports apparel & equipment retailer.
• B2B Sales Basket Analysis: Successfully Setup, Project Managed and Transitioned a B2B sales basket analysis project (75+ FTEs) for one of the worlds largest online retailers which included matching their customers current products and spends and providing a comparison with i) the same products on the clients own site to show savings and ii) alternate products (with the same Form, Fit & Function) on the clients own website to drive further savings. The team analyses more than 900k products each year across USA, UK, FR, GER, JP and IND.
• Competitor Data Intelligence: Setup & Project Managed the Competitor Data Intelligence practice in Lumina Datamatics which provides information across data points like list price, selling price, shipping price, stock availability, etc to several international clients, on a daily basis. Currently, more than 2Billion data points are provided each year to all clients combined. This is made possible by a robust semi-automated product matching tool and data aggregation engine designed and developed in-house.

OmniChannel Category Management:

• Developing & Managing Homeware & Womens Apparel Categories from Scratch.  Conceptualizing Omni Channel Strategies with a Focus on Customer Experience and Single Customer View.
• Developing & Integrating Processes and Systems to implement Omni Channel Strategies.

Business Development & Vendor Management:

• Initiating contact with Vendors/Brand/Distributors and Negotiating Margins & Modes of Business.
• Taking Vendors through the Onboarding process from end to end.
• Scheduled performance reviews with Vendors covering all performance metrics.

Category Content Management:

• Utilizing Agencies as well as in house resources to generate Category Content & ensure Quality & Accuracy.
• Developing content guidelines & category specific insights for content, based on customer requirements.
• Developing intelligence to accurately suggest recommended products to customers.
• Data & Content migration across multiple platforms with a focus on accuracy.

Merchandising & Financial:

• Planning Budgets based on past sales performance, future trends, seasonality, focus areas, etc. Reviewing budgets on a weekly basis for tracking & decision making and quarterly basis for adjustments.
• Product life cycle management with a focus on analyzing and predicting customer trends based on demographics, GA data, buying behavior, etc. Utilizing feedback & data to improve the new season range.
• Range & Inventory management to minimize stock covers to optimal levels.
• Periodic Completion Analysis and benchmarking

Cross Functional Co-ordination:

• Marketing for Brand/Category Promotions, Operations for TATs & Drop Shipment, Store teams for Omni Channel Process implementation, Technology teams for Platform Migration, Customer Service to solve issues, etc

Financial:

• Driving Topline and Bottomline Sales for two core categories at Big Bazaar (Luggage & Toys/Sports/Books), across 81 stores spread across 5 zones & 37 cities, with the portfolio annually delivering sales of 120+ Cr. Planning and finalizing Budgets for the portfolio.

Inventory Management & Replenishment:

• Monitoring weekly stock covers at WHs and stores in order to optimize stock levels, Tracking actual & desired inventory, Monitoring and updating ARS MBQs.

Sales Analysis:

• Analyzing sales (Daily, Weekly, Quarterly, etc) over the course of the product life cycle, Tracking sales and inventory of key articles, sharing Forward Plan (4 weeks) with each zone

Cross Functional Co-ordination:

• Buying Team - Optimizing Vendor Fill rates, Follow-up on quarterly dispatch plan; Marketing Team - Ensure maximum visibility for Portfolio in National level promotions; VM Team - Create and execute VM for portfolio specific promotions; SAP Team - Resolve system issues such as Item not found, negative inventory, MRP mismatch, etc; Ops Team - Ensure prompt delivery of stocks to WHs and stores

Space Planning: (Previous Role)

Business Intelligence: (Previous Role)