MBA Salary in India in 2024 [For Freshers & Experienced]

Updated on 17 May, 2024

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MBA Salary in India

Wondering what is the range of MBA salary in India?

If you see the job listings today, you will see many jobs marked as ‘MBA preferred.’ This trend has been increasing over the last five years. MBA graduates have better ability and skill when it comes to thinking logically in critical situations and solving complex problems. The MBA Salary in India offered is, naturally, directly proportional to the qualification and experience. Hence, if you have the right qualifications you can get a MBA average salary in India.

Master of Business Administration (MBA full form) is a prestigious academic program designed to provide a holistic understanding of business strategies and management principles. Popular among undergraduate and postgraduate students alike, the diverse curriculum of an MBA covers vital areas like finance, marketing, operations, and entrepreneurship. 

Anticipated to reach a valuation of USD 83.08 billion by 2032, the global MBA education market size reaffirms the steady demand MBA still holds. Employers highly regard candidates with an MBA due to their demonstrated readiness for navigating complex business challenges in executive roles, consulting, investment banking, and management.

Check out our free courses to get an edge over the competition.

If you have the required skill set and are ready to keep yourself updated, your career is expected to keep growing onwards and upwards. There are plenty of MBA jobs in India but on certain conditions. This line stands true especially when we consider that an MBA salary in India is directly or indirectly dependent on how upskilled and updated they are. Thus there can be some myths and misconceptions that you might have heard regarding MBA degree salary.

With industries changing dramatically and perspectives of business taking new shapes, the demand and scope for MBA for professionals has undergone a radical shift. Companies now want multi-skilled talents that have niche domains skills as well as leadership and management skills.

You can also consider doing our Management Essentials Bootcamp if you are interested.

Featured Program for you: Business Analytics Certification Programme

Often MBA aspirants get confused regarding which MBA specialization is best paid? Let’s take a look at what is a typical highest paying jobs after MBA in India?

MBA Salary in India: Based on Specialization Streams

The common question on the internet is: What is the salary of MBA in India per month? The average salary for MBA in India per month is 90,000 to 1 lakh and annual MBA salary in India as per the pay scale, is Rs 7.71 lakhs.
Let’s see how the MBA salary in India varies according to the specialization streams

1. MBA in Finance

After completing an MBA in Finance, one can find a job in the following sectors –

  • Corporate Finance –This field involves managing a company’s financial activities, including budgeting, financial planning, investment decisions, and capital structure management. Job roles with high MBA salary may include financial analyst, financial manager, or CFO (Chief Financial Officer) in corporate settings. 
  • Corporate Banking –Involves providing financial services to corporations, including loans, credit, treasury, and advisory services. This sector offers some high paying jobs after MBA, like relationship manager, credit analyst, or corporate banker.
  • Credit Risk Management –Professionals in this field usually get a hefty salary as they shoulder responsibilities like assessing and mitigating credit risks for banks, financial institutions, or corporations. They analyze creditworthiness, develop risk management strategies, and assess loan portfolios. Job titles might include credit risk analyst or credit risk manager.
  • Asset Management –Involves managing investment portfolios for individuals or institutions, including mutual funds, pension funds, or insurance companies. As one of the highest paying MBA jobs in India, asset management roles like portfolio manager, investment analyst, or fund manager require expertise in managing diverse investment portfolios for institutional or individual clients. 
  • Hedge Fund Management –Involves managing investment funds that use various strategies to generate returns for investors. Jobs in this field might include hedge fund manager, research analyst, or quantitative analyst. MBA packages in India in this field are highly rewarding due to the demanding nature of the roles.
  • Private Equity –Involves investing in private companies by acquiring stakes, restructuring them, and eventually selling for a profit. These job roles, including private equity associate, analyst, or partner, come with a significant salary package. 
  • Treasury –Professionals in treasury manage a company’s finances, including cash flow, liquidity, and risk management. Jobs could include treasury analyst, treasury manager, or treasurer.
  • Sales and Trading –This area involves selling and trading financial instruments such as stocks, bonds, currencies, and commodities. The average salary of MBA in India for roles like sales trader, trader, or investment banker is relatively high.

Our learners also read: Career after MBA!

The average salary for MBA fresher in India is Rs. 678,000 per annum. The MBA salary after 10 years in India increases with growing experience and knowledge.

MBA Salary in India: Finance

Job Title Range Average
Financial Analyst ₹262k – ₹1m ₹518,784
Finance Manager ₹468k – ₹2m ₹1,163,621
Senior Financial Analyst ₹389k – ₹1m ₹781,640
Senior Business Analyst ₹498k – ₹2m ₹1,153,723
Project Manager, (Unspecified Type / General) ₹685k – ₹3m ₹1,682,129
Operations Manager ₹429k – ₹2m ₹961,002
Data Analyst ₹266k – ₹1m ₹525,921

Source

EY, HDFC BAnk, Accenture, TCS, ICICI Banks are the top recruiters for MBA Finance candidates.

Read: Career in marketing and its scope in the USA.

2. MBA in Business Analytics

MBA graduates in Business Analytics can find jobs in various sectors like Information Technology, Healthcare, Financial Institutions, E-Commerce, etc.

Thanks to the growing importance of analytics in business, the average salary of  MBA Business Analytics professionals in India is Rs. 11 lakhs p.a. While freshers can make around Rs. 5 – 8 lakh p.a., experienced professionals in the field can earn between Rs. 10 – 18 lakhs p.a. Those at a senior level can draw a salary between Rs. 30 – 55 lakhs annually.

MBA Salary in India: Business Analytics

Job Title Range Average
Analytics Consultant ₹447k – ₹2m (Estimated *) ₹1,029,835
Business Analyst (Unspecified Type) ₹303k – ₹1m (Estimated *) ₹627,331
Senior Business Analyst ₹510k – ₹2m (Estimated *) ₹1,142,749
Data Analyst ₹226k – ₹901k (Estimated *) ₹454,307
Data Scientist ₹345k – ₹2m (Estimated *) ₹881,317
Manager Trainee ₹221k – ₹986k (Estimated *) ₹501,324
Branch Sales Manager ₹303k – ₹1m (Estimated *) ₹607,778

Source

Read: Check out the Scope of MBA for IT industry

3. MBA in Marketing

After completing an MBA in Marketing Management, one can find a job in the following sectors-

  • Competitive Marketing –This involves analyzing competitors’ strategies, market trends, and consumer behavior to develop and implement strategies that give a competitive edge. Job roles may include competitive intelligence analyst, market research analyst, or marketing strategist. MBA salary in India for competitive marketing can be quite rewarding because these roles involve analyzing markets and competitors to gain an edge.
  • Business Marketing –Focuses on marketing products or services to other businesses. MBA package in India for business marketing graduates is quite competitive as they would work in either business development, B2B marketing, account management, or sales management targeting corporate clients. 
  • Online Marketing –Involves using digital platforms and tools to promote products or services. Roles may include digital marketing manager, social media strategist, content marketer, or search engine optimization (SEO) specialist. 
  • Analytical Marketing –Centers on using data analytics and market research to make informed marketing decisions. Job roles in this field come with hefty MBA business analytics salary. Some probable positions include marketing analyst, data analyst, or marketing research manager, focusing on extracting insights from consumer data.
  • Customer Relationship Marketing –Revolves around building and maintaining relationships with customers through personalized marketing strategies. Jobs may include CRM manager, loyalty program manager, or customer experience analyst. These job roles offer lucrative salaries, as building strong customer connections is crucial for businesses to thrive in this overtly competitive digital era.
  • Advertising Management –Involves planning, creating, and managing advertising campaigns across various media channels. Advertising manager, creative director, media planner, or account executive in advertising agencies or marketing departments are some of the roles available in this sector.
  • Product and Brand Management –Involves managing the marketing strategy, development, and promotion of specific products or brands. Job roles may include product manager, brand manager, or brand strategist, responsible for creating and maintaining brand identity.
  • Retailing Management –Focuses on managing retail operations, merchandising, and customer experiences in retail environments. Jobs in this sector may include retail, store operations, or retail marketing managers.

An MBA in Marketing can help you get a job promotion and qualify for management and executive positions in your current company. Since postgraduate business programs emphasize developing leadership and communication skills, graduates can advance to marketing positions with great ease.

Read: What is business analytics – Its Career scope, Salary & Job Roles.

Whether you are interested in sales, business development, media and entertainment, advertisement, brand management, or even general management, these skills form the heart of any senior-level role. Technology has further augmented the marketing world, adding new creative areas and innovative job profiles to the mix.

Also read, Business analyst career path and professional roles.

Marketing Management professionals can find job opportunities in Advertising Agencies, Marketing Companies, FMCG Sector, Financial Services, IT, etc.

According to glassdoor, The average MBA Marketing salary in India per month is ₹28,750.

MBA Salary in India: Marketing

Job Title Range Average
Marketing Manager ₹403k – ₹2m ₹970,207
Business Development Manager ₹390k – ₹2m ₹900,712
Senior Marketing Manager ₹818k – ₹3m ₹1,689,635
Regional Sales Manager ₹688k – ₹3m ₹1,509,254
Marketing Executive ₹221k – ₹766k ₹411,823
Digital Marketing Manager ₹409k – ₹2m ₹919,152
Area Sales Manager ₹393k – ₹1m ₹826,906

Source

4. MBA in Human Resource Management

Recently, the job of HR professionals has gained increasing traction across all parallels of the industry. Hence, HR Management professionals can find plenty of employment opportunities in IT companies, law firms, advertising firms, retail companies, media houses, newspapers, etc.

MBA HR candidates earn Rs. 7,17,000 per annum. The average yearly salary of an MBA HR Manager is Rs. 8,49,167 and the Senior HR Manager salary is close to Rs. 16,91,941 per annum.

MBA Salary in India: Human Resources

Job Title Range Average
Human Resources (HR) Manager ₹374k – ₹2m ₹849,167
Human Resources (HR) Generalist ₹217k – ₹889k ₹421,380
Human Resources (HR) Business Partner ₹389k – ₹2m ₹866,620
Sr. Human Resources (HR) Manager ₹763k – ₹3m ₹1,691,941
Senior Human Resources (HR) Generalist ₹310k – ₹1m ₹543,425
Human Resources (HR) Assistant ₹187k – ₹951k ₹427,187
Talent Acquisition Specialist ₹364k – ₹1m ₹634,836

Source

5. MBA in Operations Management

Graduates with this specialization usually bag jobs in product/service based units, including –

  • Retail -Jobs in retail can involve working in store management, merchandising, marketing, or operations within retail stores or chains. MBA graduates in retail management often earn good salaries because of the demanding nature of their role, especially in management and strategic decision-making.
  • Logistics -Logistics job opportunities encompass supply chain management, transportation, warehouse operations, inventory control, and distribution. Salaries for MBA holders in logistics can be rewarding due to the dynamic nature of the job.
  • Hospitality -In the hospitality sector, graduates might pursue careers in hotel management, event planning, restaurant management, or tourism-related services. The exponential growth of the hospitality sector ensures graduates with an MBA in hospitality can gain enough opportunities to land well-paying jobs.
  • Transportation -Responsibilities in transportation involve managing transportation networks, logistics planning, fleet management, or operations in airlines, railways, shipping companies, or logistics firms. Salaries for MBA graduates in transportation management can be appealing as they have to oversee logistics and transportation operations.
  • Manufacturing -MBA graduates can work in manufacturing industries, overseeing production processes, quality control, operations management, or supply chain roles within factories or production units. They can earn competitive salaries by optimizing production processes and supply chains.
  • Construction -Job roles in construction may include project management, site supervision, construction planning, or operations management in the building and infrastructure sectors. Efficiency in overseeing construction projects and operations and the right MBA specialization can help attract lucrative salaries.
  • Financial Institutions -Opportunities in financial institutions might involve roles in banking, investment management, financial analysis, risk assessment, or corporate finance. MBA in finance salary in India can be competitive, given the financial analysis and risk management skills required for the roles.
  • Management Consulting -Graduates might work as consultants, providing strategic advice, market analysis, process optimization, or management solutions to various industries and businesses. They often earn well, providing strategic advice and cost-effective solutions to businesses.
  • Information Technology -In the IT sector, opportunities can include roles in project management, IT consulting, software development, business analysis, or technology-related services across different industries. MBA professionals in IT can earn well by using their project management skills and driving technological innovation in businesses.

Damco, Blue Dart, First Flight, GAIL, ONGC, and NHPC are among the major recruiters for Operations Management professionals in India.

MBA average salary in India on the post of Operations Manager candidate is Rs. 802,000 per annum. Apart from Operations Manager, there are different MBA jobs as well which pay well. A management consultant gets an average of Rs. 1345,000 per annum.

MBA Salary in India: Operations Management

Job Title Range Average
Project Manager, (Unspecified Type / General) ₹584k – ₹2m ₹1,272,404
Operations Manager ₹368k – ₹2m ₹789,373
Business Analyst, IT ₹359k – ₹2m ₹794,447
Business Analyst (Unspecified Type) ₹400k – ₹1m ₹783,811
Supply Chain Manager ₹458k – ₹2m ₹1,079,169
SAP Consultant ₹387k – ₹2m ₹871,376
Purchasing Manager ₹669k – ₹3m ₹1,356,480

Source

Checkout: Best Online MBA Courses in India

6. MBA in Management Consultant

One of the most versatile job profiles, a career in management consulting will basically entail working with clients from several different professional industries from corporate to IT to investment banking, and several others. There are several facets to this job; it’s not just about solving your client’s problems but also about backing up your decisions or guidance with thorough analytical research and critical strategizing.

Average Management consultant salary in India is Rs. 1,306,467 Per annum.

EY, Accenture, Deloitte, KPMG, Infosys are some of the top recruiters.

Source

The location also determines the salary scale of Management Consultants. For instance, Management Consultants in Delhi earn about 21.0% more than the national average. The average annual salaries are also pretty high in Gurgaon (14.5% more) and Bangalore (9.8% more). Pune (24.1% less) and Chennai (12.6% less) record the lowest salary for Management Consultants.

As for skills, a select few skills pay higher than the national average. These include Business Strategy, Business Analysis, and Project Management. Reputed companies like Accenture, Ernst & Young, PwC, Deloitte, KPMG, and Infosys, pay hefty yearly compensation to Management Consultants.

Also visit upGrad’s Degree Counselling page for all undergraduate and postgraduate programs.

7. MBA in International Business 

An MBA in International business can open up major pathways for you in the country and beyond; this obviously gives you an edge as the course familiarises you with global market demands and business trends. This is the reasons why entrepreneurs need an MBA degree also makes you a terrific business planner which eventually helps business development and growth.

Some of the top roles open to MBA graduates in the field of international business are-

  • International Business Development Manager

Responsible for identifying and developing business opportunities in global markets, creating strategies for market entry, forming partnerships, and expanding the company’s international presence.

  • Global Marketing Manager

In charge of developing and executing marketing strategies on a global scale, including market research, product localization, brand management, and advertising campaigns tailored to diverse international markets.

  • International Financial Analyst

Analyzes global economic trends, currency fluctuations, financial risks, and investment opportunities across different countries, providing insights to support financial decision-making for multinational corporations.

  • International Supply Chain Manager

Manages the global supply chain operations, optimizing logistics, procurement, inventory management, and distribution strategies across borders to ensure efficient and cost-effective movement of goods and services.

  • International Trade and Compliance Manager

Ensures compliance with international trade regulations, manages import/export processes and navigates legal complexities related to global trade agreements and customs regulations.

  • Global Operations Manager

Oversees operations in multiple countries, coordinating production, quality control, and supply chain activities to ensure consistency and efficiency in operations across different international locations.

  • International Business Consultant

Provides advisory services to companies expanding internationally, offering insights, strategies, and solutions to address challenges related to global expansion, market-entry, and cross-cultural management.

  • Foreign Market Research Analyst

Conducts market research on foreign markets, analyzing consumer behavior, market trends, and competitive landscapes to provide actionable insights for companies planning international expansion or market entry.

According to payscale, average MBA in International business candidate salary is Rs. 963,000 per annum.

MBA Salary in India: International business

Job Title Range Average
Operations Manager ₹428k – ₹2m ₹937,729
Project Manager, (Unspecified Type / General) ₹527k – ₹3m ₹1,544,088
Team Lead, Operations ₹426k – ₹1m ₹755,723
Supply Chain Manager ₹387k – ₹2m ₹914,827
Business Development Manager ₹285k – ₹1m ₹636,517
Marketing Manager ₹416k – ₹3m ₹1,028,520
Senior Project Manager, IT ₹762k – ₹3m (Estimated *) ₹1,405,699

Source

TCS, JP Morgan, Standard Chartered Bank, Accenture & Capgemini are some of the top recruiters.

Hope this brief discussion has helped you get an overview of which MBA specialization is best paid. 

In India, an MBA can lead to high-paying job opportunities, especially in sectors like finance, consulting, and technology. Graduates from top business schools often command significant salaries and rapid career advancement.

Future of MBA

People often question whether MBA is still relevant or worth it in 2024; the answer is yes. As we move towards the future, the number of startups and business ventures keeps increasing. Hence, MBA can become more valuable than other mainstream degrees to succeed in such circumstances. 

Due to the variety of courses that an MBA provides, starting from finance to analytics, the demand for MBA is expected to rise in the future. Earlier industries had no choice but to hire PHDs and post-graduates to manage data and analytical aspects. Unfortunately, coming from academia, they lacked practical knowledge and implementation. This is where MBA students get the lead. 

MBA graduates can choose to specialize in multiple fields, such as finance, investment, analytics, and so forth while getting practical knowledge of the business based on their capabilities and interests. This increases their values from a business perspective. However, MBA can offer a wealth of advantages if it is done from a reputed institution. 

Apart from that, for those who completed graduation in different subjects and now want to pursue their career in business yet have no practical knowledge or guidance in the field, MBA will be invaluable for them.

The average MBA salary after 5 years in India typically ranges from INR 12 to 20 lakhs annually. This can vary based on industry, location, and individual performance.

Why These Days Startups Are Hiring MBAs?

The top reasons why more startups are now eager to bring MBAs on board:

1. Strategic Thinking and Problem-Solving

MBAs are known for their rigorous critical thinking, strategic planning, and problem-solving training. Startups often face complex challenges that require a well-thought-out approach. MBAs bring these skills to the table, helping startups navigate uncertainty and make informed decisions.

2. Business Acumen

Startups need individuals who can quickly grasp the financial aspects of the business and make sound financial decisions. MBAs receive comprehensive finance, accounting, and economics training, making them valuable assets for startups looking to manage their resources efficiently and make data-driven financial choices.

3. Networking Opportunities

Many MBA programs provide extensive networking opportunities. Startups can tap into this network to gain access to potential investors, advisors, mentors, and partners. MBAs often have connections to venture capitalists and angel investors, which can be instrumental in securing funding for startups.

4. Market Research and Analysis

Understanding the market and target audience is crucial for startup success. MBAs are trained to conduct market research, analyze industry trends, and identify growth opportunities. This skill set helps startups fine-tune their business strategies and market positioning.

5. Leadership and Team Management

Effective leadership is essential for startups to thrive. MBAs receive leadership and team management training, which is valuable for building and leading diverse teams in the fast-paced and dynamic startup environment.

6. Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Many MBA programs now offer courses specifically focused on entrepreneurship and innovation. This education equips MBAs with the mindset and tools necessary to create, manage, and scale new ventures – skills that align with the goals of startups.

7. Access to Resources

MBA programs often provide access to libraries, research databases, and other resources that can benefit startups. This access can be particularly valuable when conducting market research, analyzing competitors, or developing business plans.

8. Multidisciplinary Skills

MBAs often possess various skills across various business functions, including marketing, operations, and human resources. This multidisciplinary knowledge is valuable for startups, which may have limited resources and require team members who can wear multiple hats.

9. Adaptability and Learning Agility

MBA graduates are trained to adapt to changing business environments and embrace continuous learning. Startups operate in a volatile landscape where pivoting and adapting to new circumstances are often necessary. MBAs are well-prepared to handle these challenges.

10. Branding and Credibility

MBAs can enhance a startup’s credibility, especially when dealing with potential investors, partners, or clients. The prestige associated with MBA programs can open doors and establish trust.

11. Global Perspective

In an increasingly globalized world, startups may aspire to expand internationally. MBAs often have a global perspective and a better understanding of international markets, which can be invaluable for startups with global ambitions.

12. Business Development and Sales Skills

Many MBA programs include coursework related to sales and business development. This expertise is critical for startups looking to scale quickly and acquire new customers.

13. Access to Talent Pool

MBA programs attract a diverse group of students with various backgrounds and experiences. Startups can tap into this talent pool to find individuals with expertise in specific industries or markets.

14. Mentorship Potential

Experienced MBAs may offer mentorship to startups, providing valuable guidance and insights. These mentorship relationships can be instrumental in helping startups navigate challenges and make informed decisions.

15. Long-Term Vision

MBAs often bring a long-term perspective to startups, helping them set strategic goals and develop sustainable business models. This focus on long-term sustainability can be crucial for a startup’s survival and growth.

Highest Paying Jobs for MBA Candidates

Let’s talk about jobs which are offering the highest paying jobs after mba in India. These are not the only MBA jobs that pay high but are the ones where you can expect to be paid higher from the very beginning. It should be noted that despite an MBA degree, industry experience matters a lot in deciding compensation. 

1. Investment Banker

Investment bankers is one of the highest paid jobs after mba in finance that are involved in raising money in capital markets and providing financial advice for both private companies and the government. You can count on them to help out with mergers, acquisitions and staying informed about great investment options. Investment banking is the one of the highest MBA salary in India you can get. MBA graduates who wish to pursue this career path would have to choose their subjects with a focus on finance. And while the pressure might be immense, those who roll with it enjoy the job for the thrill of it all and the paycheck that comes with it.

Investment Banker Salary in India
Source
Investment Banker Salary in India based on Locations:

City Salary
New Delhi ₹ 20 Lakhs
Pune ₹ 20 Lakhs
Mumbai ₹ 15 Lakhs
Bangalore ₹ 9 Lakhs
Chennai ₹ 8 Lakhs
Hyderabad ₹ 10 Lakhs
Gurgaon ₹ 15 Lakhs
Noida ₹ 14 Lakhs

Source

Investment Banker Salary in India by Experience

Source

Experience Salary
2 Year ₹ 7.9 Lakhs
3 Year ₹ 11.6 Lakhs
4 Year ₹ 12.7 Lakhs
5 Year ₹ 13.8 Lakhs

Source

An average salary for MBA fresher in India as an investment banker earns around Rs.680,000 per year.

Early career below 4 years experience earns approximately Rs. 870,000 per year.

A mid-level employee with 5-9 years experience earns an average of Rs. 1,500,000 per year.

An experienced investment banker with more than 10 years experience earns nothing less than Rs.3,000,000 per year. It is to be noted that this particular MBA jobs salary, unlike the others, has gone down by 37% and 16% for entry-level and early career, respectively, while showing a steep growth of 89% for mid-career.

Source

2. Project Manager

Most MBA graduates are hired as project managers in top companies. A project manager is required to be involved in all aspects of a project. Right from planning and strategizing to making financial projections and building a team, the complete and proper execution of a project rests in the hands of a project manager, and therefore, MBA graduates are usually the first choice.

For this particular role, a Project Manager will need to have at least the following skillset – and the specificity of the project will decide which quality requires a greater focus:

  • Effective communication skills

Project managers must communicate efficiently and clearly with stakeholders, team members, clients, and others involved. They need to convey ideas, expectations, progress, and issues comprehensibly to ensure everyone is on the same page.

  • Team building and motivation

Building a cohesive and motivated team is crucial for project success. Project managers need to create a positive work environment, motivate team members, resolve conflicts, and foster collaboration to achieve project goals.

  • Efficient Planning and Strategising

Project Managers are responsible for planning project timelines, setting achievable goals, allocating resources effectively, and devising strategies to overcome obstacles. They need to develop comprehensive plans and adapt them as needed throughout the project lifecycle.

  • Zeal for unparalleled growth

Having a drive for continuous improvement and growth is essential. Project managers should seek innovative solutions, encourage innovation within the team, and constantly look for ways to enhance project efficiency and outcomes.

  • Adequate financial understanding for projections, and more.

Understanding financial aspects related to the project, such as budgeting, cost estimation, financial projections, and return on investment (ROI), is crucial. It helps make informed decisions and ensures the project stays within budgetary constraints.

Project Manager Salary in India
Source
Project Manager Salary in India based on Locations:

City Salary
Bangalore ₹19.3 Lakh
Mumbai ₹18.7 Lakh
Hyderabad ₹19.6 Lakh
Chennai ₹19.2 Lakh
New Delhi ₹18.4 Lakh
Pune ₹19.5 Lakh
Gurgaon ₹19.2 Lakh

Source
Project Manager Salary in India by Experience
Source

Experience Salary
4 Year ₹7.8 Lakh
5 Year ₹8.7 Lakh
6 Year ₹9.2 Lakh
7 Year ₹10.3 Lakh
8 Year ₹11.8 Lakh

Source

An entry level Project Management Manager earns around Rs.160,000 per year.

Early career below 4 years experience earns approximately Rs. 480,000 per year.

A mid-level employee with 5-9 years experience earns an average of Rs. 8,500,000 per year.

An experienced investment banker with more than 10 years experience earns nothing less than Rs.1300,000 per year.
Source

3. Consulting

Business Consulting and Strategy Consulting are two of the hottest jobs in the market for MBA graduates and also the highest paid jobs after mba in finance. Forecasting trends, analysing numbers, pitching to the client and the demands of the job are quite exciting and varied. What’s more, there is a very well-defined career path to follow. Unlike Project Managers and Investment Banker jobs, salary after MBA in this field has seen some growth compared to last year.

Business Consultant Salary in India
Source
Business Consultant Salary in India based on Locations:

City Salary
Bangalore ₹15.4 Lakh
Mumbai ₹15.4 Lakh
Hyderabad ₹16.1 Lakh
Chennai ₹16.5 Lakh
New Delhi ₹14.9 Lakh
Pune ₹16.1 Lakh
Gurgaon ₹16.1 Lakh

Source

Business Consultant Salary in India by Experience

Source

Experience Salary
1 Year ₹6.6 Lakh
2 Year ₹7.8 Lakh
3 Year ₹9.9 Lakh
4 Year ₹11.2 Lakh
5 Year ₹12.1 Lakh

Source

An entry level Business Consultant earns around Rs.437,000 per year.

Early career below 4 years experience earns approximately Rs. 700,000 per year.

A mid-level employee with 5-9 years experience earns an average of Rs. 1,050,000 per year.

An experienced investment banker with more than 10 years experience earns nothing less than Rs.1360,000 per year.

Source

4. Business Development Manager

A role that allows you to put your best managerial skills forward lives up to that MBA fame. A business development manager is responsible for the planning and strategies that assist the growth and expansion of a business.

Business Development Manager Salary in India
Source
Business Development Manager Salary in India based on Locations:

City Salary
Bangalore ₹7.4 Lakhs
New Delhi ₹7.1 Lakhs
Mumbai ₹7.2 Lakhs
Hyderabad ₹7.3 Lakhs
Pune ₹6.9 Lakhs
Gurgaon ₹8.3 Lakhs
Noida ₹8.1 Lakhs
Chennai ₹7.3 Lakhs

Source

Business Development Manager Salary in India by Experience
Source

Experience Salary
2 Year ₹6.7 Lakhs
3 Year ₹7.3 Lakhs
5 Year ₹7.8 Lakhs
7 Year ₹8 Lakhs
11 Year ₹10.9 Lakhs

Source

An entry level Business Development Manager earns around Rs.340,000 per year.

Early career below 4 years experience earns approximately Rs. 450,000 per year.

A mid-level employee with 5-9 years experience earns an average of Rs. 700,000 per year.

An experienced investment banker with more than 10 years experience earns nothing less than Rs.988,000 per year.

Source

5. Marketing Manager

With this job role, an MBA graduate will look after all the marketing efforts of a particular organization, whether it is online or offline, and will make sure that they get a fair return on their investment, based on whatever metrics are decided beforehand. Moreover, a Marketing Manager will also be responsible for designing, perhaps even planning and executing effective marketing strategies to propel the company forward.

Marketing Manager Salary in India
Source
Marketing Manager Salary in India based on Locations:

City Salary
Bangalore ₹13.3 Lakhs
New Delhi ₹12.1 Lakhs
Mumbai ₹13.8 Lakhs
Hyderabad ₹11.8 Lakhs
Pune ₹11 Lakhs
Gurgaon ₹14.8 Lakhs
Kolkata ₹10.5 Lakhs
Chennai ₹12 Lakhs

Source
Marketing Manager Salary in India by Experience

Source

Experience Salary
2 Year ₹6 Lakhs
3 Year ₹7 Lakhs
5 Year ₹8.3 Lakhs
7 Year ₹9 Lakhs
10 Year ₹10.5 Lakhs

Source

An entry level Marketing Manager earns around Rs.421,000 per year.

Early career below 4 years experience earns approximately Rs. 510,000 per year.

A mid-level employee with 5-9 years experience earns an average of Rs. 708,000 per year.

An experienced investment banker with more than 10 years experience earns nothing less than Rs.980,000 per year.

Source

In brief it can be said that, consulting and marketing sectors are seeing some tremendous growth. Especially in the marketing sector, young talents are much appreciated, which makes it golden opportunity to get into this field right now.

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Factors Affecting MBA Salary in India

MBA degree salary is not uniform across the globe. MBA salary in India can be affected by multiple factors. Let’s see some primary salary affecting factors:

  1. Job Role
  2. Location
  3. Job Role
  4. Company

MBA Salary in India: Based on Job Role

Let’s see how the MBA salary in India varies based on the job role.

Most professionals pursue an MBA to jump the corporate ladder up a few steps. If you are doing an MBA by staying in your current career path, you are most likely to end up in a middle management position. As per the reports, below are the MBA salaries for different job roles.

Source

The “Operations Manager” is the highest-paid role getting around Rs 744,930 – Rs 1,206,777.

A Quality Control Manager gets approximately Rs 549,320 – Rs 877,720.

There is a rising demand for Sales Managers and Marketing Manager, and both salaries range from Rs 450,000 to Rs 1,850,000. Accounts Manager get Rs 574,110 – Rs 1,267,777 while a Human Resource Manager gets Rs 508,220 – Rs 1,231,280.

Project Managers are required in different fields like IT, construction, healthcare. Project managers at the middle management level get to draw anywhere between Rs 585,000 and Rs 1,815,000.

With the IT sector booming and many IT companies starting up in India, IT manager with an MBA degree can demand salaries ranging from Rs 545,000 to Rs 1,200,000.

Business Development Manager is yet another role that is high in demand right now with salaries ranging from Rs 475,000 – Rs 845,000. Business Analyst gets to draw around Rs 500,0000 – Rs 950,000.

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Procurement, Purchase, or Vendor Management folks in the middle management level may get anything between Rs 445,000 to Rs 880,000. Though limited to the pharmaceutical industry, Pharma Product Manager is another job role that draws handsome figures ranging from Rs 450,000 – Rs 1,050,000.

MBA Salary in India: Based on Location

Let’s see how the MBA salary in India varies based on location.

Though MBA salaries depend on the job role, different cities are seen to be offering different salaries based on the cost of living and the value of the market.

Gurgaon, Haryana is the highest paying market with MBA graduates being offered salaries averaging Rs 750,000.

Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of India, is the second most paying market, with MBA graduates being offered salaries averaging Rs 730,000.

In Mumbai, MBA graduates get an average salary of Rs 732,000, while in Delhi, around Rs 690,000 is given. What is the best time to do an MBA?

Chennai and Pune are comparable offering MBA graduates a salary of Rs 600,000 and Rs 620,000, respectively. As per the reports, MBA graduates in Hyderabad get the lowest average wages, i.e., around Rs 590,000

Source

MBA Salary in India: Based on Experience

Let’s see how MBA salary in India varies based on experience.

MBA salaries in India will depend on your experience level. The higher you go up on the ladder, your experience increases, and you are paid higher.

Early Career MBA Salary In India

The average salary of entry-level MBA salary in India is of Rs 290,000. But with just 1 to 4 years experience, Early career MBA Salary in India can grow up to Rs 390,000 or more. Generally, the salary of MBA graduates in India grows up exponentially with experience.

Mid-level MBA Salary in India

So, if you have 5 to 9 years of experience, mid-level MBA Salary in India can rise to Rs 720,000

Experienced MBA Salary in India

If you have 10 to 19 years of experience, your average MBA Salary is Rs 1,400,000. If you are 20 years of experience or more, your average MBA salary in India give in to the senior level of management like director, senior director, Vice President, and the salaries offered average at Rs 2,550,000. These are just the average salaries, but if you have the niche domain skills with excellent exposure to the working environment, you can demand much higher than these averages.

Source

These are the major factors impacting MBA jobs salary. However, the institution you choose also plays a massive role in opening up new opportunities, if you are just setting out.

MBA Salary in India: Top Recruiters

MBA jobs salary widely differ if you plan to settle aboard. Let’s see how the MBA salary in India varies based on the recruiter.

Depending on the revenue and requirement of the company, some of them pay higher. For example, big giants like Amazon and Facebook tend to say that they are a technology firm, and there is no value that an MBA graduate can add to them. While companies like Microsoft and DELL value the technical, management, and leadership skills that an MBA graduate possesses and are ready to pay them higher.

Source

Let’s look at a list of companies that pay high for MBA graduates in India. Engineers India tops the list with MBA graduates getting from Rs 860,168 to Rs 2,800,000 per annum. Larsen & Toubro (L&T) pays anywhere from Rs 840,320 to Rs 2,480,940. Hindustan Unilever, Asian Paints, Whirlpool are companies that value MBA degree and pay salaries ranging from Rs 780,000 to Rs 2,000,000. Amazon though hires fewer people to management, still pays Rs 815,000 – Rs 1,930,000 for MBA graduates.

Besides these, there are several IT firms and startup companies the pay lump sum figures to MBA graduates from entry-level to senior-level positions. In the IT industry, a Vice President (VP) is usually offered a whopping 70L to 1 Cr annual package.

MBA Salary in Other Countries

Let’s look at the MBA salary in other countries:

MBA Salary in The UK: $88,000

Source

MBA Salary in The US: £52,000

Source

3 Top Reasons You Should Pursue MBA

Apart from the fact that your salary after MBA will get a significant boost, here are some other reasons why you should go for an MBA.

  1. Rise Above Entry Barriers

Several blue-chip organizations take only MBA graduates (even at its entry-level positions) in its hiring policy. Such organizations promote a costly development scenario where you can quickly move up the ladder once you’re in!

   2.  Learn High-End Management Skills

MBA applicants are considerably younger in their starting and come with a maximum of two years of professional experience. An MBA specialization would help you know the Nuances of the company’s operations.

   3.  Going Places – Literally!

If you’ve always wanted to work in new places, then choosing a good MBA program can be a great start to a long term view of settling down in a home for work post-graduation. Apart from the high MBA salary per month in India, this is definitely a deal-maker.

Conclusion

MBA is in high demand in India, with the economy rising at a fast pace. 

The whopping salaries mentioned above are proofs for the same. Many companies are establishing their base in India. Most of them need MBA graduates to their leadership and management levels. These companies are mainly from the IT sector and others like consumer goods, financial services, and consulting.

We hope you liked our article on MBA salary in India. These numbers above are not set in stone. The real influencer of your salary is the skills you have, the mastery you have attained over them, and how quickly you grow and make the company grow as well.

So here, we have discussed the average MBA salary in India looking at it from different angles. We hope this article has shared some excellent insights into MBA salary trends prevailing in India. 

If you are keen on upgrading your career with an Executive MBA course, upGrad is offering the MBA from Liverpool Business School.

And the cherry on top – upGrad’s excellent flexible and interactive learning and evaluation systems allows you to balance your personal and professional life in a hassle-free manner. Check out for more information & let our student counselor help you with your questions.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What is the salary of an MBA candidate in India?

The average salary for an MBA candidate in India is approximately Rs 7.3 Lacs. Factors affecting the salary in India are experience, location, job role, and skillset.

2. What are some of the highest-paying jobs for MBA candidates in India?

Here are some of the highest-paying jobs for MBA candidates: Investment Banker, Project Manager, Business Consulting and Strategy Consulting, Business Development Manager & Marketing Manager.

3. MBA salary in India based on Indian cities?

Gurgoan is the highest paying market with an average salary of Rs 750,000. Bangalore follows up with Rs 730,000. In Mumbai, an MBA gets Rs 732,000, while in Delhi, around Rs 690,000 is given.

4. Which specialization in MBA sees the highest demand?

As the world of corporate business continues to evolve, it further creates newer aspects of business management. These unique aspects of modern business call for different grounds of specialization that need expertise in specific parts. As MBA aspirants keep increasing exponentially every year, business schools in India now offer a wide array of specializations. But going for the right specialization of MBA is instrumental in carving out a rewarding career in business administration. Selecting your MBA specialization from the most in-demand fields will ensure the proper job placement and lucrative compensation too. Specializations that are most in-demand today include finance, marketing, HR, business analytics, and international business, among others.

5. Who earns more MBA or M.Tech?

After completing B. Tech, there is always an ensuing confusion about which stream to select – MBA or M.Tech. It can be indeed tough to decide whether to go for an MBA or an M.Tech since both are two very different paths. While an M.Tech focuses solely on the engineering industry, MBA will open up your choices and make you adaptable to any industry. The choice entirely depends on individual aspirants. However, when it comes to the salary package, MBAs seem to have an upper edge compared to M.Tech. M.Tech graduates earn INR 6 to 12 lakhs on average, whereas MBA graduates can earn anything from INR 12 to 20 lakhs or more.

6. Do IITians prefer MBA to M.Tech?

There is a general observation that after completing engineering from an IIT, the usual trend is to go for an MBA instead of an M.Tech. While there is nothing unusual or wrong with studying business management after engineering from the premier institute, the compensation that MBA graduates are offered is the most appealing factor here. MBA provides a much higher salary than M.Tech, and very importantly, the industry exposure gained through MBA is much broader and relevant to the requirements of the corporate sector.

7. Who earns more, CA or MBA?

The average starting salary in India for a Chartered Accountant is Rs. 8.05 LPA, whereas the starting salary for someone with an MBA in Finance is Rs. 7.64 LPA

Did you find this article helpful?

Rahul Karthikeyan

He is working as Associate Director of Digital Marketing at upGrad. Apart from marketing he is a crazy and courageous traveler. He has traveled from Kashmir to Kanyakumari through his bike(bullet).

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There are millions of ways to adapt growth hacking trends but there is no hard and fast rule that defines which one is the best. Here are some stepping stones that have been explored by some of the most popular growth hackers out there. Ideate With growth as your central theme – be it measurable marketing objectives, competition, business evolution or use of technology in marketing; give yourself a brief to crack. Once you know which verticals to tackle, round up your team and ideate on the best ways and latest technologies that can be used and tested as a growth hack. Experiment Newer the technology the better, as it makes way for a plethora of digital marketing experiments. These experiments will help you learn which growth hacks work and which don’t. They could be related to the best use of latest platforms like Periscope, Snapchat, Instagram etc. or simply building a beautiful website that bridges the gap between you and your customers. 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“The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing.” – Tom Fishburne, Founder and CEO, Marketoonist Several times, we come across advertisements which do not sell the product or service directly. For example, soft drinks like Thumbs Up and Mountain Dew sell an idea of being adventurous and fearless instead of the drink itself. Banks like ICICI do not explicitly discuss a range of banking services that they offer but evoke a sense of security, a sense of being cared for through their ad campaigns with taglines like “Hum hain na” (We are there for you) or “Khayal apka” (Care for you). These companies persuasively align their products with ideas, values or emotions. It is a part of their marketing strategy – in the form of brand positioning. Positioning in marketing is used to place your brand in the minds of the audience in a particular way. It defines the brand and what it does for a customer. It defines what value it offers and what it stands for. 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A Disclaimer: I refer to those professionals who don’t have a Management Degree and are striving to make a transformation in the managerial role in their career. The business ecosystem is changing every day and so are the requirements from the business professionals. Accelerating and augmenting the business to sustain in the market, has been a consistent pertaining need of the hour. The growth of high-end technology has enabled to automate the business processes and reduce the mundane labor of work. Yet, the role of management to develop, plan, strategize and execute the operational business tactics is inevitable for any organisation. Most of the corporate career path, especially non-technical and non-engineering channels of business, leads to this management segment or the managerial role. A leadership role which is alluring and encouraging to seek greater success in the corporate arena. Is the path to the Managerial role a straightforward route? The initial formative years in the corporate world sows the seeds and dreams of a dynamic career. The peers and managers influence and strengthen our dreams. Most of us look up to these managers and wish to achieve the same. But, after the initial phase of sugar and spice, the reality checks-in when the professionals face the real competitive environment for the managerial role. The path to the managerial role comes with a great responsibility and vision. A professional management certification on your sleeves is a perfect incentive and an entry ticket to achieving this managerial designation and can offer an upper hand when compared to others who do not have one. At this juncture, most of the corporate enthusiasts go through a midlife crisis. Confused whether to quit the job, pursue a degree from a reputed B school such as IIM, ISB or International Institutions, or get a management degree from some random management institution. Real Individual Growth, the Catalyst for Success A low CAT score also sometimes forces them to settle for something very less and eventually hits them hard on their pockets. Most of us believe just a paper of certification would suffice to pursue this role, contrary to the reality. A lot of corporate professional’s dwell in this dilemma for a very long time and sometimes miss out the major career turning point of their life. If you are sailing on this boat, we are here to anchor you and show you the right path. Even after more than two decades and tremendous technological advancement and process automation, the implications of managerial role and management skills have not come down. Having said that, there is a steady decline in the fad of the management studies and certifications from B Schools. The lure of being an IIM or any other B school alum has been declining for quite some time. Research studies conducted by ASSOCHAM show that only 20% of students passing from B schools end up in jobs which are aligned with their studies. The campus placement scenarios in these management institutions are extremely grim and have dropped down severely. Most of the students end up in low-salaried jobs and struggle for years to pay their educational loans. So, why take the pain of writing a CAT examination, quitting your job and pursue a management degree which might end up in a path filled with the bumpy road in your career than the present scenario? You might be wondering what could be the other ways where you don’t have to take a break as well as get a management degree? We are here to help you out. Gone are the days when Management studies were a lucrative and luxurious educational stream, mostly pursued by professionals who have a strong and wealthy background and who could afford to take a break whenever they wished to. Today, Management studies with a certification in hand, are vital to growing up in the corporate ladder. Having said that, the online and distance education system of learning and acquiring skill sets has enabled professionals to look at the pros and cons of entering the campuses of B Schools with a different perspective. The corporate programs offered by online educational institutions such as UpGrad, inspire professionals to take up Management Studies and transform their careers without pausing or halting in the middle. This transformational journey is like The Road to El Dorado filled with bumps and potholes. From being a subject matter expert to a managerial role without quitting the job requires an investment of time and conscious efforts to balance the ongoing role and acquire skills for the new role. Some of us might be doyens in our area of expertise and possess in-depth knowledge about the domain. However, we might lack the managerial skills to plan and execute the business improvement ideas. For example, as a developer, you might have a fresh and great idea to augment the features of the product you are developing and make it more conducive for the customer and incur more revenue for the organisation. Nevertheless, you might not be able to forecast, plan, budget and execute the different aspects of the business to implement your idea. This is where the necessity of acquiring managerial knowledge and skills comes handy. The need of proficient business managers is on the rise to tackle the challenges of the dynamic and fluctuating business environment. In the present scenario, most of the business managers are required to look beyond the present and foresee the challenges of the future and be planned and prepared for any type of crisis. The product managers are in a constant battle to grow the business with creativity and speed. These online management courses will help build and hone the necessary skills such as researching and synthesizing information of the business, communication skills and project management along with knowledge and application of diverse management tools. The Certification of Management Studies would empower the students with the knowledge to handle the projects from the business profit and loss perspective and augment it creatively to the best of the business needs. Though these are not a full-time professional degree course, there are impeccable advantages of opting for such online management certifications. These corporate online programs have endured giving a virtual learning experience just like a real-time educational institution. The best feature of these online management certifications is that most of them do not have any entrance exams. So, zero fear of passing or failing at the entrance exams. Above all, these online courses can be pursued with or without taking a break from your career. After all, who would wish to take a break, make a huge investment and live in financial crunches for years? These online courses and certifications do require an extra little time investment in your daily life (of course every course has a time limit). These courses, besides giving in-depth theoretical knowledge about the business concepts also help you understand the practical real-time business scenarios and the challenges of the industry. These courses also impart insights and information about the changing trends of the market through applied projects along with personalized mentorship. The plethora of options for the corporate professionals available in the education world would help them seek the required managerial and leadership skills without any hindrance in the career. An online education which is exclusively skill-based training along with intellectual and innovative awareness and application of the business tools to provide exception management services for the business. Much for the best of the students and professionals, these management programs are certified in collaboration with reputed national and international business schools. Once acquired the degree as well as the essential skills, the corporate professionals can showcase their talent to grow up in the ladder. As these courses are pursued as an on-the-job educational enhancement, it will be a perfect way to apply the management skill in your daily professional life and show your peers and seniors the innate potential and the acquired new skill for the optimum career growth. With the timely execution of the skills in the business and visible impact on the business, the transformational journey from a subject matter expert to the managerial role would take place. The expedition from a subject matter expert to a managerial role not only requires the technical skills and managerial skills but also needs a shift in the mindset. When you are a subject matter expert, you must be a pro at your subject. You need to be a master of your domain. The go-to person for all the product development problems. Why Skill Development is Really Important for Success You need to help the team solve the problems when under the technical crisis and find solutions to the product issues. But, the scenario completely changes when you are looking yourself for a management role. You are not just a problem solver. You need to think and forecast when and how the problem would arise, how many resources would be needed to solve the issues and what is the time-delay which would happen if problems arise. An end to end overview of the project in terms of business vision and mission. As a Manager, the way you approach the business would change drastically. These management degrees will help you visualize the day to day problems of the individual projects from the business perspectives. You will start looking the projects in terms of revenue generation and contribution to the profits of the organisation. As a manager, you would need to have a much profound thought and views about the resources available and the future necessity of the resources, along with the time management, so that the project schedules are met in a timely fashion to the customers as per the schedule. You also need to overview the performance of the individual team members depending on their contribution to the projects. In short, you as a manager must have the potential to show the entrepreneurial skills such as resource management, time management, business operations management besides having the knowledge of the product development. Learn MBA Courses from the World’s top Universities. Earn Masters, Executive PGP, or Advanced Certificate Programs to fast-track your career. Do You Have All the Skills Required to Start a Business? This revolution in the mindset does not happen overnight or just by possessing the theoretical knowledge. This change in the way of thinking and execution of the business goals comes after a lot of daily business crisis encounters over a period. The best way to kick off this journey of managerial metamorphosis is to pursue an online management degree along the side of your ongoing corporate career. Sow the right fertile seeds today for a better constructive and thriving professional career.
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by Deepak Singh

01 Mar'18
Get an Edge in your Management Career: UpGrad and IMT Ghaziabad

5.83K+

Get an Edge in your Management Career: UpGrad and IMT Ghaziabad

Across the globe, for quite a few decades now – getting a post-graduation management education has been a tried and tested route for employers to hire high caliber managers. It also gives an edge to aspiring managers for transitioning into higher paying roles. But not everyone who gets a management degree achieves success. In India, tens of thousands of management graduates are churned out by the 100s of colleges, but only 7 percent turn out to be employable, says a study conducted by ASSOCHAM. In fact, only a top few colleges are able to boast of quality education and great career impact. Beyond the top 20 colleges – all metrics related to career impact, whether it is post-college CTC or percentage of class employed after 3 months, fall drastically. This shows, it’s not enough to just get a management education – the college you get it from is very important. For a lot of working professionals, going back to the campus is not the best alternative. Many of them can’t spend 5-15 lakhs on getting an on-campus MBA. Some want to continue their jobs and get promoted and some are not able to get into campus programs of a reputed college. As a result, every year approximately 140,000 people enroll in distance education management programs available in India (MHRD report). Do You Really Need an MBA to Become a Manager? But in most of these distance education programs, the quality of education is substandard. This also is not much of a secret – all recruiters understand this well. To help aspiring managers to actually achieve their career goals without taking a 2-year long break, we joined hands with IMT Ghaziabad to develop a PG Program in Management. IMT Ghaziabad is widely regarded as one of India’s leading B-Schools. The alumni of IMT Ghaziabad can be found in almost every industry in leadership positions. IMT G alumni are serving in senior leadership positions in organisations such as Google, Genpact, Verizon, Ashok Leyland, Citibank, Credit Suisse and Zomato. What are some unique features of PG Program in Management Become a graduate from one of the best B-schools Having a great B-school on your profile benefits you throughout the career. Be it getting shortlisted for interviews or getting promoted faster – there are lots of intangible and tangible benefits. You will also have access to campus facilities and be a part of IMT alumni network. UpGrad learning experience: Tailor made for busy working professionals This program requires only 6-8 hours of time per week. In a typical week, students go through lectures and assignments by taking out 3 hours from Monday to Friday. All the live lectures are scheduled over non-work hours for their convenience. And all deadlines are on Sunday midnight – so that you have the entire weekend to complete everything. Learn from top professors and top industry professionals One very unique feature of the program is that the lectures are not only taken by professors from IMT Ghaziabad – but we also have lots of industry leaders teaching you in the program. These industry leaders have decades of experience and work in leadership positions in top companies and access to multiple networking sessions during and after the program. Learn by doing; go beyond learning through lecture notes We believe learning doesn’t happen by going through lecture videos or Hangouts – learning happens when you apply the lectures taught you to real-life problems. This program will have 13 case studies based on actual problems faced by companies. It will also have live projects where you will be running digital marketing campaigns on Facebook and Google Ad platforms. Get mentored 1:1 by industry leaders In this program, you will get 5 sessions with an industry professional with years of experience. You will get to choose this mentor from a pool of mentors. In these 1:1 sessions, your mentor will help you develop a better resume, conduct mock interviews and help you understand what kind of roles should you apply to. Get career opportunities Through our network of over 200 industry partners, we share career opportunities with our students. Additionally, students get to be part of IMT Ghaziabad official alumni group – where a lot of top opportunities are shared. Transition into your dream role faster Unlike most management programs that take 2 years, we have designed this program to be only 10-months long. A short MBA program helps the students achieve their career goals faster and are ideal for experienced professionals. Many top MBA schools like the Indian School of Business, INSEAD France, and HEC Paris also offer short duration management degrees. No need to take a lot of leaves for the end exam In a usual distance management degree, students have to take end semester exams. Most students end up taking a 10-15 day leave to give these exams – which is a big pain point. To solve for this – we have a lot of smaller components throughout the program where you will be graded. These include case studies, assignments, live projects and so on. This means, you just need to turn in your assignments on time and there is no end term exam. Real Individual Growth, the Catalyst for Success We are excited to train the next generation of leaders for the country. Check out the PG Program in Management now if you wish to race ahead of the curve in leadership roles! Learn MBA Courses from the World’s top Universities. Earn Masters, Executive PGP, or Advanced Certificate Programs to fast-track your career.
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by Apeksha Minz

20 Mar'18
4 Customer Retention Strategies You Never Tried

5.34K+

4 Customer Retention Strategies You Never Tried

We live in a world of constant competition. When it comes to the business, brands are working rigorously to make sure that consumers don’t buy from their competitors. In such situations, the best option is to work on your customer retention strategies. Customer retention, in a nutshell, refers to the process of keeping and nurturing your existing customers. It involves building trust among existing consumers and earning their continued patronage. According to Invesp, the probability of any business selling to existing customers is 60-70%.  The study further shows that existing customers are 50% more likely to try out your brand’s new products. They are also likely to spend 31% more compared to new prospects. These statistics explain why you should concentrate more on customer retention rather than focus only on getting more customers. And due to all these benefits, customer retention is one of the key factors that drive the success of any business. So for optimum results, your brand should have proper strategies in place for retaining your existing customers. Here are a few tried and tested strategies you can use to excel at customer retention: #1. Add Value to Your Products Providing something extra to customers so that they don’t buy from your competitors is a good way to retain customers. It is not only limited to providing benefits and features, you can also provide unique experiences to your consumers that no one else provides. You can alternatively provide unique benefits and experiences to certain groups of customers rather than providing them to everyone. This way, you can also reap huge benefits by offering a sense of exclusivity to certain customers. An example of a company that adds value to its products and provides unique experiences to its customers is Apple. Apple has always been known for making products that are easy to use. In its recent development, the iPhone X is one of the first mobile devices to have facial recognition technology. This allows you to you scan your face so that it can only be unlocked by you. Not only this, Apple perfected the face ID technology significantly so that their product is one-of-a-kind. They have yet again managed to set themselves apart to continue retaining their loyal customers. Brand Positioning: A Focal Point of All Marketing Efforts #2. Delight Your Customers As a business owner, there’s no doubt that you can offer your product at a fair price and deliver it to your customers in a timely manner. However, this does not give them an unforgettable and meaningful experience. Nor does it ensure that you’ll gain their loyalty. In order to retain customers, your brand should think of effective ways to consistently provide memorable experiences to customers. There may even be times when you go above and beyond to ensure that their experience is unique and pleasant. To delight and surprise your customers you can: Ask customers to take part in surveys to show that you care about their opinions.   Bring them onboard for product testing so they have a unique pre-launch experience.   Celebrate their birthdays by sending out exclusive gifts or discount offers. This way, your customers will know that you truly care about them and not just about their business with you. It will help them understand that you’re serious about delivering a one-of-a-kind experience to them. And this will enforce their trust in your brand. Foundr magazine recently published a guide anyone can use to start and scale an online store. In 2012, the people of Bethel, Alaska were delighted to hear the news of a Taco Bell opening there. But they later discovered that the opening of the Taco Bell in their remote town was merely a hoax. Not long after, the news reached Taco Bell. The company understood the amount of excitement that was built around the potential Taco Bell opening. This is when the company thought of surprising the citizens of Bethel. Taco Bell soon executed an event named “Operation Alaska.” During the event, the company sent out a helicopter carrying a Taco Bell truck to the town of Bethel. This truck was filled with enough food ingredients to make 10,000 Doritos Tacos for the people of the small town. Taco Bell did this to surprise the people of the town and appreciate the brand’s loyal fans. Although they were unable to open up a physical store in Bethel, the company went out of their way to address their customers’ demands. Learn How To Use Audience Targeting In Marketing! #3. Provide Great Customer Service It doesn’t matter how good your product or service may be if you can’t deliver good customer service. If your customer service is not up to the mark, you will have a hard time retaining the customers who choose to do business with you.  Brands should understand that the quality of service they provide is the main factor that differentiates them from competitors who sell the same products as they do.  That’s why it is of the utmost importance that your company has effective customer service strategies in place if you wish to boost customer loyalty. This would also include everything from setting up a proper after-sales protocol to providing a good user experience to your site visitors. They need to know how to build, launch and grow a profitable online store. Just think about it – will visitors return if your web pages load slowly, or if it takes several minutes for them to find the information they need? It will not only frustrate them but also increase their sensitivity towards price. And this could significantly affect your brand’s revenue in the long run. By focusing on personalized customer service solutions, brands can easily retain the majority of their customers. Here’s an example of great customer service being provided by Amazon. Here we see that the customer has reported that the product order is yet to be delivered. The customer support agent Jeff informed the customer that the product has been delivered to Australia. He apologized for the inconvenience and created a replacement order for the customer. Jeff also went on to provide an expedited delivery of the replacement order. This way, he not only answered all the customer’s questions but gave her a personalized solution to the issue. Segmentation in Marketing: Get Started with Effective Strategies #4. Boost Your Content Marketing Strategy By understanding the customer’s perspective, you’ll realize that consumers are more comfortable buying products and services that they think they’re familiar with. So when it comes to purchasing decisions, they choose products and services they’ve heard of from some other source. This source could be anything – from friends and family to news articles. That’s what makes content marketing so effective for businesses. Content marketing involves publishing content in a way that not only reaches out to the masses but also influences them. It helps consumers learn more about your product or service in a way that’s not overly promotional. Additionally, it also provides useful information to existing customers on how to further benefit from your product or service. There are a few steps you can take to optimize your existing content marketing strategy. Here are some ideas you should implement: Combine Content Marketing with Influencer Marketing – Work with influencers who have a voice in a relevant niche. You could have them create content in which they talk about your products or services in front of their audience, which can help you win over an engaged audience. You could also have them vouch for your products or services in testimonials, expert roundup posts, or interviews. And since the recommendation is coming from someone they trust, this audience is highly likely to be smitten about what you’re selling. This will give you an easier time winning their trust and loyalty, which is vital for retaining them.   Keep Track of Where Your Content Stands – It’s also crucial that you ensure your content remains consistently visible and valuable. The goal here is to ensure that you continue to attract and engage a highly relevant audience and win over their loyalty. Additionally, strategies such as updating content can have a significant impact on your content visibility and customer retention efforts. The strategy involves picking out older pieces of content and updating them with new information, new ideas, or new images that can continue to engage your audience. Winning the Market with Consumer Journeys Conclusion It’s important to understand that your current customer base is the best asset your business has. These people are the ones who are already aware of your brand as well as its products and services. Focusing your energy and time on making these people happy will help you generate substantial revenue. Do you know any more strategies that can help in customer retention? Feel free to let us know in the comments section below. Learn MBA Courses from the World’s top Universities. Earn Masters, Executive PGP, or Advanced Certificate Programs to fast-track your career.
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by Shane Barker

27 Mar'18
The Ultimate Sales and Marketing Resource Guide

5.43K+

The Ultimate Sales and Marketing Resource Guide

The present marketing world is evolving every minute. In a perfect world, sales and marketing work in collaboration. However, the reality is otherwise. The old-school approach of recruiting people with just sales knowledge or marketing experience is dying. The digital ecosphere has bridged the gap between the marketing and sales professionals. Today, no business organisation requires or recruits human resources who possess a very narrow knowledge and skill set. Today, every front-end professional who interacts with the consumers must hold knowledge about the end to end cycle of the business. We all have the habit of bookmarking interesting and informative articles to be read in our leisure time, and that time never comes. The thought of acquiring all the knowledge of sales and marketing is in itself quite overwhelming. Even though the industry requirements are changing, most professionals are unable to stay updated with their skills and knowledge. Here we are sharing the ultimate sales and marketing resource guide for all the professionals who are into marketing and sales. This is an attempt to share the basic requirements of the industry and also the list of the resource from where one can gain the knowledge and skill set of Sales and Marketing Management. While on hand, the marketing team would bring the latest ideas and strategies for advertising the product to generate leads. On the other hand, the sales team would be handling calls and answering consumer queries to convert them into loyal customers. But, this would happen separately and the information given to the consumers would be different. The biggest challenge which most businesses face is the gap between the sales and marketing team because of a lack of communication between each other. The efforts to convert the traffic to customers would be all in vain. In short, the business would run at a loss if both these segments work individually. Today sales and marketing team should know about the workflow and functioning style of each other and work in cohesion to drive revenue. Here are some of the mandatory knowledge which every sales and marketing professional must own. Foundational Skills of a Marketing and Sales Professional Hard Skills Storytelling Thought Process No marketing and sales professional should throw a direct pitch for purchase to the consumer. With the widespread use of technology, today’s consumers make better-informed choices and purchase decisions. Every marketing and sales professional should sell their products or services in the form of a persuasive tale to the consumers. These professionals must have a storytelling thought process to capture the attention of the audience at the first instinct. A journalistic mind along with a creative feature writer’s attitude and ability in dealing with consumers is one of the more essential hard skills of the industry. Digital Media Skills The digital world is evolving and challenging the traditional frameworks of marketing and sales. It is evident that digital media is the way forward and every professional must own digital media skills to flourish in this industry. The digital media is dramatically impacting the buyer-seller relationship and the brands. An effective and active digital media presence is the new path to enjoy the tangible results of sales and marketing. Design Skills Today, every professional is mandated to be a tech-savvy to grow in this field. The advancement of technology has automated the marketing and sales process. Hence, all professionals must devour the knowledge of process modelling, project management, web and graphic designing along with content curation. Possessing a technical know-how is a must to climb up the ladder of professional growth. Data Analytics Skills The technology has enabled to capture massive data about every step a consumer takes towards the brand. The knowledge to interpret these data into viable inferences and frame effective strategies is quite essential to gain and retain the target audience. The intellect to understand and appreciate the enormous data of the consumer and brand relationship involves exceptional analytic skills. Domain Expertise Yes, knowing the hard-core skills of sales and marketing are vital. Beyond that, professionals are also expected to possess domain expertise within the industry. The in-depth knowledge of the product and the technology and also the consumer’s requirements are inevitable to bridge the gap between the business and its evolving needs of the audience. Having domain expertise always would give an upper hand over other competitors. Importance of Digital Marketing in Logical Business Decision-Making Soft Skills Creativity Marketing and sales professionals are required to think and act creatively in every step to attract new consumers. The innovative designs, gratifying content writing, amusing and appealing concepts and exceptional skill to think outside the box are a must. Besides selling a product pitch, this would enable us to offer the customers incredible brand experience. Creativity is not just required but rewarded as well. Communication Verbal and non-verbal communication is a must. Most professionals overlook this skill. But to stay consistent and grow up in a career, strong communication skills play a significant role. The golden rule of every marketer or sales personnel has to appeal to the clients in a persuasive manner and help them solve their problems through the business products and services. Whether it is writing a marketing ad copy or drafting a sales pitch and presenting to the clients, a great orator and communicator could make or break the game of the business. Collaborative Skills No business segment works individually. Every team must collaborate with each other and work in tandem. The present-day recruiters and hiring managers look for individuals who are collaborative in nature and work well with multiple people at the same time. The emotional and empathetic connect within the organisation as well as with the customers are a necessity to shine as a true professional in this field. Negotiation Skills The most vital tactical skill is negotiating skills. The art of convincing and negotiating a client comes with experience. From negotiating to acquire a project with a client, to convincing on the timelines, budget, priorities, and expectations, every step needs incomparable negotiating skills. The capability to drive the hardest bargain is one of the biggest challenges as well as the notable skill to grow in glory for all the professionals. Leadership Skills A professional who goes beyond seeking one’s own growth. Taking risks, driving change, building trust, owning the failures and sharing success with everyone is the real traits of a great leader. Leadership skills are vital to make vital decisions and empower the ownership of the business to the professionals. Today, every marketer or salesperson has the opportunity to showcase their leadership skills in every aspect of their working environment. Every great leader is a mentor for the next generation. How Does a Digital Marketer’s Salary Grow? Business Models of Marketing and Sales Renowned frameworks which are adopted by the marketers and sales professionals if the industry. Pragmatic Marketing Framework: The Pragmatic Marketing Framework gives the end to end picture of the business operations for both the product and marketing and sales team. Go-to-Market Strategy: A model that shows the collaborative interplay of the sales and marketing team. The Startup Pyramid – Growth Frameworks: This framework is completely driven and help to determine how to grow when to expand and which metrics to be tracked in a specific stage of the business. Technology Marketing Framework: Think beyond the 4Ps of marketing. Today 14Ps govern the marketing framework. The 2016 TOPO Sales Framework: Decode the elements present in high-growth sales infrastructure. Agile Sales Framework: The Ultimate Sales framework to Empower the marketing and sales professionals with decisions and results. The CLEAR Culture & Framework of Sales: This framework will help to convert the audience into potential consumers and lead to conversions quickly. Sales Enablement Metric: This metric will help to empower the organisation’s sales delivery strategy. Books Gain in-depth knowledge by inculcating a habit of reading books. Most Popular books to read on marketing & sales industry: Building a Story Brand: Donald Miller Marketing: A Love Story, How to Matter to Your Customers – Bernadette Jiwa Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Digital Distraction – Derek Thomson  What Customers Crave – Nicholas Webb Digital Marketing for Dummies – Ryan Deiss and Russ Hennesberry  Blue Ocean – W. Chan Kim  Think and Grow Rich – Napoleon Hill  PRE-SUASION: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade – Robert Cialdini The Sales Acceleration Formula – Mark Roberge Predictable Revenue – Aaron Ross and Marylou Tyler Thinkertoys – Michael Michalko The Psychology of Selling – Brian Tracy The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation – Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson Influence: Science and Practice – Robert B. Cialdini Cracking the Sales Management Code: The Secrets to Measuring and Managing Sales Performance – Jason Jordan and Michelle Vazzana 7L: The Seven Levels of Communication: Go from Relationships to Referrals – Michael J. Maher Digital Marketing on a Zero Budget Online Courses Popular Niche Courses for Marketing and Sales Professionals. PG Program in Management – upGrad PG Certification in Digital Marketing & Communication – upGrad Executive Program in Strategic Digital Marketing – upGrad Terminologies Do research on these industry jargons and get familiarised to stay confident. Sound Bite Value Proposition Service Level Agreement  Smarketing  GPCTBA/C&I – Goals, Plans, Challenges, Timeline, Budget, Authority, Negative Consequences, Positive Implications. Churn Rate ABC – Always Be Closing. BANT –  Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline Buyer Persona  Lifetime Value Qualified Lead  Social Selling  Adoption process – the buying process Discovery Call Net Promoter Score  Customer Acquisition Cost  AIDA – Attention/Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action Cold Calling  Profit Margin Conversion Rate  Marketing and Sales Management Tools To automate and remove the repetitive, mundane tasks of the marketing and sales process. Buffer – Manage all the digital media accounts in a single dashboard. Canva – Unleash the creative potential of the professionals and build a brand for life. Google Analytics – Free data analytics solutions to measure and optimise the growth of your business. Hotjar – One stop solution for website optimisation. Simply Measured – Offers enterprise-level analytics and management data for the digital initiatives. IFTTT (If This Then That) – Single platform to merge all the cross-channel marketing and sales efforts. HubSpot CRM – A perfect tool to manage and enhance customer relationships. Adobe Spark – Create visually appealing stories and marketing designs with minimal efforts. LinkedIn Sales Solutions – Find leads and close deals through the LinkedIn sales navigator. InsideSales.com – Incorporate Artificial Intelligence (AI) to convert leads to loyal consumers. ToutApp – Simple and sophisticated tool to transform the sales team into a revenue-generating machine. SalesForce – Smarter and faster client relationship management infrastructure. Calendly – Aids in scheduling and managing the appointments without the interaction of emails. LeadMine – Look, capture and reach qualified business leads with corporate contact information. Saleshandy – A suite of powerful tools for marketing and sales activities such as email tracking, mail merging, document tracking, auto-follow-up etc. Yesware – Sell smarter with high-level actionable insights of consumers and make focused decisions and strategies to gain real-time results. 10 Influencer Marketing Strategies You Should Know [Gifographic] Influencers and Experts to follow on Twitter In times of crisis, lookup to these Industry Doyens for Inspiration and to stay focused. Donald Miller – @donaldmiller Tabitha Naylor – @tabithanaylor Ann Handley – @annhandley Matt Heinz – @HeinzMarketing Avinash Kaushik – @avinash Scott Galloway – @profgalloway Danny Sullivan – @dannysullivan Larry Kim – @larrykim Vala Afshar – @ValaAfshar Trish Bertuzzi – @BridgeGroupInc Alice Heiman – @aliceheiman Gerhard Gschwandtner- @gerhard20 Jim Keenan – @keenan Peter Ostrow – @PeterOstrow Jill Rowley – @Jill_Rowley I hope this ultimate guide and comprehensive resource list would help you kick-start your career in sales and marketing and aid you to become a qualified professional and a significant player in your domain. Learning never stops. So, make it a part of your personality and always have an open mind to learn and adopt new ideas and knowledge. Learn MBA Courses from the World’s top Universities. Earn Masters, Executive PGP, or Advanced Certificate Programs to fast-track your career.
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by Anshuman Agrahari

02 Apr'18
Getting Started with Wireframing using Balsamiq

5.34K+

Getting Started with Wireframing using Balsamiq

Wireframing can ideally be defined as an activity to visualize the layout of a screen. There are many wireframing tools present in the market today, but the easiest and the most widely used is Balsamiq – our topic for today. But, before that, let’s first understand why do we need to wireframe? When it comes to software development, it’s vital to know how the final product will look, even before the development starts. This initial visualization of the product serves as a guideline for all the stakeholders plus helps in avoiding any ambiguity that might arise in the future. In older days, paragraphs of texts were used to elicit the software requirements. However, these chunks of text were not enough to get the visualization going – as each person reading the requirements would visualize it in some way that might be different from the rest. This ambiguity leads to a lot of mix-up and results in wasted time, money, and efforts. To help the cause, wireframing comes into the picture. Owing to the ease it brings to the overall development process. In this article, we’ll help you understand questions like: What is Balsamiq? How to get started with it? How to export the final wireframe/mockup? What is Balsamiq? Wireframing, in all essence, can be carried out on a napkin using a pen. At the end of the day, it’s just a sketch after all. However, when it comes to collaborating and sharing it with professionals, it’s a better idea to switch to one of the many tools present in the market today. One such tool is Balsamiq – it is straightforward to use and provides lots features to build a useful wireframe. Balsamiq is an excellent tool and fulfils all the requirements of wireframing and collaboration. It has a unique set of features that enable you to do rapid wireframing, get real-time feedbacks, incorporate those feedbacks, and improve the wireframe. This eventually gets the whole team aligned with the functionality of the application regarding the layout. With Balsamiq, collaborating with remotely located team members is also a breeze as it can export wireframes in PNG or PDF formats that allows flexibility while sharing the wireframes. 10 Most Effective Wireframing Tools Getting Started with Balsamiq Balsamiq is available for Windows and Mac OS and can be downloaded online. Once you’ve downloaded the tool and opened  it up, you’ll see a screen like: As shown in the above screenshot, the user interface for Balsamiq is divided into the four following parts. Navigator UI Library Inspector Wireframe space/Area The section highlighted in red is for toggling between sections inspector and project information. The features are included in the UI library, let’s take a look at it in depth. The UI Library The UI library is categorized based on different screen elements. Let us get acquainted with the different screen elements categories available in Balsamiq. All − Clicking on this will show you all the UI elements that Balsamiq offers. Scrolling horizontally will allow you to view or use them. Assets − This section includes the things you can upload and later for use in your wireframes. Big − This includes the reasonably bigger screen elements like placeholders, browser window, iPhone, and iPad. Buttons − This section includes all the button controls that you’ll need in a wireframe, like – action buttons, checkboxes, etc. Common − This section comprises of the shapes used to denote the most common interactions. Containers − It includes the options like Window, FieldSet, Browser, etc.As the name suggests, it is inclusive of the Window, FieldSet, Browsers, etc. Forms −  This category contains all the controls related to forms, like input elements, radio buttons, submit button, and such. Icons − This contains the set of icons that you can use to denote a particular operation. For instance, a floppy icon instead of the save button, etc. Balsamiq offers a huge collection of free icons that can be used for various actions. iOS − This contains the UI controls specific to the iOS. Layout − Layouts are extremely important when you need to represent a basic page/feature. This category includes most of the layouts like Vertical / Horizontal tabs, accordions, etc.. Markup − This is used for adding a comment on a particular control in the wireframe. It also contains callouts that are used to show connectivity in many of the scenarios. Media − All the media-related UI controls are available in this section that helps in showing an image/video/sound in the wireframe. Symbols − This is a collection of reusable components which can reduce the time to create the common components. Text − As the name goes, this contains all the UI controls related to the text. Features like a block of text, combo box, link bar, etc., are available under this category. The knowledge of these components coupled with the fact that Balsamiq allows you to easily drag-and-drop the components will help you create wireframes of your choice quickly, and effectively. Which of These Product Management Tools are You Already Using? Now, suppose for your website, you’ve created a wireframe of these four pages – Home, Products and Services, Contact us, and About us. Now, we need to perform another essential task that’ll get our wireframe look a bit more like a full-fledged website and less like a sketch. For that, we need to link our pages, as they would ideally be linked in a website. Linking also helps you go back and forth between the wireframes easily. Linking the Pages This step will help your wireframes appear in order – like they would on any website. To achieve this navigation, click the link bar on the top right corner. First, let us start by connecting the Homepage to the Products and Services page: Go to Homepage Click on the link bar on the top right corner Refer the properties pane The green highlighted section shows the various wireframes you’ve created till now. Let us start by linking the Home page. Click on the drop down to see the list of available mockups. It’ll show a list like below: From the dropdown list that’s displayed, select Products and Services to create a link from Home to Products and Services. Similarly, repeat the same procedure for the other pages. The Art of Decision-Making: For Managers, Leaders & Product People Exporting The Wireframe The wireframe you’ve just created is of no good use if you can’t present it to your client/end user in a more common format, like PDF or PNG. For this purpose, Balsamiq allows you to easily export mockups in either of these formats. In this example, we’re exporting our mockup in a PDF format. For this, click on the Project menu, then click on Export to PDF. You’ll get a screen like the one shown below: Select the checkbox – “Show linking hints”. Then, click Export to PDF. It will show a popup where you can specify a local where you want the PDF exported. The progress will be shown in a progress bar like below. When the export is complete, there will be a confirmation box. On clicking the box, you’ll be able to view the PDF along with all the navigations you set up. Building Minimum Viable Products – How Much is Too Much? Wrapping Up… There is no denying the importance of wireframing in the world of application development today. They provide many features which end up easing your overall workload – there’s absolutely no dearth of wireframing tools but Balsamiq is one of the few tools which caters your all-around requirements! Learn Online MBA Courses from the World’s top Universities. Earn Masters, Executive PGP, or Advanced Certificate Programs to fast-track your career.
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by Aditya Sharma

10 Apr'18
Sales 101: An Optimum Approach to Find a Happy Customer

5.45K+

Sales 101: An Optimum Approach to Find a Happy Customer

Every organisation today which has a revenue stream puts various sales processes in place. This article highlights a generic sales approach and identifies various points used to leverage and optimise the sales processes. Sales teams thrive on – and perform only when there is a sense of agility/ownership/responsibility/delivery. “Hunting down” leads while they’re hot is the best, if not the only time you will be able to convert them into paid and eventually – happy customers. Channels Online The digital industry is growing rapidly. Every organisation has started banking on digital channels to scale revenue. Facebook plays a big role in digital marketing – however, it can turn out to be an expensive channel to scale. Facebook campaigns take time to stabilise and optimise, which could hinder revenue growth. Google Search is a great channel for sales since you have leads searching for your respective company/product and coming into the funnel with a strong interest level. LinkedIn has been tried/tested by multiple organisations and has been deemed to have various protocols in place which end up being very expensive to bring in your target group. Offline Since digital channels depend on algorithms and have various bids in place – which make them expensive or tough to scale, offline channels play a key role in bringing leads to chip in/make up for a bigger top funnel. Offline events/offline marketing/offline workshops tend to push interest towards the organisation website or help create a strong database. In some cases, organisations might have an Offline Sales Team which deals with leads face to face, especially. Organic Organic channels are always the most brilliant. Any branding activity/blogs/emailers/old customers drive organic leads to the top funnel. Since this channel tends to have the highest conversion at close to no marketing dollar spends – It is important to constantly have a content marketing strategy in place/branding activities on a regular basis/sending any other low cost or zero cost communication out frequently. Do You Really Need an Offline MBA to Become a Great Manager Communication Telephone Landlines and mobile phones are the most widely used communication devices in sales. I have come across various challenges via a landline. In recent times, we probably ignore calls received from landlines thinking it’s a wrong number or someone random is calling to enlighten us about the latest product you’re losing out on. Mobile phones get a higher connect rate and are a good solution to this problem. It is also very important to ensure your call to connected or interacted rate is anywhere between 40%-60% to build a good funnel of interested leads. Email Emailing is one of the most, if not the most important channels. Ability to track inbound emails, open rates of sent emails, links clicked within the emails – help the sales team prioritise leads and reach out to them at the earliest via mobile phone to capitalise on the fresh knowledge (Customer) and inbound knowledge (Sales) gained via email communication. WhatsApp Close to 20% of the world’s population uses WhatsApp. It is a great channel which helps identify whether the lead is genuinely interested in the product. A good example is – Using a telephone/mobile to call a lead who has shown interest in your product. While following up with the prospect, he stops responding after multiple follow-ups. Sending a well crafted and drafted WhatsApp message to him increases your chances of getting through. It also gives you a good sense of whether the prospect is going to be moving forward in his product purchase. “Blue ticks” always play a key role! SMS Sending bulk SMS during a sales cycle to fresh leads as well as an existing lead base adds a big bonus to the top funnel. It tends to re-activate old/organic leads regularly. Agility TAT Being from a Hospitality and Hotel Management background, I’ve come to realise that Turn Around Time (TAT) is one of the strongest methods used to impress your customer. It is imperative to respond to emails within a few minutes, especially during work hours. As I was taught at the The Grand Hyatt – An inbound call should always be answered within two rings. You should always respond to a chat or message at the earliest. The chances of developing a good/strong relationship with the customer via this “5 Star Service” is very high. Imagine calling your bank or network provider and having a human voice which is capable and powerful enough to sort out your queries – answers your call within 5 seconds, in turn giving you closure with a satisfying answer/solution. Lead Cycle A lead cycle can be anywhere between a few hours all the way to a few months. Data has given me a learning – most leads tend to convert within 2 weeks of coming into the funnel, maximum being within 7 days while they’re absolutely ‘hot’. It is hence, important to device an apt duration for the lead cycle which addresses the best methods to leverage high conversions. Get an Edge in your Management Career: UpGrad and IMT Ghaziabad Optimisation Clean up It is important to constantly clean up data points and update them with the latest or most optimum knowledge areas. Data fields on a CRM can always be revamped/updated/cleaned/optimised to pull out the most accurate and convenient data there is – which you eventually share with your marketing counterpart to help drive a better funnel. Revisit Revisiting old and dormant leads is always a must. If 60-70% of your lead base converts within 2 weeks. That also enlightens us about the fact that there is a vast chunk of leads who either take long to convert or don’t convert at all. Revisiting these old leads during a new sales cycle not only adds to the sales funnel but also makes up for any gap in the number of leads not being delivered by marketing due to various concerns. These leads add to the revenue and bring down the Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) by a considerable percentage. Revisiting old leads also makes up for leads who will not convert in your fresh cycle and convert in the next. It’s a never-ending loop. Nurturing Nurturing leads is the most important sales activity. Offline workshops/events or blogs/information sessions/Facebook Live sessions to highlight the various strong points or offerings of your product helps develop some interest within a lead. The lead also gets to interact with the organisation and its employees which helps develop a stronger relationship with different stakeholders of the organisation. Nurturing via phone is always a good call, pun intended. You should make it a point to constantly be in touch with your customer to be able to develop a comfortable relationship which eventually leads to them converting. This nurturing period also might ignite a friendly relationship which is categorised between formal and informal – “Hi XYZ! Hope you’re feeling better now. I trust that your fever has settled and you’d be able to take a few minutes out of your chores to complete a transaction via the online gateway. It’s just like buying something on Amazon or Flipkart” – Always works. Referrals There’s nothing better than a happy customer, or a customer who is impressed by his experience or interactions with your organisation. Referrals are the best form of increasing your footprint, not just digitally, but also word of mouth. The more your referral numbers are within a sales cycle – the more you know your organisation is making moves. Referrals come organically, but it is highly required of the sales teams to be able to push hard for leads/customers/users to be able to refer the product and bring in more interest at the top funnel. Conversions from referrals are always high – but converting anything below 50% of your referrals to a paid customer might give you a sense that your sales/marketing process might need a bit of a more aggressive approach. Channel wise distribution/Conversion Constantly adapting and revamping your sales process gives you a new outlook or perspective. Whenever sales numbers become stagnant or start to drop, this activity must be initiated to be able to add a new touch to build up a funnel or increase conversions – which, if done religiously, can help you reach your target. Channel wise lead assignment and tracking the conversions across your team can help you get a firm sense of which channel can perform best – and then scale. When historic data has proven to have Google Search as your highest converter, revisiting all the Google Search leads wouldn’t harm the best of you. Sales Tools Carrots and sales tools which help convert leads are a plus. Discounts/info-sessions, even gifts like iPads/Vouchers/Company reimbursements/et al. always help convert leads. India, as a market – loves discounts. However, if you don’t have the advantage of offering discounts – the best way forward is to ensure every channel is targeted with a nurturing activity. Throwing in a couple of additional product offerings could give the lead an extra push. Automation A lot of manual tracking/analysis/data pulling is required during a sales cycle. To decrease the workload of your teams, it is imperative to identify any processes or policies which can be automated, to ensure a faster TAT and make it more seamless via online tracking. Automated calling systems, CRM updates, chat messages, documentation related processes always help the teams focus on using their skills/expertise to drive a more systematic approach and increase their conversions. Conversions can always better until they’re 100%. Recordings Recording your calls and constantly listening to yourself/teammates warrants higher conversions, provided the steps of identifying loopholes/problems with a revised/refined sales pitch on a constant basis – is implemented. Data points Analysis/tracking/sharing This is one of the most important parts of your daily tasks. A sales team must constantly track data, analyse the data points – and eventually share it with the marketing team – who can then optimise digital channels or work on offline channels to scale. This could be anything from sharing all leads’ information who are completely disinterested all the way to sharing all customers’ information who have paid for the product – to be able to scale the channels which clearly work – and decrease marketing dollars on the ones that don’t. Lead to paid%, registered to paid%, applied to paid%, attended to paid% and various other metrics should be at the tip of your tongue. Closure Bringing in leads, nurturing them, developing interest, driving a strong customer relationship, meeting them in person, connecting the lead to someone with authority or someone who has designed your product – tends to work charms. However, it becomes rather odd and tough, if you don’t have the ability to “close” that lead and convert him or her into a paid customer. If you tend to see interest going up the funnel, capitalisation must be done on priority. For example, a lead submitting details, having a good call, attending your workshops, speaking to your product teams and not converting – could be a major concern. Several urgency points can be used such as the last date for workshop registrations, last day to avail products, et al. help drive the customer to take an informed decision faster – instead of delaying it and not paying eventually. It takes a good salesman’s eye to gauge a lead’s interest and either convert ASAP, move on to your next. The Ultimate Sales and Marketing Resource Guide As a Salesman, we must always believe that TAT, more number of calls, more surface area covered in terms of leads and reach outs will always lead to more revenue. Of course, the biggest player in all of this is motivation – you must be constantly motivated during sales and especially even more motivated when sales isn’t working. There’s nothing that drives confidence better than a strong motivational push, to pull up a slow sales cycle. Learn MBA Courses from the World’s top Universities. Earn Masters, Executive PGP, or Advanced Certificate Programs to fast-track your career.
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by Parth Sanghvi

11 Apr'18
Professional Marketing Skills Required in Different Stages of Career

5.93K+

Professional Marketing Skills Required in Different Stages of Career

Some of the common questions asked to a marketer in an interview are, ‘Where do you see yourself in next five to ten years? What are skills that you possess which other marketers don’t have? Why should I hire you?’. The most difficult questions for a beginner who is just stepping into the field. If you are a beginner in the marketing field or hanging with cluttered thoughts in the middle of the marketing professional ladder, you have hit the right space. This is an honest effort to help you plan, build your marketing career and hone the essential marketing skills in every step of the career path. Accidentally or on purpose, if you are entering into the world of Marketing, you must always have an open mind about every change. The marketing industry is always young and has always a something new and challenging to offer to the marketers. The Marketers must always need to evolve with the changing trends of the industry. With the dawn of the vast influence of technology, the marketing field has become an alluring and a lucrative business segment for most of the budding non-technology professionals. Marketing professionals are no more just the ‘Marketers of the Business’. The glitzy and glorifying titles such as Social Media Evangelist, Conjurer of Communications, Code Ninja, Captain of Buzz, Viral Curator, etc., are the alluring attention catchers for the new generation to energetically step into the marketing world. The life of a marketing professional is a bumpy ride filled with multiple roadblocks besides the C-suite parties and social business gatherings. A professional marketing course imparts the students, the ability to analyse the customer demand, match it to the business offerings and market it to the user. In the real world, the marketers need to think, realise and act at different levels of intellect. The road to the top might not be clear and structured path always, but there are certain standards of the marketing ladder, irrespective of the industry. How to Build Strong and Steady Professional Relationships The last decade has witnessed a great evolution in the marketing landscape and changed the math of marketing. There are majorly two different aspects of Marketing such as Traditional Marketing or the Offline Marketing and the Digital Marketing. Types of Marketing Niche Presently, there are two major types of marketing ruling the business market. They are traditional or offline marketing and digital marketing. Offline or Traditional Marketing Despite the impact of the internet, the market studies reveal that even today traditional or offline marketing holds a significant space in the field of business. Even today, in the digital era, networking, having face to face conversations and meetings, cold calls, sponsorships, client associations, etc., mean a lot in the marketing field. Online or Digital Marketing On the other hand, the digital marketing or marketing through internet also holds good to target the audience who possess access to the smartphone internet technology. The webinars, content marketing, video marketing, email marketing, digital advertising, etc., have taken a substantial part of the marketing strategy. Let’s dig deep into the Marketing Career Ladder and learn what, when and which skills are required at every stage of the career path. In a normal world, there are four standard levels in the marketing field. They are:  Level 1: Marketing Executive and Business Development Executive. Level 2: Marketing Coordinator, Product Specialist, Marketing Analyst and Marketing Manager. Level 3:  Marketing Head, Vice-President, Marketing, and President Marketing. Level 4: The Chief Marketing Officer. (Disclaimer: This is just a general hierarchy. This could differ with the industry or the firm’s organisational structure policy). The Emerging Technologies to Watch for 2018 – 2020 Before we get to learn what are the skills required to succeed and grow with each level, here is a sound advice from most of the famous marketers and industry moguls. Ensure you start your journey as a Marketing Intern with a business firm. Yes! We completely agree with this success mantra. An internship in the field of marketing would give the budding professional an insight into the real world and the pros and cons of the marketing field. In short, it will question your passion for marketing and if you would want to really go ahead in this field. Even though it is a flexible career, it is a long-lasting desire of creativity and passion for the art of marketing that takes one up in the ladder. Getting back to the real marketing ecosphere, let’s make a checklist of the activities and the necessary skills required to thrive as one moves up the ladder. Levels of a Marketing Career and Required Skills Level 1: Marketing Executive and Business Development Executive The primary or the starting phase of marketing field is mostly as a marketing and business development executive. Most marketers in this level aim to maximise the profits by matching the consumer requirements with the products and in turn promoting it to the right target audience. In short, they oversee the marketing campaigns to promote the product and services, whether it is digital or offline. They work closely with the market research teams, advertising, sales, and production groups. Some of the key activities performed are conducting market research, analysing the market data, designing and identifying areas and strategies for promotional activities, social media marketing, inbound and outbound marketing, etc. The vastness of the role depends on the size of the business organisation as well as the industry. The main purpose is to grasp the appropriate audience at the right time and bring the optimum return on investment. A strong communication skill plays a vital role at this level since it requires to understand the mindsets of the audience, as well as work with other business teams. An eye for detail along with commercial awareness is definitely necessary beyond the technical know-how about the product. In the present day, business firms are recruiting professionals who possess sound creative writing and oral skills which influence the execution of the original marketing ideas. Of course, one could specialise only in digital marketing and start their career as a social media project coordinator, digital media content curator, digital media analyst, etc. Most of the skills required are the knowledge of digital media platforms and use of SEO in the same.  Though the initial level would apply to perform the basic tasks, the ride is tough as one is new and is tested holistically. Most marketers take usually 2 – 4 years to step up to the second level. Understanding and Conducting a Market Research like Experts Level 2: Marketing Coordinator, Product Specialist, Marketing Analyst and Marketing Manager A mid-level path of the marketing career. As a marketer, it is important to showcase the market knowledge and domain expertise at this stage. Beyond the ability to demonstrate a creative storyboard to market the product, one must be able to handle a team of marketing executive and ensure the business targets are met. The intellect to forecast the problems and be ready to tackle the same is very crucial. The ability to understand the changing needs of the audience, without actually interacting with them is an exceptional skill which most marketers need to demonstrate. One must use the inherent potential to exploit the opportunities and use the resources in the most efficient fashion. As a Marketing Manager, whether it is digital or offline, one must function as a thread that puts a seamless knot between the upper and lower management, as well the consumers and the business.  He or she must be able to analyse the products and services and identify potential markets to expand the business. Create an effective marketing plan, communicate the timely targets to the team, analyse the performance of the executives, supervise and coordinate other marketing activities. The intellect to study and analyse the fluctuations of the market along with sticking to the business vision and organisation’s policies is a knack that comes with experience. The art of storytelling, sales skills, digital media knowledge, data analytics, and of course domain expertise are essential to growing at this level. Besides this, organisational and planning skills, communication skills, coordination, tracking and monitoring the data as well as the team, and the ability to empathise and strike a balance between the personal and professional needs, will aid in the passionate pursuit of the marketing career. It takes 5-8 years to become a marketing expert and oversee a specific team and their activities. The Ultimate Sales and Marketing Resource Guide Level 3:  Marketing Head, Vice-President, Marketing, and President Marketing Typically, it takes almost 12 – 18 years to reach to the core of the Marketing team of the business firm. Marketing specialists in this phase are responsible for the developing and implementing a cohesive marketing plan to upsurge brand awareness, setting current and long-term business and marketing goals for internal teams, designing and reviewing the Marketing department’s budget. One is also entitled to build relationships with media and stakeholders through creative PR strategies, prepare regular reports and presentations on marketing metrics for the CEO and CMO. Forecasting hiring needs for the Marketing department and tracking the competitor’s activities is also a crucial task at this level. This senior management role requires the skill to demonstrate creative and successful marketing campaigns, solid knowledge of the digital marketing effectiveness, strong and inspiring leadership and communication skills, and excellent analytical and project management skills. Above all, one must have the right strategic mindset, with an ability to make difficult decisions and quick solutions at the right time. In short, at this stage of the career, most marketers are the problem-solving specialists and strategic in their initiatives and thoughts. Must-have Skills at Different Stages of a Sales Career Level 4: The Chief Marketing Officer The road to becoming the Chief Marketing Officer of a business firm is challenging as well as risky. The CMO of a firm is a person who has the insight into the audience mindset as well as the business stakeholders proposition.  As a CMO of the organisation, one is essentially steering the company’s marketing strategy through a future vision to the board of directors, embraces data and design, leads innovation and transformation, leverages the new technology, and thinks like a technocrat and content artist. In straight terms, a Sherlock Holmes of the C-suite who knows to handle the business officials to get his thoughts straight into their heads. As a CMO, he or she must be creative as well as analytical. One must certainly own vast knowledge in different disciples such as production, information technology, legal, finance, and other creative aspects of the business. The CMO must be a master of the modern marketing tools and techniques along with the handling social gathering and talking business deals with just a few handshakes through exceptional convincing abilities. Strategy, collaboration, brand building initiatives and business expansion to global markets through exceptional stakeholder relationships are the core areas and skills required to be an effective and inspiring chief marketing officer. Learn Digital Marketing Course online from the World’s top Universities. Earn Masters, Executive PGP, or Advanced Certificate Programs to fast-track your career. Now that we know what the different roles and skill sets are required at each level, let’s see some of the core skills which one must hone and groom forever as it is required at all stages. Integrating Sales and Marketing: Effective Way to Revenue Generation Marketing Skills needed for all Marketing Professionals Customer-centric approach The Art of Storytelling Networking and Collaborative Skills Communication Skills: Oral, Written, Verbal and Non-verbal Listening Skills and Offering Right and Productive Criticisms Data Analytics: Insight to understanding data and metrics Must be a Tech-Savvy with the Knowledge of Sales Process Sound Knowledge of the Changing Digital Marketing Skills and Public Relation Skills Management and Leadership Skills Strategic and Tactical Planning of the Marketing Initiatives Ideas and Thoughts to help you move up in the Ladder Reveal the true and significant insights – Talk the Language of Data Think like a User and a Pro Executive Team Make Products and Services Effective for the Consumer Always have the Knowledge of Commercial Awareness Success or Failure – Document Every Move. Because Everything is a Lesson in Marketing Read and Stay Abreast of the Changes in the Marketing Field It is difficult to set specific career goals for the marketers. So, it is important to balance and enjoy what you are good and the requirements of the profile. This would help run a long mile into the trail. Always ensure you possess a niche and you are a master at it. Get the right experience and learning. In the end, it is the experience that counts more than any degree. The marketing career path has never been structured. With more experience, the roles and responsibilities evolve and get more tactical and strategic. The journey of approximately twenty years has rolled down with a unique path to test the patience and perseverance of the marketer to excel in this highly fluctuating field. Do You Really Need an Offline MBA to Become a Great Manager If you are curious to get into the world of digital marketing, check out upGrad & MICA’s Advanced Certificate in Digital Marketing & Communication. Learn MBA Courses from the World’s top Universities. Earn Masters, Executive PGP, or Advanced Certificate Programs to fast-track your career.
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by Anshuman Agrahari

14 May'18