INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

STRATEGIES AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

by

Dhananjay Ketkar

18PGPM083

Management Development Institute Murshidabad

Murshidabad 742235

June, 2019
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
STRATEGIES AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

by

Dhananjay Ketkar

Under the guidance of

Name: Shri Rahul Sharma

Designation: Project Manager
Postal Address: Unit No. 505, Tower B,
Spazedge,Sohna Road, Sector 47,
Gurugram, Haryana 122002
Mobile No: +91 9336292971
E-mail: rsharma@gmiresearch.com

Management Development Institute Murshidabad

Murshidabad 742235

JuJune019

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 CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL

The following Summer Internship Project titled ― International Business Development

Strategies and Customer Satisfaction is hereby approved as a certified study in
management carried out and presented in a manner satisfactory to warrant its acceptance as
a prerequisite for the award of Post–Graduate Diploma in Business Management for
which it has been submitted. It is understood that by this approval the undersigned do not
necessarily endorse or approve any statement made, opinion expressed, or conclusion drawn
therein but approve the Summer Internship Report only for the purpose it is submitted.

Summer Internship Report Examination Committee for evaluation of Summer Internship

Report

Organizational Guide:

Signature: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Name: Mr. Rahul Sharma
Designation: Project Manager
Address: Unit No. 505, Tower B, Spazedge, Sohna Road, Sector
47, Gurugram, Haryana 122002

Mobile No: +91 9336292971

E-mail: rsharma@gmiresearch.com

Name: Dhananjay Ketkar

Roll No.: 18PGPM083

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The internship opportunity I had with GMI Research was a great chance for learning and
professional development. Therefore, I consider myself a very lucky individual as I was
provided with an opportunity to be a part of it. I am also grateful for having a chance to meet
so many wonderful people and professionals who led me through this internship period.

I am inexpressibly indebted to Mr. Mohammad Shahid (Vice President GMI Research) who
in spite of being extraordinarily busy with her/his duties, took time out to hear, guide and
keep me on the correct path and allowing me to carry out my project at their esteemed
organization and extending during the training and Mr. Rahul Sharma (Organization Guide)
for the industrious guidance, help, and encouragement to accomplish this assignment.

I am extremely thankful and pay my gratitude to Dr. Niharika Gaan (Faculty Mentor) for her
valuable counsel and support on completion of this project in its presently.

I perceive as this opportunity as a big milestone in my career development. I will strive to

use gained skills and knowledge in the best possible way, and I will continue to work on their
improvement, in order to attain desired career objectives.

I also acknowledge with a deep sense of approbation, my gratitude towards my parents and
members of my family, who have always supported me morally, emotionally and
economically.

At last but not least gratitude is extended to all my friends who directly or indirectly helped
me to complete this project report.

Any omission is this brief acknowledgment does not mean a lack of gratitude.

Thanking You

Dhananjay Ketkar

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 Executive Summary

GMI Research is a market research and consulting firm which provides research-based Insights
for business administrators and investment experts with the goal that they can settle on the right
business and venture choices quicker dependent on genuine insights. The Company helps
business pioneers through autonomous fact-based insights, guaranteeing their business makes
progress by beating the challenge.

The company provides syndicated research report, customized research, and sales enablement
Research, data analytics and KPO (knowledge process outsourcing) service for Electronics &
Semiconductors, Information Communication and Technology, Energy & Power, Healthcare,
Automotive, Transportation & Logistics, and Chemical industries.

The main objective of this project is to redefine the existing system and processes to increase
the business outcome and customer satisfaction, since GMI Research is reconstructing the
Business Development Team so this project will help the company to make the strategies for
the business development department to increase the revenue as well as the level of customer
satisfaction. Business Development team is not only responsible to find new clients but also to
maintain the relations with them in any possible way because most of the time the revenue is
generated through the repeat client.

The immediate project objectives were to:

• Understand the functioning of International business development division in terms of

processes and system.
• Add value proposition to the existing system and process through market entry plans,
and promotional strategy for research and consulting services.
• Redefine the existing system and processes to increase the business outcome and
customer satisfaction.
 To achieve these objectives, a series of methods were implemented. The steps
involved were as follows:
 Learning sessions with the Management and research analyst to understand the
existing system and the value proposition of the company.
• Understanding Lead life cycle.

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 • Understanding CRM Tools and Actuarial research.
• Understanding the process of Liaising with the companies which plan to settle in one
of the countries where GMI Research work in and assist companies in Finding new
prospects and Assisting GMI Research management to propose and implement
consulting solutions for these companies
• Understanding how to create and develop relationships with key decision makers and
other executives in the target organizations / Industries to foster the end to end
business development.
• Learning to create various reports like RFP, RFQ etc.
• Learning how to create and maintain a database of prospective leads & customers.
• Creating Strategies for the Promotion of the company and to build and acquire clients
across multiple industries for research and consulting services.

In this project, the basis of the collection and analysis of data were the past records of the
company and the current market scenario which provided an elaborate idea about the market
research industry. Also it was very important to know the functioning of International business
Development division in terms of processes and system to find the loophole so on the basis of
the survey we will find out the advantages and disadvantages of each and every process which
are being followed in the company and During the designing of new strategies for international
business development and customer satisfaction various parameters are to be considered
including Current market trends, employee reviews’/feedback, etc. Based on the analysis of the
compiled data, the best strategies will be formulated.

Apart from the above mentioned tasks, In GMI Research I got an opportunity to be the team
lead and I am responsible for handling the team of Three which gives a unique experience and
learning opportunity to me, I am also responsible for coordinating with pre-sales and research
teams for data and for sharing relevant documents/reports.

This project will help me to understand the functions of business development team along With
the process of the formation of strategies and competitive policy of the company. This Project
will help us to understand how to fulfil the needs of customers and by communicating with
them we can find the level of customer satisfaction. Our main aim is to identify Customers’
needs and provide them with the best solutions in the given timeline.

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 Contents
Page No.
Acknowledgement ……………………………………………………………………………. 04
Executive Summary………………………………………………………………………….... 05
Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………………….... 07
List of Figures…………………………………………………………………………………. 08
List of Abbreviations………………………………………………………………………….. 09

I Introduction
1.1 Company Profile………………………………………………………………... 11
1.2 Project Details…………………………….…………………………………….. 19
1.3 Benefits of the Project…………………………………………………………... 19
1.4 Literature Review………………………………………………………………...20
1.5 Overview of the Market Research Industry……………………………………....22

II Modus Operandi & Analysis

2.1 What is lead……………………….………………………………….…………. 26
2.2 Lead Management………………………………………………………………. 26
2.3 Lead Status ……………………………………………………………………….31
2.4 Inbound Sales ……………………………………………………………………32
2.5 Outbound Sales…………………………………………………………………..33
2.6 Email Marketing Campaign……………………………………………………...35
2.7 Customer Satisfaction…………………………………………………………....36

III Result & Suggestions...……………………………………………………………... 38

IV Conclusion
4.1 Key Takeaways from Internship……………………………………………........42
4.2 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………. 43
References……………………………………………………………………………………..44

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 List of Figures

Figure No. Description Page No.

1 10 largest market research companies in world 23

2 Lead Management 26

3 Lead Qualification 28

4 BANT analysis 28

5 Inbound Sales Steps 32

6 Difference Between Inbound and Outbound sales 34

7 Email Marketing Process 36

8 Process 1 39

9 Process 2 40

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 Abbreviations

1. Ms.: Miss

2. Mr.: Mister

3. BD Business Development

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Chapter 1: Introduction

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1.1 Company Profile

GMI Research is a market research and consulting firm which provides research-based
solutions to business executives and investment professionals so that they can make right
business & investment decisions faster based on real facts. We help business leaders through
independent fact-based insight, ensuring their business achieve success by beating the
competition.

The company was established on 23rd Sep 2015 by Mohammad Shahid and has its head
office in Gurgaon, Haryana and also has its presence in Europe.

GMI Research's leadership team with extensive experience in research and consulting
together with our research and domain expertise creates a strong value proposition to create
solutions that addresses our client’s business problems and add significant value to long
lasting relationship.

The company provides syndicated research report, customized research, sales enablement
research, data analytics and KPO (knowledge process outsourcing) service for Electronics &
Semiconductors, Information Communication and Technology, Energy & Power,
Healthcare, Automotive, Transportation & Logistics and Chemical industries.

Our analysts and consultants who are passionate about research and consulting are recruited
from renowned local and global universities and have worked with the leading local and
international organizations.

Vision of the Company:

To be among the top-rated market research & consulting firm which is trusted by its clients &
partners by delivering excellence in our work by integrating technology & innovation

Mission of the Company:

To meet global standards for market research& consulting, that will delight customers through:
 Focus on Superior Quality Work
 Building Strong Customer Base
 Innovative Services
 Cost Efficiency

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Values of the Company:

At GMI Research, the work is guided by following fundamental beliefs:

 Customer
At GMI Research, the customer comes well beyond all that they do. They always strive
hard to do a better job for them.
 Integrity
They practice this on an everyday basis to form collaborative, long-lasting, and
mutually rewarding relationships with their customers.
 Quality
We endeavor to deliver high quality work to meet and surpass our customers desires
with the goal that our customers can settle on troublesome business choice.

Services of the company

 Syndicated Research

The company’s Syndicated reports provides actionable insights and covers industry
trends, market drivers & restraints, macroeconomics factors, market estimates &
forecasts, competitive landscape etc. which helps the clients to strengthen its market
position by deploying specific strategies and actions that will lead to higher growth.

The company leverages its industry expertise and experience to identify the industry
trends, big opportunities and potential growth areas for research across industries such
as the Electronics & Semiconductor research, Information & Communication
Technology, Energy & Power, Automotive, Transportations & Logistics, Healthcare
research, Chemicals and Banking research & Finance research.

 Market and Competitive Intelligence

GMI Research’s solutions offers in-depth market and competitive intelligence by

leveraging its industry knowledge and experience to provide accurate insights with a
complete picture of the market and competition so that the client can make prudent
business decisions which results in high growth for the clients.

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 Knowledge Services

GMI Research provides offshore market and competitive intelligence research services
to companies worldwide. We leverage our industry knowledge and research expertise
gained through various research studies conducted across verticals which enables us to
deliver high level quality support to clients.

Knowledge Service include:

o Market & Competitive Intelligence Solution

o Market Intelligence
o Competitive Intelligence
o Company Profiles
o Business Development and Sales Support
o ReportingSupport
o Investment and Financial Research Solutions
o Equity Research
o Buy Research
o InvestmentBanking
o PE/VC and Corporate Finance

 Data Analytics

The company has a dedicated team of professionals who specialize in advanced

analytics tools and techniques with deep domain expertise which helps our client’s
senior and middle management to solve challenging business problems. We cater to
companies across different industries and sectors such as Information Technology,
Financial Services, Insurance, Pharmaceuticals & Healthcare, Energy & Power, CPG
& Retail.
These services include:

o Marketing Effectiveness
o Customer Management
o Risk Management
o Social Media Analytics

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  Emerging Markets

The companies Emerging Markets practice tracks the markets and creates knowledge
through research and disseminates it for practical application for the companies that
seeks to leverage the opportunities offered by these growth markets.

The Emerging market practice aim is to provide research publications and data sets for
various sectors in these high growth markets and provides the client with deep dive
insights which not only helps them to develop strong market strategy but also helps
them to win in emerging markets. The Emerging market research is useful for
companies which are ready to enter into the new country or market and also for existing
companies which want to stay ahead of the competition.
The Emerging Markets research team produces research and data sets across the main
global emerging markets in Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin
America.

 Company Profiles

The company has developed a range of company profiles solution to meet the client’s
specific business requirements irrespective of their role and the industry they operate
in. The company profiles solutions fit into the client's business requirements because it
provides the clients with a broader choice of profiles.
The standard profile coverage includes analysis of a company which includes company
background, key facts, key executives, detailed SWOT analysis, strategic objectives
and competitive positioning.

Focused Industry

• Automotive, Transportation & Logistics

GMI Research Automotive, Transportation & Logistics insights and intelligence helps
Automotive, Transportation & Logistics companies, financial & investment firms,
consulting & advisory firms as well as the suppliers by providing them with accurate
fact-based research so that they can make better business and investment decisions.

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The company tracks and covers Automotive, Transportation and Logistic industry,
including rail systems, automotive testing & diagnostics, passenger & commercial
vehicles, telematics & infotainment, powertrain systems, hybrid & electric vehicle,
Freight packaging and forwarding.
The Company provides comprehensive coverage of world’s established markets such
as North America and Western Europe and also provide in-depth coverage of high
growth markets of Middle-East, Brazil, Russia, India, China, Africa and APAC.

• Banking & Finance

The Global Banking & Financial sector has emerged from the financial crisis and
currently facing tighter and complex regulations, also the clients have become more
risk averse but at the same time, they are more demanding. The most important thing
for the industry is growth has returned and managers are looking out for new
opportunities, now the game has changed locally and globally and firms must find out
new ways to effectively increase profitability and margins.
GMI Research Banking & Finance insights help clients by showing them where the
business risk is most concentrated and also highlights new investment opportunities to
be tapped.
The company provide an in-depth report with comprehensive coverage of world’
established markets such as North America and Western Europe and also provide in-
depth coverage of high growth markets of Middle-East, Brazil, Russia, India, China,
Africa and APAC.

• Chemicals

GMI Research Chemicals insights and intelligence help chemicals companies, financial
& investment firms, consulting & advisory firms as well as the suppliers by providing
them with accurate fact-based research so that they can make better business and
investment decisions.
The Chemicals practice provides global & regional market research, industry analysis,
business research, market forecasts and insights into emerging and established markets
which assist our clients in addressing current trends and challenges.

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The company provides comprehensive coverage of world’s established markets such as
North America and Western Europe and also provide in-depth coverage of high growth
markets of Middle-East, Brazil, Russia, India, China, Africa and APAC.

• Electronics & Semiconductor

GMI Research Electronic & Semiconductor insights and intelligence help Electronic
& Semiconductor companies, financial & investment firms, consulting & advisory
firms as well as the suppliers by providing them with accurate fact-based research so
that they can make better business and investment decisions. Our Electronic &
Semiconductor practice tracks and covers Electronic Security Systems & Identification,
Electronic Devices, Consumer Electronics, Semiconductors, Automation, Display
Materials & Systems, Memory & Storage, Emerging and Next generation technologies.
Their Electronic & Semiconductor practice provides global & regional market research,
industry analysis, business research, market forecasts and insights into emerging
markets and technologies which assist our clients in addressing current trends and
challenges.
They provide comprehensive coverage of the world’s established markets such as North
America and Western Europe and also provide in-depth coverage of high growth
markets of Middle-East, Brazil, Russia, India, China, Africa and APAC.

• Energy & Power

GMI Research Energy & Power insights and intelligence helps energy
Companies, financial & investment firms, consulting & advisory firms as well as the
suppliers by providing them with accurate fact-based research so that they can make
better business and investment decisions.
Their Energy & Power practice tracks and covers non-renewables traditional markets
as well as high- growth renewable energy markets. In addition, it tracks and covers the
power industry from power generations to power distributions.
Their Energy & Power practice provides global & regional market research, industry
analysis, business research, market forecasts and insights into emerging markets and
technologies which assist our clients in addressing current trends and challenges. They
provide comprehensive coverage of world’s established markets such as North America
and Western Europe and also provide in-depth coverage of high growth markets of

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Middle-East, Brazil, Russia, India, China, Africa and APAC. The sectors they cover
Energy Harnessing & Power Generation, Power T&D, Conventional Energy.

• Food & Beverage

GMI Research Food and Beverage insights and intelligence help companies, financial
& investment firms, consulting & advisory firms as well as the suppliers by providing
them with accurate fact-based research so that they can make better business and
investment decisions.
Their Chemicals practice provides global & regional market research, industry analysis,
business research, market forecasts and insights into emerging and established markets
which assist our clients in addressing current trends and challenges. They provide
comprehensive coverage of world’s established markets such as North America and
Western Europe and also provide in-depth coverage of high growth markets of Middle-
East, Brazil, Russia, India, China, Africa and APAC.
The sectors they cover Food and Beverage Products, Food Ingredients and Additives,
Food Processing Equipment and Services.

• Healthcare

GMI Research Healthcare industry insights and intelligence help Healthcare

companies, financial & investment firms, consulting & advisory firms as well as the
suppliers by providing them with accurate fact-based research so that they can make
better business and investment decisions.
The Healthcare practice provides global & regional market research, industry analysis,
business research, market forecasts and insights into emerging markets and
technologies which assist our clients in addressing current trends and challenges.
They provide comprehensive coverage of world’s established markets such as North
America and Western Europe and also provide in-depth coverage of high growth
markets of Middle-East, Brazil, Russia, India, China, Africa and APAC.
The sectors they cover Pharmaceuticals, Medical Devices, Life Science & Healthcare
Services.

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• Information Communication Technology

GMI Research ICT insights and intelligence help ICT companies, financial &
investment firms, consulting & advisory firms as well as the suppliers by providing
them with accurate fact-based research so that they can make better business and
investment decisions. Our ICT practice tracks and covers mobile and wireless
communications, next generation’s network, smart grid and cities, machine to machine
technologies, devices and cloud markets.
The ICT practice provides global & regional market research, industry analysis,
business research, market forecasts and insights into emerging markets and
technologies which assist our clients in addressing current trends and challenges. They
provide comprehensive coverage of world’s established markets such as North America
and Western Europe and also provide in-depth coverage of high growth markets of
Middle-East, Brazil, Russia, India, China, Africa and APAC.
The sectors they cover: Hardware/Software & Service, Mobility and
Telecommunications.

• Metals & Minerals

GMI Research Metal and Minerals Industry practice supports stakeholders in mining,
metals & mineral domain with valuable insights into the market demand-supply trends,
industry & competition structure, regulatory environment and future market scenario
across all metals and mineral product categories and geographies. Their customized
services offer all stakeholders in the variety of studies which typically covers Market
Opportunity Assessment, Competition Profiling, Market Entry, Growth Strategies, and
Partner Profiling.
The sectors they cover Metals (Ferrous & Non-Ferrous), Industrial Minerals, Metals
and Mining Equipment.

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1.2 PROJECT DETAILS
In this project, these following aspects have been worked on to know about the following:

 Redefine the current practices used in business development division to improve the
business outcome in terms of revenue and customer base.

 Increase the value proposition of the current system and process through market entry
plans, and promotional strategy for research and consulting services.

1.3 BENEFITS OF THE PROJECT

• Learn about the role of the Business Development team in the organization.

• Learnt about the functioning of the research firms.

• Learning about the life cycle of lead.

• Learnt CRM Tools and Actuarial research.

• Learnt to create various reports like RFP, RFQ etc.

• Know more about the cultural differences in the world.

• Learnt Database handling

• Learnt about the different types of systems used in market research and consulting
industry.

• Coming up with ideas and suggestions regarding the changes that can be done to
promote particular report.

• Learnt to create strategies for the Promotion of the company and to build and acquire
clients across multiple industries for research and consulting services.

• Learning to meet deadlines &creating timeline, in order to present a hassle-free

implementation of the project objectives.

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1.4 Literature Review:

Business Development is the art of recognising possibilities turning them into business and
implementing growth strategies, leading to the creation of value for all the stakeholders
(employees, customers, partners, suppliers) of the company.

Prof. John Watters in his article ‘Using Marketing Research for International Business
Development’ states that To enter an international market, even a familiar one, without
conducting market research increases the risk of misunderstanding and miscalculating the
financial opportunity. This line shows the importance of market research for any company
and now a day’s companies are appointing 3rd party firms for the market research and
Mr. George Kuhn In his article” Benefits of Using a Third-Party Market Research Firm”
states the importance of using third party firm and mentioned the five benefits
“Confidentiality, Perspective, Time, Capabilities and Expertise

Business Development (BD) is very important for growth oriented organizations to further
their business objectives. It can have multiple benefits as such gaining competitive-edge,
market share increase, boosting their shareholder values, business sustainability and
profitability. It may also offer opportunities to establish strategic partnerships and alliances
with other companies and of vital importance for a business to continue to flourish.

In the article “The Importance of Business Development In a Small Business” Mr. John
Tucker explains about the business development, as per Mr. Tucker , Business
Development is an integrated strategic management of all of the areas of the operations
including market analysis (demand), product innovation (supply), as well as setting out the
vision for the pillars of said operational structure which includes that of finance (capital
and accounting), legal, human resources, supply chain, and vendor relations. Someone
operating from a business development framework would begin with a supply and demand
analysis, taking a look at what’s currently happening in the market and asking some of the
following questions:

• How can this industry be run better? What’s missing? What needs to be developed?
• What segment of the market isn’t being catered to?
• Whose issues and challenges within this market are not being solved?
• How can I create better products or a better process?

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 • How can I acquire new clients more profitably than competitors are?

As per outsource2india.com, Market research is the best way to increase customer

satisfaction, understand the factors that affect your business, and to elevate company’s
performance also With the economy becoming more and more competitive with each
passing day, having apt knowledge about the concerns and preferences of your customers
has become integral for any business and the reasons why market research cannot be
ignored are

• Market research can guarantee the success of your marketing campaigns, and in-turn
sales.
• Market research can help you keep a tab on your competitors.
• Market research can help you minimize loss in your business.

Ms. Anam Ahmed said Taking Stock of the Industry, Understanding Your Customers and
Competing Effectively and efficiently are the three main and important outcome of
business development in research industry in her article “Importance of Business Research
in Management Functions” for the most part, “sales” in and of itself is not business
development, as I believe that most sales activity will occur after a successful business
development foundation has been established. Said by Mr John

Developing strategies is the fourth step in the VMOSA (Vision, Mission, Objectives,
Strategies, and Action Plans). Developing strategies is the essential step between figuring
out your objectives and making the changes to reach them. Strategies should always be
formed in advance of taking action, not deciding how to do something after you have done
it. Without a clear idea of the how, your group's actions may waste time and effort and fail
to take advantage of emerging opportunities. Strategies should also be updated periodically
to meet the needs of a changing environment, including new opportunities and emerging
opposition to the group's efforts. (Tom Wolff / AHEC/Community Partners. (1993).)

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1.5 Overview of the market research industry

Market research exists to guide your business decisions by giving you insight into your
market, your competitors, your products, your marketing and your customers. By enabling
you to make informed choices, market research will help you develop a
successful marketing strategy.

Market research helps reduce risks by allowing you to get product, price and promotion
right from the outset. It also helps you focus resources where they'll be most effective.

You can also do desk research with existing surveys and business reports. Much
information is available online and from industry organisations, and some of it is free. This
information provides data on market size, sales trends, customer profiles and competitor
activity. Your customer records also provide a wealth of information, such as purchasing
trends.

For forecasting, it can help you assess key trends to anticipate how the market may change.
This is a vital step towards identifying new market segments, developing new products and
choosing your target market.

Market research needs to be a regular planned part of your strategy. Even as an established
business, you need to stay in touch with your customers' needs as well as market trends and
your competitors. It measures the effectiveness of your own marketing, giving you
information about attitudes to everything from packaging and advertising to brand
awareness.

Across all corners of the globe, quantitative research accounted for 81% of all spending,
while qualitative research held a 14% share, a decline of 1% on the year previous. The
remaining 5% of the market is distributed across other research methods.

Commenting on the market’s development, Finn Raben, Director General of ESOMAR,

said: “The industry continues to grow. We see growth both from within the traditionally
defined research sector, but also from the newer, expanded definition of our industry –
evidence that the demand for actionable, evidence-based data and insight remains strong.”

The US is the globe’s largest market for marketing research services, enjoying a 44% share

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of the worldwide industry. The UK's market share has declined in the past three years,
sliding from 17% to 14%, although turnover is still a quarter more than Germany and
France combined. The German and French markets represent respectively 6% and 5% of
the industry, followed by China, which saw its local market grow by 6% in the previous
year. The fastest growing regions are the Middle East, up 2.9% year on year, and Asia
Pacific, up 2.6% year on year. From a country perspective, Kazakhstan (19.9%), Myanmar
(13.8%) and Laos (13.7%) were the star performers.

Across all corners of the globe, quantitative research accounted for 81% of all spending,
while qualitative research held a 14% share, a decline of 1% on the year previous. The
remaining 5% of the market is distributed across other research methods.

Commenting on the market’s development, Finn Raben, Director General of ESOMAR,

said: “The industry continues to grow. We see growth both from within the traditionally
defined research sector, but also from the newer, expanded definition of our industry –

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evidence that the demand for actionable, evidence-based data and insight remains strong.”

The US is the globe’s largest market for marketing research services, enjoying a 44% share
of the worldwide industry. The UK's market share has declined in the past three years,
sliding from 17% to 14%, although turnover is still a quarter more than Germany and
France combined. The German and French markets represent respectively 6% and 5% of
the industry, followed by China, which saw its local market grow by 6% in the previous
year. The fastest growing regions are the Middle East, up 2.9% year on year, and Asia
Pacific, up 2.6% year on year. From a country perspective, Kazakhstan (19.9%), Myanmar
(13.8%) and Laos (13.7%) were the star performers.

Top rival Kantar, founded in 1993, is headquartered in London, UK, and employs around
30,000 employees. The firm is a subsidiary of WPP, one of the globe’s largest agencies for
advertising, public relations, media and market research. Kantar operates with several
brands in the market, including Kantar Health, Kantar Media, Kantar Millward Brown,
Kantar TNS, Kantar Retail and Kantar Public.

Quintiles IMS, formed by the $17.6 billion merger between Quintiles and IMS Health in
2016, is an American company that provides market research services to the health, pharma
and life sciences sectors. French-origin Ipsos, launched in 1975 in Paris, France, has offices
in 80+ countries, employing over 16,000 professionals. GFK has over 13,000 employees
globally, and generates most of its sales in Northern Europe, where it realizes nearly twice
as much revenue compared to North America. In July this year GFK sold four divisions
within its custom research business – Customer Experience; Experience Innovation;
Health; and Public Affairs – to Ipsos. As part of the deal, close to 1,000 GFK professionals
in 25 countries joined its rival.

The other companies that are among the globe’s ten largest market research firms are IRI;
a US market research company that focuses on the consumer packaged goods industry;
Westat, a US firms that supports agencies of the US Government, as well as businesses,
foundations, and state and local governments; Wood MacKenzie, a research and
consultancy firm for the energy, chemicals, renewables, metals and mining sectors; Intage,
a Japanese market research firm; and Dunnhumby, a UK-based customer science company
with over 2,000 experts in offices throughout Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas.

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Chapter 2: Modus Operandi
& Analysis

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2.1 What is a lead?

A lead, better to call sales lead is a person or business who may finally become a client. Sales
lead also refers to the information that recognises an entity as a potential customer of a
product or service. Companies obtain access to sales leads through direct mailings, third
parties, advertising and other marketing efforts.

2.2 Lead Management

In general Lead management is the

process of capturing leads, tracking
their activities and performance,
qualifying them, providing them
consistent attention to make them
sales-ready, and then transferring
them on to the sales team or we can
also say that Lead management is
the process of managing leads,
constantly and equally and as per
businessdictionary.com Lead
Management is the Complete process of tracking and managing sales leads (prospective
customers) from generation of leads to their conversion into sales and long-term
relationships. The data generated in this process is used in the measurement of the
efficiency of the marketing and sales efforts.

Lead capture

Lead capture usually refers to the act of capturing leads and in today’s world this process is
an automated process and known as Lead capture automation which means the leads should
get captured automatically in your system.

Lead capture also known as lead acquisition ensures that each lead is fetched into the
system directly from the point of origin and also ensure the prevention of any kind of lead
leakage. There is one more aspect of lead capture automation is there which is the ability
to automatically assess the point or sources generating the maximum amount of leads and
revenue for the company which makes very easy for the person to identify both – the high

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profit, and the money draining lead generation sources. The data which is obtained from
this process is very crucial for business intelligence and Marketing teams as they can re-
imagine their budget with the obtained information.

Lead Qualification

Lead qualification is the process of categorizing a qualified sales or marketing lead as a

customer who has been contacted and has engaged with your sales and marketing team, and
so is further along the sales process than other leads.

The method of concluding if a lead is qualified includes more than a single rule. The idea of
lead qualification differs from business to business, according to what they define as a
‘qualified lead’.

The following are the three common lead qualification standards used by GMI Research for
lead qualification.

1. Marketing qualified lead (MQL)

A Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) is a lead who has shown interest in something a brand
has to offer based on efforts made by the marketing team and While visitors and generic
leads are at the very top of your sales funnel, a marketing qualified lead is a little further
down the road to becoming a customer. MQL is a lead who has purposely engaged with the
brand by executing something like submitting contact details, opting for something,
Submitting an email address for a newsletter or mailing list, Using software demos, or
regularly visiting a website.

2. Sales Accepted Lead (SAL)

When the marketing qualified lead (MQL) is reviewed and passed to the sales team for the
approval than that is known as sales accepted lead (SAL) and on the basis of the lead’s
qualifications and interest levels, the lead will either be remarketed, discarded, or moved
onto the third level of qualification, Sales Qualification.

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Image courtesy: https://www.leadfuze.com/what-is-a-sales-qualified-lead-sql/

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 3. Sales Qualified Lead (SQL)

A Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) is a prospect that satisfies some conditions as defined by the
sales process. SQLs are middle of the funnel, having been qualified first by marketing or a
lead setting team, and are now ready to be moved to the next stage in the sales process.

Once the lead is confirmed as SQL then the sales team will now conduct a BANT analysis
before engaging in the sales call and closing the deal.

 Budget: In this step we check if the client have the budget or ability to spend for our
product?

 Authority: In this step we check if the potential lead have the authority to make a
purchase?

 Needs: Does the prospect client have an urgent business problem and pains to
address?

 Timeline: When is the lead looking to make a purchase?

Lead distribution

After capturing the leads, you need to pass them on to the relevant salespeople. The sooner
your sales reps contact the leads, the more likely they are to buy from you and for distributing
leads the company can set some rules which help the manager or the concerned person to
distribute the leads to the right territories and sales reps and by doing this the sales team can
prioritize their leads better.

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Lead nurturing

Lead nurturing is a marketing term for developing relations with potential clients even if
they are not currently looking to purchase a product. Lead nurturing is meant to raise a
company’s profile in the potential client’s eyes, thus presenting it more likely that the client
will go with the company’s product or service when it is time to buy. Lead nurturing is one
part of the larger marketing process.

In an ideal world, every lead would be one that turns into a customer. But, in reality not all
your leads are sales-ready. Some leads may not purchase at the time but that can very
easily change in the future. Some of them might never buy, but if you give them a good
experience in whatever they wanted from the company so the company have a brand
advocate for life.

The moment you know why a lead is not interested, you get an idea of how you can get
him interested. This category probably makes the largest portion of leads in your database.
The ones who are not immediately interested. Maybes.

These somewhat interested leads go into lead nurturing cycle and would come out from
there and passed along to sales whenever they become ready to be sold to.

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 2.3 Lead Status ( As per hubspot)

In the sales process, we don't have time to waste and we have to prioritize the leads and to
whom we should reach out to and when and by doing this we can track the current status of
the Lead very easily.

Each and every CRM have their own lead status terminology and by which we can segment
our leads based on previous sales activities and prioritize our outreach. The sales
representatives will be able to identify the leads in their funnel and ensure no leads fall
through the cracks due to lack of follow-up. You can also then nurture or remarket to
people who, at the moment, are not yet ready.

In Hub spot (CRM) the lead status are classified as

• New: These are leads you have not yet reached out to.

• Open: There are those leads which are open for all to contact

• In Progress: These are those leads with whom one of the sales team members are in touch.

• Open Deal: These are leads that have expressed interest in buying your product or service.
You've already opened a deal with them.

• Unqualified: Contacts may become unqualified for a number of reasons. These are leads that
may have told you they're no longer interested in moving forward or leads you've determined
aren't a good fit for your product. This status may also indicate an opportunity to send this
lead back to your marketing team for a remarketing campaign.

• Attempted to Contact: These are leads you have tried to reach out to but haven't been able to
successfully connect with yet.

• Connected: These are leads you've been able to make contact with but are not yet
opportunities. A lead with this status may still be waiting on a booked meeting with a
decision-maker on their team or may still be working to establish a budget.

 Bad Timing: This is the status in which the sales representative have called the client and
due to some reason, the client had denied to speak.

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 2.4 Inbound Sales

Inbound sales is a personalized, helpful, recent sales methodology. Inbound salespeople

concentrate on their client's pain points, act as a trusted consultant, and adjust their sales
process to the buyer journey.

The four actions which are Identify, Connect, Explore, and Advise, must be implemented by
inbound sales teams to covert qualified leads into becoming opportunities and eventually
customers.

Image courtesy: https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/inbound-sales-methodology

Identify:

This is one of the awareness stages of a buyer journey where In bound salespeople identify
potential clients who may have goals or challenges they can help with and convert these clients
from strangers to leads.

Inbound sales reps prioritize hot leads in a customer journey. The prime focus of the sales
reps should be on potential clients who previously engaged with the company’s website, or
engage in filling up some subscription form or responded to the email from a sales rep.

Connect:

This is the stage when the salespeople take actions to qualify leads and move through the
awareness stage to the consideration stage.

Once the sales people got sufficient information regarding potential clients then they connect
with leads and helps them to decide whether they should prioritize the challenges the clients
are facing and if the client decides to share the pain points, then the leads will become qualified

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leads.

In Connect Stage basically, we need to know about the client and awake their interest in your
product rather than try to sell it to them.

Explore:

In this stage, the qualified leads have already begun to engage with the salespeople.

Inbound salespeople explore their qualified leads then the salespeople will assess whether
their offering is a good fit for the clients and if the clients are a good fit for the company,
these qualified leads become opportunities.

Advice:

The leads are in this stage is in the decision phase.

Inbound salespeople will now advise prospects clients about why their products are best fits
for them.

The idea here is to transform the potential clients into customers. Potential clients want to
know how exactly your solution will help them. Thus, you need to demonstrate clearly why
your product is an answer to their challenges and gaps.

2.5 Outbound Sales

Outbound sales is a conventional form of sales in which an organization inducts an

association with potential clients. Broadcast and print advertising, billboards, telemarketing
and direct mail are all examples of traditional outbound sales. After leads are generated
applying these techniques, it has typically been the responsibility of a sales account
handler to follow up and develop business relationships with the clients.

With outbound sales, businesses pitch a broad net and expect to obtain clients by frequently
imposing their messages on them without knowing whether the clients require to receive
those messages. This is generally referred to as the "spray and prays" way of marketing,
where a company intrudes a person’s issue of activity in order to get his attention and
promote a message.

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User experience with outbound selling can be positive or negative for a business; outbound
selling can enhance brand awareness and attract more customers.

Image courtesy: https://www.redpandas.com.au/inbound-marketing-agency/

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2.6 Email Marketing Campaign

Email marketing is the targeting of buyers through Email.

Usually linked with data mining, email marketing can be
utilized to influence buyers in a variety of ways. Usually, email
marketing is a more emerged, digital form of conventional
direct mail marketing.

An email marketing campaign is an email address from business to one or more buyers or
prospective customers. A successful email marketing campaign will get the recipients to take
action, indulge with your business, and help you to get more leads and sales.

The two benefits of email marketing are price and ease. Emailing is an economical method
to promote the company and its products/services compared to other types of marketing.
With the help of some software and websites, it is very easy to set up and track an email
marketing campaign.

In GMI Research, they follow the "CRITICAL" factor of Email.

• Creative

Creative relates to the overall design of the email.

• Relevance

To send the relevant emails is very important. We make our emails relevant and
personalized to each recipient to attract the client.

• Incentive

Recipients look at emails and think "What’s in it for me??”. so always give some incentive
to the clients like a free subscription to a newsletter or some sort of discount.

• Timing

We must send the email by keeping the time and time zone, for example, we can't send
Email to the client in the USA when there is night so if we are sending mail to them we
must send them a mail at night (As per IST).

• Integration

Emails must be integrated.

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• Copy

When analyzing the copywriting for the email company must examine all aspects of the
language, from subject line through to your mail signature.

• Attributes

Attributes including the subject line and all other details. Should be examined once again.
This will reduce the chances of the mail going to SPAM.

• Landing Page

Always hyperlink the page where the company want to take the clients and make it quick
and easy. This will help the company to convert those emails into sales conversions.

Image courtesy: https://soffront.com/blog/email-marketing-tips-tricks/

2.7 Customer Satisfaction

Managing consumers’ satisfaction efficiently is one of the important and the biggest
challenge for the company. The instruments or techniques to measure consumer satisfaction
needs to be defined sophisticatedly to achieve the desired norms and success.

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Chapter 3: Result &
Suggestions

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In order to maintain the confidentiality, I can't share the details of the old system followed
in GMI Research but since the new system is designed by me so I got the permission to
share the overview of a new system designed by me with some limitation.

Process 1:

The new process of International Business Development starts with the Email Campaign
run by business development and pre-sales and once the campaign is live, the pre-sales
team will receive the data and consolidate that data.

The campaign is based on the specific report and runs in the specific area/ location and
after a few hours when the campaign is live the pre-sales team start receiving the data/lead
and they will share the leads after the consolidation of data with BD Team. BD Team will
then verify the data (i.e. BD Team will do lead qualification) and share the verified data
with data collation team for some other details like contact number etc.). Once the collated
data is shared with the BD Team, BD Team will distribute the leads between the Team
members for the further process. First, the team member will call the client and ask for an
appointment and will give a secondary call or will have a skype/face to face meeting with
the client and will pitch the product and after sharing quotation and doing negotiation the
call will be closed i.e. will sell the product to the client.

Process 2:

The 2nd process is for cold calling and Emailing, Once the report which is to be pitched is
decided by the BD Team, Pre Sales Team will extract the data for the specific report and
will share the data with BD team for verification. After Verification BD Team will share
the verified data with data collation team and once the collated data is shared with the BD
Team, BD Team will distribute the leads between the Team members for the further
process. First, the team member will make a cold call or send the cold Email.

The prospective client will either shown interest or will be very disinterested for
purchasing. Only if the client is interested we will share the sample and price quotation
and if required will negotiate for prices and once the price is negotiated the sale is done
and will share the product after receiving payment and making changes.

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Fig: Process 1

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Fig: Process 2

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Since I can’t disclose the increase in revenue of the company after implementing the new
system and process due to confidentiality but I can comment that after 1 month of the process
implementation the revenue growth of the company is in double-digit percentage.

After implementing the new systems, the client base of the company increased significantly.

For measuring the consumer satisfaction we used mix method of feedback collection. Along
with the emails we send to the client for the feedback we also call them personally to know
more about the report and area of improvement.

Along with the consumer feedback we also started to gather the personal information of the
client like Date of birth, Date of Anniversary etc. and we have started to send happy birthday/
anniversary emails etc. on their special occasion.

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KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM INTERNSHIP

The key learnings from this internship as a whole, in a broader sense are the
following:

 Understanding the role of the Business Development team in the organization.

 Learning about the functioning of the research and consulting companies.
 Understanding Lead life cycle.
 Learnt CRM Tools and Actuarial research.
 Learnt about the different types of systems used in market research and consulting
industry.
 Learnt to create and develop relationships with key decision makers and other
executives in the target organizations / Industries to foster the end to end business
development.
 Learnt to create strategies for the Promotion of the company and to build and acquire
clients across multiple industries for research and consulting services.
 Learnt to create various reports like RFP, RFQ etc.
 Learnt about the cultural difference in the world (Mostly In emerging markets)
 Learnt about managing huge database in Excel and worked on the advanced working
of the application.
 Learnt how to manage the team.
 Sticking to deadlines and preparing a timeline, right from the beginning to plan out
the tasks to be completed during the entire course of the internship.
 How to maintain the Confidentiality.

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CONCLUSION

GMI Research, being a start-up in market research and consultancy industry is now expanding
and they need some changes in the existing system and processes so the main objective of
this project is to redefine the existing system and processes to Increase the business outcome
and customer satisfaction along with the formulation of new strategies for the international
business development division.

During my valuable and insightful tenure of 10 Weeks with GMI Research as a summer intern,
I was able to relate the theories and other classroom learning with the project that I took up
during my Internship tenure. The key takeaways mentioned in the previous section are an
overview of my learning in this organization.

In GMI Research, I was also able to shape my leadership skills because I had the additional
responsibility to lead the team as a team leader and I was responsible for the team of 4.

Overall, my internship at GMI Research has been a success. I was able to gain practical skills,
work in a fantastic environment, and make connections that will last a lifetime. I could not be
more thankful. I wish and hope that these learning will be very useful for my future, where I
will be able to implement and make most of these learning.

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REFERENCES

1. http://www.novancia.fr/What-exactly-does-Business

2. www.gmiresearch.com

3. https://medium.com/raef-lawson/10-effective-business-development-strategies-plan-
c975891ca526

4. https://hingemarketing.com/blog/story/business-development-strategy-a-high-
growth-approach

5. https://www.bplans.com/business_development_business_plan/strategy_and_imple
mentation_summary_fc.php

6. https://bizdevonline.com/3-effective-business-development-strategies/

7. https://www.driveresearch.com/single-post/2017/01/12/Benefits-of-Using-a-Third-
Party-Market-Research-Firm

8. https://www.nav.com/blog/business-development-small-business-10384/

9. https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/structure/strategic-planning/vmosa/main

10. https://www.consultancy.org/news/59/global-market-research-industry-worth-76-
billion-top-10-companies

11. https://www.freshworks.com/freshsales-crm/lead-management-system/lead-
management-usecase-blog/

12. http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/lead-management.html

13. https://www.leadsquared.com/what-is-lead-management/

14. https://blog.hubspot.com/customers/manage-sales-process-hubspot-lead-status

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