Sugandha Verma
Summary
Strategic Sales and Business Development Leader with 20 years of experience accelerating revenue growth, deepening client relationships, and delivering customized solutions across the Market Research and Technology sectors. Proven track record of unlocking new business opportunities and upselling services.
Adept at engaging C-suite stakeholders, leading cross-functional teams, and building trusted partnerships that drive repeat business. Turning client engagements into long-term revenue streams.
A passion for continuous learning and development fuels the drive to stay ahead in a dynamic marketplace.
Overview
21
21
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
General Manager - ASEAN
Focus Insights
01.2024 - 05.2025
- Built and managed a business of $500,000 in the first year of launch.
- Won business from two startups to conduct research for their new products.
- Built relationships with key clients to upsell, cross-sell research solutions, and gain customer satisfaction, leading to repeat business.
- Delivered workshops, presentations, and thought leadership pieces to embed insights into client business.
- Educated the SMEs to adopt research to guide their business decision-making.
- I wrote a thought-leadership piece using social listening and Usage and Attitude results, which were posted on LinkedIn by a large nut industry body in Australia.
Director Insights
Kantar Group
06.2023 - 12.2023
- Engaged a large bank for a regional business with multiple local market stakeholders to deliver monthly and quarterly brand health reports.
- Enjoyed a high NPS score for delivering reports with clear insights and strategy
Director Insights & Analytics
Coca Cola Pte Ltd
11.2021 - 05.2022
- Built platform dashboards for various teams to facilitate monthly sales meetings.
- Simplified and using various sources of data, such as customized research, panel research, and internal sales data.
Short Term Contract
Shiseido Pte Ltd
07.2021 - 10.2021
- Engaged sales and brand marketing teams with consumer Insights and market intelligence on Shiseido brands and travelers across the world.
- Enjoyed high engagement and usage of insights in the business
Customer Success
Trax Retail Singapore
09.2018 - 07.2019
- Contract renewal, upselling, building and sustaining global client relationships to deliver Trax shopper insight solutions and sustain growth in renewals.
- Building adoption, advocacy for deepening Trax solutions
Director
Nielsen Consumer Neuroscience Singapore
03.2016 - 08.2018
- Increased the revenue from $50,000 to over $1,000,000 in the first year of joining. Drove a 10% increase in year-over-year sales in the subsequent year through enhanced communications.
- Authored and presented high-impact thought leadership to over 100 client stakeholders, resulting in long-term repeat business.
- Cultivated and coached a team of 6, for their professional growth, neuroscience solution usage, and sales.
Director
Kantar
05.2004 - 02.2016
- Increased Kantar Worldpanel revenue by 20% with key clients by introducing new, expert solutions.
- Built strong trust with clients leading to increased spend with Kantar at the expense of competition
- Increased the business from $100,000 to $1,000,000 for a semi-government client in 1 year
- Won the 'Best Proposal' award within Kantar, in competition with five other teams. The proposal was priced higher than the competition and won the business.
- Engaged CXOs, marketing/sales directors, to deliver insights for tactical, strategic, retail, and shopper-led research.
- Conducted workshops for the client by synthesizing competitor insights as a value add.
- Mentored and led a team of 10 (multi-level) for the day-to-day management of projects.
Education
MBA - Marketing and Operations
Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies
01.2004
Bachelor of Science - Statistics, Mathematics and Computer Science
DR BR Ambedkar University
India01.2002
Skills
- Business development
- Consultative sales
- Strategic negotiation
- P&L management
- Revenue growth strategies
- Stakeholder engagement
- Executive interaction
- Team leadership
- Presentation delivery
- Workshop facilitation
- Analytical skills
- Thought leadership
Tools Used
- Salesforce
- JIRA
- Netsuite / Sharepoint
- SPSS / Reporter
- Power BI
- Proprietary platform tools in Focus Insights, Kantar Worldpanel
Personal Information
Date of Birth: 12/28/80
Certification
- AWS and Google Cloud Practitioner, 09/01/20
- AWS Cloud Practitioner, 09/01/2020
- Google Cloud Practitioner, 09/01/2020
- SQL learning through Udemy, 01/01/19
- Short Executive Course: Big Data Analytics and Machine Learning, NUS, 11/01/19
- Short executive course on social media and analytics, Northwestern University, 10/01/19
- Negotiation skills certification, Harvard curriculum, 01/01/17
- Client engagement and workshops certification, PHUEL, 01/01/15
Experience In Techniques
- Behavioural science: neuroscience, purchase behaviour (home-panel), longitudinal tracking of consumer interaction with the brand
- Retail and shopper: Pack, shelf design, decision hierarchy, price, and promotion, shopper equity
- Consumer research: brand and equity health tracking, equity tracking, concept - product testing, segmentation, brand and communication testing, channel and touchpoint analysis, pricing
Achievements
- Focus Insights: Built strong engagement with a host of SMEs to start using research for their decision-making and become their preferred partner
- Coca-Cola delivered more than 80% of deliverables through self-serve and scalable solutions to drive insight within three months of joining, building credibility for the team
- Trax saved the biggest account, Large Pharma, and converted it into a multi-year contract within 7 months
- Nielsen increased the revenue from $50,000 to $1,000,000 within the first year
- Kantar increased the client's sales by 2% for a key beverage giant
- Kantar improved the relationship between Kantar Worldpanel, converting from distrust to 'preferred partnership' in one year
Timeline
General Manager - ASEAN
Focus Insights
01.2024 - 05.2025
Director Insights
Kantar Group
06.2023 - 12.2023
Director Insights & Analytics
Coca Cola Pte Ltd
11.2021 - 05.2022
Short Term Contract
Shiseido Pte Ltd
07.2021 - 10.2021
Customer Success
Trax Retail Singapore
09.2018 - 07.2019
Director
Nielsen Consumer Neuroscience Singapore
03.2016 - 08.2018
Director
Kantar
05.2004 - 02.2016
MBA - Marketing and Operations
Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies
Bachelor of Science - Statistics, Mathematics and Computer Science
DR BR Ambedkar University
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