BALAKRISHNAN KRISHNAN
74 RINGLET DRIVE, GREAT PARK, NEWCASTLE NE13 9ES
PHONE: +44 7799884957 EMAIL: KRISHBALA2@GMAIL.COM
PERSONAL SUMMARY
A highly accomplished Business Development Manager, responsible for implementing and developing marketing and sales strategies for Hotel Management Solutions across the Public and Private sectors. Exceptional management and communication skills with a passion for product and operational excellence, driving sales growth, implementing solutions and enhancing customer success. Strategic thinker, combining a wealth of deep international business and technical knowledge, sales processes and market trends to influence the execution of business requirements.
Key client relationships, developed at stakeholder level within the last two decades, to enable a broader perspective, collecting vital data insights to improve performance and ROI within the business. Proven manager of internal and external teams, prioritising workload and encouraging accountability within a group, promoting a growth mindset to enable swift and accurate delivery of sales. Incredibly influential with clients and proven sales career growing portfolios and identifying new opportunities.
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
• During 2005 THE HINDU (a National Daily Newspaper) team completed 100 special features on different editions, the first to ever do so in India.
• Won the 2006 national award, 24-carat gold coin and trip to Malaysia and Beijing for creating a new vertical related to non-advertiser industries and selling 4000+sq.cms per month of print within 6 months in response to the Tsunami.
• Significantly increased a hotel’s revenue from £140K to £260K for rooms booked and by £80K from a new restaurant business, creating an exclusive new Airbnb business securing £14K+ annually in 2018 and 2019.
KEY SKILLS
• Extensive understanding of B2B and B2C solution selling, providing business-orientated tools including business-critical technology, driving business intelligence, project and HR management.
• In depth international Market Research, Employee and Customer Experience sector knowledge.
• Significant leadership and mentoring capabilities, adept at inspiring the workforce and advanced culture change.
• Managing advanced relationships to support Business Development, Account Management and Sales Negotiations.
• Strategic expert, developing global sales processes to improve revenue and ROI.
• Developing national sales strategies, underpinned by significant project management ability.
• Exceptional communicator, with the ability to build trust and recognise the intentions of others.
• Notable negotiator, consistently able to garner results for the benefit of the business.
• Displays strong judgment at critical junctures, weighing all possible outcomes to choose the best course of action.
• Adept at Windows 10 OS, CRM systems (Salesforce), Microsoft Dynamics and MS Office 365 and SAP SD.
RELEVANT EMPLOYMENT
May 2017 – August 2022 NJ Group
Business Development Manager
• Reported to the Directors, providing strategic analysis and business consultancy to the Sales and operations team, driving growth of a new hotel management project, rates of occupancy and revenue through the successful acquisition of new clients including HMRC, Durham Council, NHS at Freeman, Royal Victoria Infirmary with annual targets £30K.
• Spearheaded strategic and tactical P&L activities to increase profitability, driving new business development by advancing channels through communication with directors, aligning strategy with promotions, identifying key adjacent markets such as competitors like Airbnb and using emerging channels Booking.com and Expedia.
• Maximised revenue by implementing distribution and pricing strategies for geographical and penetrative pricing.
• Formulated and executed key initiatives to drive sales and marketing activities within the Annual Operating Plan, concentrating on business management, forecasting, budgets, strategies, people and operations management.
• Developed new streams for long-term revenue growth through retention and repeat purchase.
• Identified areas for growth and created product-line roadmaps including new geographical areas, targeting promotions and attracting global markets for travellers and university students to help drive adoption of the product, researching customer feedback, in-depth analysis of key performance indicators.
• Conducted competitor analysis to keep up to date with market trends and competitor moves to achieve market share, identifying financially strong and reliable channel partners, resulting in deeper market penetration and reach, the introduction of 3 new sales channels on Booking.com, Expedia and direct sales, doubling the target markets to 6.
• Led a strategic review of customer segmentation, implementing brand positioning and communications strategies increasing loyalty and improving sales, recommendations, use of discount coupons and loyalty cards.
• Designed and implemented a target market strategy to increase state and city market shares in the UK and EU.
• Pioneered a new strategic planning process measuring KPIs, building a cohesive Business Unit.
• Managed product distribution to optimise channel functions and flow, direct and indirect channel partners.
• Identified and resolved issues with occupancy and pricing on channels, developing effective pricing promotions.
• Led digital marketing activities using FB and Google SEO.
• Managed a team of up to 28 staff on rotation including Site Supervisors and Project Management Team to ensure the effective operation of the hotel management business, managing performance, L&D and annual appraisals.
Key Achievements:
• Supported the successful growth of the new hotel management business increasing sales by 64% within 3 years.
• Increased revenue growth of rooms, restaurants and pubs, creating a £420K annual ROI.
• Grew revenues by £1.4K per house across 8 accommodations by realigning sales and marketing strategies.
• Increased review ratings from 7.8 to 8.5 out of 10, generating an additional channel contribution of 90%.
• Executed 12 projects including a new restaurant and pub, increasing rooms from 37 to 41, digital and operational transformations, buying 6 new properties refurbished and let for students with the solution and production deployment teams, yielding a successful annual turnover of £100K.
August 2007 – April 2017 RWE n Power
Analyst
• Developed and maintained performance reports, conducted regular reviews with Managers to ensure continuous improvement of management information, analysed team WIP, updated and appraised team targets, analysing root causes of failure to identify training needs.
1997 – 2007 THE HINDU (Daily Newspaper), India
Regional Manager (2004 – 2007)
Senior Advertisement Executive (2003 – 2004)
Advertisement Executive (2000 – 2001)
Senior Advertisement Officer (1998 – 2000)
Advertisement Officer (1997 – 1998)
Key Achievements:
• Increased the monthly revenue by £800K+ for 1 Metro’s portfolio exceeding targets by 100% YoY for 4 years.
• Grew the business by 100% through the introduction of 80+ new major accounts generating £5M+ within 1 year.
• Delivered first year’s gross profit on all editions of the retail segment by 42% above target.
• Recruited and hired 40+ Sales Executives and staff members within 16 Franchisees sales from 2003 to 2007.
• Created a quarterly marketing budget of £100K reporting on variances and deviations to the VP and CEO.
EDUCATION & QUALIFICATIONS
• 2022 Postgraduate diploma in Digital Marketing, MIT & Columbia Business school
• 2021 Leadership and Management course Level 7, CPD courses online
• 2021 Change Management, Wharton Business School
• 2000 PGDM International Trade and International Strategic marketing, SIMS
• 1998 MBA Marketing Management, Pondicherry University
• 1996 PGDM Sales and Marketing, Bhavans College of Communication Management
• 1995 Bachelors Degree in Chemistry, Madras University.
INTERESTS AND VOLUNTEERING
• Playing cricket for the first division league for Northumberland’s senior division.
• A trained mindfulness advocate, having trained 500+ individuals and group members.
• Holds a British passport and driving license.
REFERENCES AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST