Rainmakers, all: (Clockwise from bottom) Polaris' Govind Singhal, Primentor's Phaneesh Murthy, and i-flex's Rajesh Hukku

The newspapers labelled it one of Indian it's biggest deals. On November 7, India's pink brigade led with Wipro and TCS splitting an outsourcing deal (valued at $70 million, Rs 336 crore annually) from Wall Street firm Lehman Brothers. Infosys had been shortlisted, the reports went, but lost out on the "sales" front. "Surely," whispered Infy-trackers, "the Infosys selling machine couldn't be losing steam?" Some went far enough to attribute the loss to the still-recent departure of the company's head of sales and marketing, Phaneesh Murthy. Wicked, wicked, wicked. Actually, Infosys doesn't seem to have lost steam. Its results for the three months ended December 2002 show the addition of 23 new clients.

Still, the importance analysts at large give to individuals like Murthy isn't entirely misplaced. He belongs to an exclusive club of sales and marketing pros that keeps Indian software's gravy train going. Meet the $10 billion (Rs 48,000 crore) Indian software industry's rainmakers. Murthy's is a known name, as is Wipro Technologies' Santa Clara-based CEO Vivek Paul's, and i-flex's New Jersey-based CEO Rajesh Hukku's. Other names on the list-compiled after extensive interviews with the companies themselves some of which weren't sure whether they wanted to advertise their dependence on individuals (apart from being uncomfortable about naming clients and citing numbers), analysts, consultants, and head-hunters-are downright obscure. Not too many readers would have head of Satyam Computer's Ram Mynampati. Or Mphasis's Jeroen Tas. Even Rusi Brij, CEO, Hexaware and a former marketing whiz at Satyam-he once went in to negotiate a $2-million (Rs 9.6 crore) deal with an insurance firm and walked out with a $20 million (Rs 96 crore) one-isn't exactly famous.

That will change, says Sudha Kumar, CEO of strategic marketing consultancy Prayag who was herself once part of the famed Infosys selling machine as "more and more companies start to be led by the sales and marketing function".

Relationships lie at the core of the business of rainmaking. Hukku, for instance, is the man behind a several million dollar, 100-country contract i-flex won from Citibank. "At the end of the day," says he, "you are selling to a human being and the deal is entirely based on his comfort level with you".

Make no mistake: rainmakers need to be backed by efficient organisations and, more often than not, they are. "If the company doesn't back my promise of delivery, my personal relationship with the client becomes unsustainable," says Satyam's Mynampati.

In a move that could one day spell their own obsolescence, many of these execs are engaged in the process of institutionalising relationships. "The bigger you get, the more you want to institutionalise the relationship," admits Mphasis' Tas. Meanwhile, the business of rainmaking continues.

The CEO Rainmaker
VIVEK PAUL/ Vice Chairman, Wipro, and CEO, Wipro Tech

From his base in Santa Clara, California, Paul orchestrates Wipro's strategy: he is widely perceived to be the man behind the Wipro-Ericsson deal. Wipro acquired Ericsson's development centers in India-a logical acquisition for a company with significant expertise in telecom software-but not before Paul managed to wring out the commitment of some consulting assignments from the telecom major. While the actual deal-making and selling may be taken care of by others, and while his association in them may merely be a CEO's, there is no taking away from the fact that Paul's background-a MBA from the Univ of Massachussets, stints at PepsiCo, Bain & Co, and notably, GE-and location make him the ideal brand ambassador for Wipro Technologies. Rainmaking is all about being able to front a deal, speak the same language, business and cultural, as the customer and Paul's credentials on both fronts are impeccable.

Marque Seller, Selling Marque
PHANEESH MURTHY/ Founder, Primentor, & Former Head (Worldwide Sales & Marketing), Infosys

Infosys historians-there are several of the breed in Bangalore-will tell anyone who cares to listen that if there was one deal that made the company, it was the Nordstrom one. This was way back in 1994. Infy had yet to make a mark on the global scene, and the deal with the US-based fashion retailer gave it much-needed revenues and credibility. It also made the man who struck the deal, Phaneesh Murthy, a legend of sorts within the company. "It changed my life and the company's,'' says Murthy. ''It was the first business-critical deal we signed.''

Over the years, Infosys has pocketed some $20 million (Rs 96 crore) from Nordstorm in repeat business, not bad going for a company whose average client bills $2.36 million (Rs 11.3 crore). The consummate rainmaker, Murthy attributes his success to the ability to deliver, mostly outside the workplace, the "can't ignore it" kind of advice to customers. Value accretive relationships backed by knowledge and content, the man swears, are any day superior to purely social ones. Today, the man who applied the airline industry's yield-maximisation model to it services, offering differential pricing to customers depending on the future commitments they were willing to make, has tied up a year's business for his consulting venture Primentor. Who knows what may have transpired had he heeded his father's counsel and stayed back at Sonata Software instead of moving to then unknown Infosys?

The Method Player
GOVIND SINGHAL/ Executive Director, Polaris

The physics graduate from Delhi Univ is a consummate planner-he had a hand in creating Polaris' more structured-than-structured 28-step sales process-but he isn't above admitting the role of the intangible in netting business. "Relationship-building is a fine blend of art and science," he says, adding that several Requests for Proposal (RFPs) wouldn't make it to the company were it not for relationships. A lead player in Polaris' first big overseas deal-for Citicorp, circa 1997, and it became the template for all subsequent deals-Singhal is now focused on big-ticket deals that can help improve Polaris' average client billing of $0.60 million (Rs 2.9 crore), low by it industry standards. More deals like the several million dollar one he helped close with American insurance major AIG should help.

Star Catcher
RUSI BRIJ/ CEO, Hexaware

Even without the $2-million (Rs 9.6 crore) deal that became a $20 million (Rs 96 crore) one, Brij would have been a shoo-in for this listing. He was responsible for striking deals with GE, Tyco (yes, it was a respectable name then), and several other large clients in his 11-year stint at Satyam Computer. Now, he is leveraging relationships built over a 20-year career in software to make Hexaware, "the best player in two technology areas, PeopleSoft and Enterprise Application Integration." Last year, Brij signed on Germany's Deutsche Leasing as a long-term client, a deal whose initial value was Euro 22 million (Rs 101.7 crore). His run continues.

Getting There
BASAB PRADHAN/ Worldwide Head Of Sales, Infosys

It's not easy filling a company-legend's shoes, not when they come in Phaneesh Murthy's size, but Pradhan, a former HLL employee with the requisite IIT-IIM background is doing just fine. Analysts admit that while he may not be as aggressive as Murthy he seems possessed of greater intellectual depth. "He is a good thinker," says a co-worker, "and has the ability to look at the big picture unlike most sales people who live for the here and now". An old America-hand, Pradhan now drives Infosys' sales initiatives in over 30 countries and played a part in a recent big win (Chairman and Chief Mentor Narayana Murthy pitched in too), Aon Insurance. And yes, he plays golf. "Deals are often sealed on the greens," laughs Pradhan.

Network Neighbour
SUDIP NANDY/ Head (Europe), Wipro Technologies

The last deal this 44-year-old initiated was over beer at a weekend barbecue in London. Valued in the low teens ($12-14 million), the deal is likely to be finalised soon-and all because Nandy networked with a stranger over beer. Of that, networking, that is, the man promises to do more; he invests time in cricket matches, formula races, polo, and is learning to play golf-he has discovered a passion for it, and more importantly, four-to-five important execs at important customers play the game. "You need to know your sports to do well in it," jokes Nandy who, along with CEO Vivek Paul, worked on the $70-million (Rs 336 crore) order Wipro bagged from British utility Lattice. While he is all for creating occasions to build relationships, Nandy admits that there is a need to invest in building the Wipro brand in Europe. For the record, Nandy receives at least two calls from headhunters every week.

Organised Seller
JEROEN TAS/Vice Chairman, Mphasis BFL Group

His Dutch roots may have helped Mphasis bag one of its first big accounts, that of Dutch bank ABN-Amro in 1999, and he admits that the deal that made the company-JP Morgan Chase-was initiated "director-to-director" but Tas likes to think beyond his Rolodex. His logic: personal relationships may be crucial at take-off, but over time, the market forces companies to look beyond them. "The more the brand stands on its own," he says, "the less important personal relationships become." So, the 38-year-old Tas is currently engaged in making the 30-people strong sales and marketing function at Mphasis, more process- than individual-oriented. But he will continue to personally interact with the company's biggest clients-JP Morgan Chase, Charles Schwab, HSBC, and Citigroup.

The Quiet Stranger
SRINJAY SENGUPTA/ Regional Manager & Associate VP (Europe Sales), Infosys

Infosys' European sales operation is headed by a man who fits in well with the continent's down-stated business culture that discourages strident, overt selling of the kind its ally across the Altantic seems to prefer. The move seems to have worked for Infosys-Sengupta was responsible for bagging a prestigious order from retailer Sainsbury and has managed a five-year-old relationship with Belgium's Proximus Belgacom Mobile, which has seen the company emerge one of Infosys' top clients. Sengupta spends between 30 per cent and 40 per cent of his time on clients-"hunting" for new ones, and "farming" existing ones in his own words. The former P&G-pro has a two-P maxim to crack difficult deals, persistence and perseverance. "It is very easy to give up," he says. "You need to be internally tough.'' Clearly, Sengupta is all that.

A Passion For The Business
RAJ SIROHI/ President & CEO, HCL Technologies, America

Sirohi is the master of the two-minute advertorial, the kind of spiel one gets to give CEOs, COOs, CFOs, or CIOs of prospective clients at chance encounters-a quick greeting, a firm shake of the hand, the delivery of the 120-second pitch that impresses the prospect with the speaker's knowledge of the industry and sets the ground for a business meeting. That requires knowledge of companies and the industries in which they operate, something Sirohi looks for in his team-members. "We look for discipline in our front-line teams," he says. "People need to do their homework diligently."

The discipline to understand companies, verticals, and pain-points, issues of concern for every company. It was by identifying the pain-point of time-to-market that Sirohi recently struck a $20-million (Rs 96 core) deal with a billing solutions company in the US. And he recently spearheaded the sales effort to strike a $12-million (Rs 57.6 crore) deal with a US lottery company. The client wanted to find a company that could run all its operations on proprietary software backed by seven support centres across the world. "We did a business study and sold them the idea of imploding the number of support centres from seven to three," says Sirohi. "One of them will be in India.''

But don't write the man off as a selling machine sans emotion: Sirohi believes his edge comes from a passion for the job. And so, he plays golf, follows the NFL, sits through tennis tournaments, and sells, sells, sells. Some of that urge to, well, sell, comes from a belief that a salesperson is only as good as his last quarter.

Street-Smart Vendor
RAJESH HUKKU/Chairman & Managing Director, i-flex

The one-time trainee programmer at Tata Consultancy Services now heads one of the world's most respected (and one of India's hottest) banking and financial services software products company.

Hukku is keenly aware of the power of relationships in the software business. Repeat business accounts for more than 50 per cent of i-flex's revenues- Hukku himself sold one of the company's products, Microbanker, to HDFC Bank in 1995, and has since managed to convince the bank to become the first buyer of Flexcube (a newer i-flex product), and i-flex's internet banking solution. "If the first contract with HDFC Bank was for x," gushes Hukku, "we have sold them products worth Rs 16x over seven years.''

Hukku also front-ended i-flex's recent 100-country, $100-million (Rs 480 crore) deal with Citibank-it was two-and-a-half years in the making and had its beginnings in a chance meeting Hukku had with a Citi exec at a seminar.

Hukku's rainmaking extends beyond merely landing new business. As CEO, it is his job to stay on the right side of industry analysts such as the Gartners, the IDCs, and the Gigas of the world. "You could be capable of constructing the Taj Mahal, but if they don't know about it, it's of no use." Thanks to him, they do.

In his 44th year, Hukku has finally taken to golf, a game most other rainmakers featured in this article swear by. ''I won't need to work too hard on it,'' he says. "After all, you are supposed to lose to clients.''

The Organisation Man
RAM MYNAMPATI/ Vice President & COO, Satyam

His first love quotient is very high," says an associate of Ram Mynampati. Great first impressions are only to be expected of a man who spends 10 hours preparing for a one-hour meeting. Mynampati may believe in the power of the CMM certification (issued by Carnegie Mellon Univ's Software Engineering Institute and Satyam has the highest rating, Level 5), or the opinion of independent research firms like Gartner in swinging deals, but admits that ultimately all these are just add-ons to the real selling process, one that is largely driven by word-of-mouth. Still, Mynampati believes relationships can only be as good as the quality of delivery. Thus, the relationship may be individualised, but "the individual represents an organisation". The mixture of the hard and the soft seems to be working for Mynampati-he spends close to 80 per cent of his time with clients, existing and prospective. In late 2002, Satyam bagged a large offshore contract from a US company that shortlisted 28 companies at the first stage, and two, at the second. "We became their consultative partner," says Mynampati, who advised the prospect on best practices in vendor selection. That must surely rank as a first.