Business development in the tech industry is especially exciting as it revolves around understanding a client’s business, and the products have a direct impact on the client’s company and its operations.

Paolo Roque, Sarah Alvaro and John Rulloda, members of the B2B business development team in SRPH, share their insights on what makes their role interesting and how they make sure that their clients’ needs are met.

Describe what you do in SRPH

[Paolo Roque] I help clients by introducing new technologies, which can help them address their current business challenges and needs. I also provide product knowledge, as a Subject Matter Expert, of Samsung B2B solutions to internal and external clients in Southeast Asia and Oceana. I serve as a technical consultant to clients on enterprise solutions. Another significant part of my role is to look for new business opportunities within and outside Samsung for possible collaborations with Samsung subsidiaries, Samsung partners and external clients on process improvements, new product releases and technical workshops, to contribute to the company's growth.

[Sarah Alvaro] I am a Regional Technical Account Manager (Business Development). I provide provides technical consultation services to local subsidiaries within the Southeast Asia & Oceania (SEAO) region, and our team is primarily involved in finding, generating and supporting local business project opportunities.

[John Rulloda] As a B2B Pre/Post Sales Engineer, we do collaborate with the sales teams and act as their technical specialists during presentations and demos. After a customer purchase, we cater to after-sales needs and support them on any problems encountered on the availed product.

To you, what is business development?

[Paolo] Business development is finding ways to grow the business through innovation, continuous improvement and collaboration with different channels.

[Sarah] For me, business development is all about figuring out how to create opportunities for growth and how to utilize potential over an extended period of time by knowing your customers/partners, markets and establishing strong business relationships with them.

[John] Business development for me means the use of processes and strategies to create and increase opportunities either within or between companies. Business development can create a long-term value for a business by way of partnerships.

What makes business development for Samsung interesting?

[Paolo] Business development is particularly interesting in R&D because you get to see both the technical and business points of view. Today, we have many new technologies and it is exciting to address the challenges experienced by the clients by providing the right solution for their different business needs. Being part of Business Development gives me the opportunity to have firsthand experience of advanced technologies in various industries and work with key decision makers of different companies. It's fulfilling to know that we are able to help many customers through Samsung solutions developed by SRPH.

[Sarah] You get to meet and interact with people you would otherwise never encounter because of Samsung’s global reach – and since SRPH covers more than 20 countries/territories within Southeast Asia and Oceania, there is always the challenge of interacting with customers with varying levels of technical knowledge.

[John] Business development on Samsung extends globally. So apart from the people we interact with and the challenges we encounter locally, we are also given the chance to extend our network globally.

How do you strike the balance between what clients want and what developers can offer?

[Paolo] We focus on the solution that actually address the client's needs versus the features or technologies that are "nice to have". By hearing the voice of the customer, understanding their challenges and educating them on the appropriate solution to their business needs, we achieve that balance.

[Sarah] This sounds cliché, but it differs from case-to-case. There are several factors to be considered, for example: time, cost, technologies, and developer’s expertise, and for particular cases, changes on a global scale also have an impact. What is imperative is whenever these instances occur, we should properly convey the technical information into terms that are easily understandable in order to identify a common ground that would be acceptable to both the clients and the developers.

[John] As a pre-sales engineers, we should always look to meet customer expectation without overcommitting. Proper scoping is needed to know their requirements and to gauge if we can fulfill them. We do give them workarounds if needed but we are not afraid to say no if the requirements are already beyond the capability of the product/developers.

In your opinion, how can developers create software that will surely be useful to clients?

[Paolo] Developers should focus on understanding the need of the customer and addressing their challenges. Developers don't need to come up with high-tech solutions. What is more important is developing a software that is simple but efficient and directly impacts the client's business.

[Sarah] KYC – know your customers. Familiarize oneself on the industry, the trends and how current/existing software can be improved upon. Be an influencer instead of a follower.

[John] By studying the current trends. Developers should always stay up-to-date - for example, they can use the current situation of the customer as a basis for new software development as customers tend to look for a solution that can help them on their current problems.

Join SRPH! Send your CVs to rnd.hr@samsung.com