GM, Marketing & Growth
Markets aren't found.
They're made.
I'm Ravishankar R, a sector-agnostic sales and marketing practitioner. For 28 years I've built markets from scratch: dealer networks across India, export channels from the Middle East to East and West Africa, product lines from tires to industrial motors. I write about sales, marketing and growth for people who want to build things that last.
0+
years in sales & growth
0+
markets entered worldwide
0%
peak regional market share, vs a 50% target
0+
part export range built for Tenneco India
The Journey
The products kept changing.
The craft never did.
1997
Freight
The first territory
Junior sales executive at a freight company in Chennai. Monthly targets, door to door. The fundamentals never left.
The Journey
The products kept changing.
The craft never did.
1997The first territory
Junior sales executive at a freight company in Chennai. Monthly targets, door to door. The fundamentals never left.
1998Selling Tata cars
Sales executive at Concorde Motors and VST Motors, Tata Motors dealers in Chennai. Cars sold month after month, and penetration pushed into upcountry Tamil Nadu.
2001Branch head at Tata Hitachi
Beat JCB to a first-ever institutional sale and held 80% excavator market share against a 50% target.
2005Into export markets
Head of exports for APAC at MRF, India's largest tire maker. A new product for Singapore's container segment, and entry into Indonesia.
2006Into Europe with Rane
Head of exports at Rane Brake Lining. Opened Turkey and Tunisia, introduced CVDP for Europe's trucks and trailers, and signed the first OEM customer at TMD Germany.
2013General Manager, UNIMO (UCAL Group)
Eight years building export lines: a 500-part range for Tenneco India reaching the EU, UK, Italy and beyond.
2022 – PresentMarketing & growth leadership
GM of Marketing & Growth at LEDL Motors. Dealer networks across India, market entry into the Middle East and East and West African regions, and a brand built nearly end to end.
How I Build Markets
Not theory. Three decades of doing it, in India and abroad.
Market entry, from zero
Surveys, positioning, export pricing built backwards from the shelf, and channel margins that keep partners loyal. This is how Turkey, Tunisia, Indonesia, the UAE and markets across Africa were opened.
Dealer & distributor networks
Networks are built face to face. Appointing the right partners, training their teams, and standing beside them until the market holds its own.
The SSS framework
Sense, Serve, Strengthen: my own execution framework. Sensing opportunities, customer needs and market demand, serving with the right solutions that create value, then strengthening relationships through support and feedback.
Brand & digital growth
A B2B e-commerce portal launched with developers, SEO-led discovery, WhatsApp and Razorpay in the lead flow, and CRM discipline across every sales funnel.
Global Reach
Markets opened, entered or grown.
India· Sri Lanka· UAE· Russia· Iran· Bangladesh· South Africa· Senegal· Conakry· Ethiopia· Kenya· Tanzania· UK· Italy· Germany· Turkey· Tunisia· Belarus· Singapore· Indonesia· Australia· EU
Still a Student
The engineering degree came first. The business analytics diploma came 26 years into the career. Learning never stopped in between.
1993 – 1997
Bharathiar University
BE, Mechanical Engineering
2002 – 2004
XLRI Jamshedpur
PG Certification, Business Administration
2020 – 2022
Tamil Nadu Physical Education & Sports University
Master of Science
2022 – 2023
BITS Pilani (WILP)
PG Diploma, Business Analytics
“Stay until the market
holds its own.”
Ravishankar R
Here to compare notes.
Salespeople, marketers, anyone curious about how markets get built. If something here made you think, write in.
Connect