Ajay Dubedi is the CEO and Founder of global sales and digital marketing agency Propel Guru. We caught up with Ajay to discover how the pandemic has impacted his day-to-day life and the more extensive business.
Please describe your job: What do you do?
At Propel Guru, we strive to transform how people discover and experience email marketing, lead generation, digital marketing, and web development. Our goal is to be the trusted guide and catalyst for growth and engagement, helping our clients optimize digital marketing performance by creating and rapidly adapting lead generation & email marketing campaigns and experience the best of SEO and SMO advertising.
As the CEO and Founder of Propel Guru, I’m in charge of our future vision and custodian of our culture. My primary duties include, but not limited to, setting business strategy, overseeing operations, marketing and financing, negotiating contracts, developing partnerships, modeling company culture and values, public speaking, liaising with the Advisory board, and participating in industry-related events. However, I’d say my primary role at Propel Guru is to help grow our clients’ businesses we are currently working with and to expand Propel Guru itself.
I help some of the world’s most amazing startups, nonprofit organizations, healthcare institutions, and most prominent brands turn data into expertise through high-class technology and services. By doing this, we help our clients strengthen the brand-customer connection, and this ultimately drives a unique, competitive advantage for them. Every day is a new adventure!
I end up wearing many hats. Whether it be communicating with clients, streamlining our fantastic business operations, helping our clients and partners achieve higher ROI, and, most importantly, it’s working with a great team.
How has your typical day been impacted in the short term by the pandemic?
The whole of Propel Guru adopted a work-from-home policy in all regions as early as February. We have always had the flexibility to work remotely, and this has been a reasonably smooth transition ever since. As a progressive and proactive digital agency, many tools used by us were and are cloud-based, which makes collaboration easy.
One of the most significant changes that I and many in my team have noticed and discussed is that human contact piece. We all are so used to working with each other on a day-to-day basis. It’s just why we at Propel Guru are doing our best to replicate those fantastic moments. I have a daily 30-minute video catch-up with my team and go through anything they need help with and ensure everyone is feeling good. We have switched to a very agile and streamlined approach to our short term strategy and KPIs. Still, nothing beats a face-to-face meeting.
With regards to our staff, their physical and mental health and overall wellbeing are our top priorities. On the client-side, I love how human my interactions have become. From a business point of view, I am glad that we at Propel Guru have successfully adapted, evolved, and thrived even in these challenging times. We continue to invest in growing the team and are actively hiring.
What kind of changes are you making at Propel Guru to help your brand connect with how people feel and are experiencing the pandemic?
COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically accelerated digital transformation. Today, brands are more willing than ever to significantly invest and innovate in their digital channels to improve customer experience across every platform. At Propel Guru, we guide and empower businesses worldwide to offer the most amazing and delighting user journey. Our services have been crucial for our clients as they equip them with the set of tools they need to help users.
It’s indeed a tricky and challenging time, but we at Propel Guru are accustomed to reacting quickly to industry changes. Transparency and communication become more critical at such a time. We regularly schedule more frequent online health and wellness programs, all-hands meetings, online birthday celebrations, and work from home forums. This helps us take extra care of our teams, professionally and personally.
Moreover, we at Propel Guru always try to remember that you never know what a member of your target audience might be going through during these tough times on any given day. Since the situation is too fluid, it is incredibly critical for us to be human and watch what others are doing in the market and adjust constantly.
It’s essential for Propel Guru as well as your business to avoid appearing opportunistic or inauthentic. Therefore, we try to stay focused on messages of empathy and compassion, and those that promote healthy and helpful community care initiatives for our partners and clients.
What trends have you seen in the last few weeks in your sector?
At a macro level, the most apparent trend is the rapid surge and acceleration at an early stage of digital transformation requirements across different industries and niches. On a granular level, organizations are accelerating their “move to digital marketing and cloud roadmaps” and fine-tuning or kicking-off work-from-home programs for much bigger teams.
What advice would you give an entrepreneur right now?
Follow the sensible approach of building long term relationships over sales. Creating and nurturing compassionate and mutually-beneficial relationships with your partners and customers is the only thing that can help you and your brand, instead of just being sales focused. Remember, every challenge comes with an opportunity. There is no time better than today to strengthen your digital channels and provide fulfilling and effortless experiences to your customers.
The biggest challenge ahead of businesses today is how well and graciously they respond to these opportunities with innovative products and services in a mostly undefined, new global landscape. At times of crisis, entrepreneurs must double down on effectively communicating and demonstrating the added value their company offers.
