"Leaders need to be more empathetic, and responsible towards their employees."
Sidharth Iyer Tweet
Sidharth Iyer (aka Sid) is an Organic Growth Expert from Toronto, Canada. A Journalist turned Digital Marketer, Sid is passionate about storytelling and connecting people with ideas that can define their approach to work and life.
Sid offers the perfect blend of creativity and analytical approaches to see a project through from start to finish. He holds a degree in Journalism, garners a passion for SEO, and is devoted to creating an organic user experience that helps guide the buyer journey. Sid is a storyteller and a team player who knows the importance of winning together. A true believer in propagating a tribe mindset, he values working collaboratively towards a common goal.
Sid loves making an impact on people’s lives with his work and continues to invest time in sharing his knowledge and experience. Sid is an active Marketing Mentor on ADPList.org as well as helps new immigrants to Canada find their way around in the Job Market and work on their personal branding with LinkedIn to attract the right-fit network to flourish professionally.
Check out more interviews with entrepreneurs here.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Sidharth Iyer: Thank you, Jerome, well where do I start… Hi, my name is Sidharth Iyer, an organic growth expert from Toronto, Canada. I am a first-generation Canadian citizen and recently set up my organic growth consulting business for B2B SaaS companies, focused on North America.
I am a Journalist turned Digital Marketer, and the things that helped me – both personally and professionally – have been my passion for storytelling and connecting people with ideas that can help them define their approach to work and life.
2020 and 2021 threw a lot of curveballs into business on a global scale. Based on the experience gleaned in the past couple of years, how can businesses thrive in 2022? What lessons have you learned?
Sidharth Iyer: If there’s one thing that businesses should have learnt from 2020 and 2021 it is being more empathetic and responsible towards their customer and employees alike. The last two years have been tough for small businesses, but the difficulties also enabled businesses to be more agile in their operations and prioritize digital transformation, to the extent that a lot of organizations that entirely relied on offline revenue streams had to set up digital/virtual stores to ensure business doesn’t suffer.
I believe more organizations and businesses will focus on continuing to build out their digital footprint in 2022, as well as invest towards providing better product and service experience to customers, and better work-life balance to employees to drive growth.
The pandemic seems to keep on disrupting the economy, what should businesses focus on in 2022? What advice would you share?
Sidharth Iyer: Diversification is the answer. Businesses need to be ready for more global pandemics, praying and hoping we don’t face another one in our lifetime isn’t the solution, and diversifying your business is the key to driving future growth and stability.
Diversification can be through products to market, services offered, geographical target markets, tapping a new addressable target market, and becoming the leader in a niche offering that has little or no competition.
How, where, when and what businesses make the diversification in should be the focus… as the ‘why’ has been answered by all that has happened over the last two years.
How has the pandemic changed your industry and how have you adapted?
Sidharth Iyer: The pandemic has significantly increased demand for B2B SaaS solutions that have a great product to market fit. Take any video conferencing tools, mentorship platforms, learning platforms, and many other similar software solutions; they have all witnessed significant YoY revenue growth over the last two years.
The other aspect is also faster user adoption of SaaS solutions over the last two years. Businesses have had to pivot their strategy to fast-track digital transformations across their organization, and B2B SaaS solutions have enabled these businesses to meet the demand with their solution offerings.
With greater demand, it also gives rise to more competition between the SaaS solutions catering to the same customer base, thus marketing consulting businesses have also witnessed heightened demand to meet the industry demand, so you must bring the best growth hacking strategies to the table to ensure they support the SaaS solution to stand out in the crowded marketplace as the leading solution provider.
What advice do you wish you received when the pandemic started and what do you intend on improving in 2022?
Sidharth Iyer: Probably taking the plunge into setting up my consulting business earlier and helping more B2B SaaS companies reach their revenue targets with a focus on organic growth strategies. Now that we are in 2022, I look forward to helping more B2B SaaS solutions create sustainable and scalable growth with the organic channels being a big contributor to their success.
Online business surged higher than ever, B2B, B2C, online shopping, virtual meetings, remote work, Zoom medical consultations, what are your expectations for 2022?
Sidharth Iyer: Remote work is here to stay, regardless of what organizations and leaders strategize about hybrid work models or the return-to-work plans.
2020 gave rise to what I call ‘the knowledge economy”, where talent wins with how good they are at their job over their proximity to the workplace to be considered for an opportunity.
2021 was the year that put the spotlight on Diversity, Equity, Inclusiveness and Belonging (DEIB) at work.
2022 will be the year where businesses and brands that focus on sustainability, being carbon neutral, making more accessible solutions and keeping inclusive messaging at the core of their business will come out as winners.
How many hours a day do you spend in front of a screen?
Sidharth Iyer: Oh, wow… didn’t see this question coming! I am guilty of crazy screen time hours… if I had to put a number to it, would be 15 hours in a day. Screen equating to Laptop, Television and Mobile.
The majority of executives use stories to persuade and communicate in the workplace. Can you share with our readers examples of how you implement that in your business to communicate effectively with your team?
Sidharth Iyer: I don’t believe in the art of persuasion as much as I believe in walking the talk. I like to lead by example and believe that acts as a catalyst for everyone around to bring their A-Game to the table. I also adopt a growth mindset, so I am always looking for opportunities to up-skill and learn new things, regardless of who I am learning it from.
I also believe in transparent and clear communication, if I make a mistake tell it to me straight, I accept and learn, and I also expect that if you make a mistake, take ownership and accountability for it, and redress it to the best of your ability, and never shy away from taking the help.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as the real challenge right now?
Sidharth Iyer: Clutter in the marketplace. There are a lot of marketing agencies and consultants who have been in the business for years and there are a lot of new agencies and consultants that have emerged during the pandemic (including myself), but you can always differentiate between the dreamers and doers by having a 15-minute conversation.
Businesses can choose to work with either one, but they often end up with an agency or consultant that isn’t right for their needs. So, the filtering of my prospects is what I pay extra attention to, as I always believe in being in a partnership that is going to be mutually beneficial and doesn’t leave either of us with a bitter experience.
I just wish more businesses also better understand their marketing needs and then work with the right partners to do things the right way.
In 2022, what are you most interested in learning about? Crypto, NFTs, online marketing, or any other skill sets? Please share your motivations.
Sidharth Iyer: 2022 for me will also be about diversification of my digital marketing skills and filling the knowledge gaps, so I can help more businesses with a holistic growth strategy.
A record 4.4 million Americans left their jobs in September 2021, accelerating a trend that has become known as the Great Resignation. 47% of people plan to leave their job in 2022. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued and misunderstood in the workplace. Do you think leaders see the data and think “that’s not me – I’m not that boss they don’t want to work for? What changes do you think need to happen?
Sidharth Iyer: Leaders need to be more empathetic, and responsible towards their employees. There also needs to be more focus on employee-centric business growth plans put in place. DEIB should continue to be a focus in businesses. And there should be more transparency around incentive programs and compensation within organizations.
On a lighter note, if you had the ability to pick any business superpower, what would it be and how would you put it into practice?
Sidharth Iyer: Interesting question… I would have to say ‘Expectation Framing’ would be my desired business superpower. Helping businesses see the bigger picture with ‘Expectation Framing’ is key to building a long-term partnership of trust and loyalty. This would enable them to foresee how working together will take them from ‘A’ to ‘Z’ in ‘X’ number of days.
What does “success” in 2022 mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision.
Sidharth Iyer: Touching 100 lives through mentoring on a personal level. Helping B2B SaaS businesses scale their revenue and working with me as a long-term partner on a business level.
Jerome Knyszewski, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Sidharth Iyer for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Sidharth Iyer or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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