Ad land’s young guns: Rohan Nayak, Business Development Manager, Admatazz

Rohan Nayak, a seasoned professional in business development, holds the position of Business Development Manager at Admatazz. With a rich background in cultivating client relationships and driving revenue growth, Nayak brings extensive expertise to the table. His strategic approach and keen understanding of market dynamics have enabled him to forge successful partnerships and expand business opportunities for Admatazz. Passionate about delivering value and fostering long-term collaborations, Nayak is dedicated to driving Admatazz’s growth trajectory through innovative strategies and exceptional client service.

In conversation with Adgully, Rohan Nayak, Business Development Manager, Admatazz, speaks about the importance of strategic partnerships in fostering business growth and innovation. He elaborates on how cultivating strong relationships with clients and stakeholders can lead to mutual success, driving revenue streams and unlocking new opportunities.

Could you share the key milestones that led you to where you are today in the industry?

I began working as a marketing intern in 2017, then a social media intern in 2019, two more part-time social media intern roles that I did simultaneously in 2020, and finally, I began working as a social media executive in 2021 after college. I’m eternally grateful for the creative learnings and the core understanding of digital marketing I gained from these roles, but I soon realised that the role was not for me. I was always more business-oriented and wanted to understand a little more about the commercial aspects of the projects I was working on. Of course, my social media roles involved extensive client interaction, but only after closing deals and onboarding clients. I was missing the most exciting parts!

Hence, the switch from social media to business development. The initial few months at Admatazz consisted purely of learning the ropes of lead generation, understanding commercial and pitching processes, client interactions, etc. Once I was able to gauge a better understanding of a business developer’s role, I was able to work on projects with less and less supervision, which allowed me to evolve from an executive to a manager. Since then, I have been given multiple opportunities to seek out, convert, and manage multiple projects for a lot of clients, whether this be social media, web development, performance marketing, or SEO.

In your experience, what are some common challenges that young professionals face when starting their careers and how can they overcome them?

The biggest challenge I faced right after college was – What do I want to do now? Honestly, I was clueless. I didn’t know whether I wanted to work in sales, marketing, PR, operations, or start my own business (following in the footsteps of my father). The only reason I chose to work in digital marketing was because it was something that I was familiar with from multiple previous internships. Once I started working in the industry, I gained a lot of knowledge, experience, and, most importantly, clarity about what I wanted to pursue. What I would suggest to any young, struggling individuals is to just begin working in their desired field, and everything else will fall into place (as long as you actively keep planning ahead). Idleness never helped me.

A moment of clarity for me was when I looked back at my college experience. The degree that I pursued was Liberal Arts, which is usually referred to as a jack-of-all-trades degree. Although I had selected my major subject of business studies and pursued a minor in media studies, if you think about it, that’s exactly where I eventually ended up – in business development at a digital marketing agency.

How do you stay updated on the latest trends and developments, and what resources or strategies would you recommend to young professionals seeking the same?

Personally, I’m always browsing through online media journals on a weekly basis. Apart from that, I’m an avid LinkedIn user. Browsing through that platform on a daily basis usually helps you to keep a pulse on your respective industry (considering you’ve built a strong network of people within your industry). I’ve also recently subscribed to Harvard Business Review’s magazine and feel like that has been an incredibly useful tool to aid in my learning process. Even though it’s not marketing-focused, there’s definitely some great insights in every edition.

What led you to pursue a leadership role at a young age, and what are your long-term leadership goals?

The first year at Admatazz involved a substantial amount of learning and growing. Some of it was specific to my role: How do we generate more leads? What service would the client most benefit from? Does the client need SEO and media both or something else entirely? And it was also from an agency standpoint: How do we improve our internal processes? Are we maximizing our potential from a creative and strategic perspective? Do we need to position ourselves differently? This year of learning was vital for me, and I think I naturally fell into a managerial role afterwards, since that was the logical next step.

My long-term goals, as of now, are to continue learning and growing from here and help my agency expand as much as it possibly can.

What strategies do you use to motivate and inspire your team members or peers?

One thing that I’ve learned from my last two years of experience is that there’s always going to be a lot of ups and downs in business development. Sometimes, you might get a sudden influx of service requests (and might not even understand why), and it becomes a little stressful to personally interact with each of them. During down time (usually towards the end of the year), there might barely be any new service requests or much activity at all, and staying motivated is very difficult.

During both of these times – slightly stressful and very boring, respectively –continuing to stay motivated gets difficult. Since I recently learned that this is natural and part of the industry/ role, it’s given me and my team enough relief to enjoy the down times (with a lot of research time!) and bear through the busy periods (with maximum utilisation of effective systems).

What initiatives have you taken to develop your leadership skills and knowledge?

Apart from consistently learning more about my industry through LinkedIn, news, and platforms such as HBR, I’m also a massive fan of audiobooks (sorry bookworms!), spending at least 7-8 hours a week absorbing as much information as I can. Genres can range from marketing to self-development to business development to management to basically anything else that I find interesting. But I ensure to stay consistent with this practice.

What advice would you offer to aspiring young professionals aspiring to leadership positions?

My only word of advice would be to be a sponge and consistently keep learning and absorbing as much as you can from your work environment. As long as you have a goal in mind and continue to put in the effort, you’ll eventually get there.