---
title: "Harsha Gownivari - Sales Development Manager in Bengaluru | Tal"
description: "Meet Harsha Gownivari, Sales Development Manager @ CallHippo | Driving GTM Strategy for India SMB & Mid-Market | Ex-Salesforce, WebEngage based in Bengaluru. AI stack includes claude, gemini, and grok."
image: "https://tal.club/meet/sri-harsha-gownivari/share-image"
---

# Harsha Gownivari on Tal

## Headline

Sales Development Manager @ CallHippo \| Driving GTM Strategy for India SMB & Mid\-Market \| Ex\-Salesforce, WebEngage

## About

I didn't start in SaaS\. I started in hospitality — learning to read rooms, manage expectations under pressure, and make people feel heard before they'd said what they needed\. Those instincts didn't leave when I moved into sales\. They became the foundation of everything I do\. Over the past 6 years, I've built outbound and inbound pipelines from scratch, led SDR teams across global markets, and developed the kind of process discipline that turns cold lists into consistent, qualified pipeline\. At WebEngage, I built the SDR function from zero — hired and onboarded a team of 6, created the training programme, set up compensation structures tied to pipeline KPIs, and generated over $500K MRR USD in pipeline in a single year, the highest in company history\. Two of the SDRs I developed were promoted to AE roles within 18 months\. At Salesforce, I own outbound pipeline creation for mid\-market accounts across US and APAC — booking 20\+ qualified meetings per month and contributing to $1\.2M ARR closure at 110% pipeline attainment across 3 quarters\. What I bring to the table: → Outbound execution at scale — cold calling, email sequencing, LinkedIn outreach, event\-based pipeline → SDR team leadership — hiring, onboarding, coaching, compensation design, and performance management → Process thinking — playbooks, objection handling frameworks, CRM discipline, and weekly reporting to leadership → A consultative instinct built long before I ever picked up a sales tool I'm building toward an Sales Leadership role — ideally at a company where sales is taken seriously and pipeline quality matters as much as quantity\. If you're in SaaS sales, scaling a GTM team, or just want to talk pipeline generation — I'm always open to a conversation\.

## Location

Bengaluru

## AI stack

claude

gemini

grok

meta

metaai

perplexity

## Work experience

Sales Development Manager at CallHippo, Jul 2026 \- Present · 5 mos, India, Leading a team of 6 SDRs driving outbound pipeline generation for the Indian market\. >Own the end\-to\-end outbound process — from ICP definition and prospecting strategy to messaging, sequencing\. >Manage and coach a team of 6 SDRs, driving team quota attainment through pipeline reviews, call/email audits, and ongoing skill development >Own outbound strategy for the India market — territory planning, ICP refinement, and channel mix \(cold calling, email, LinkedIn, etc\.\) >Build and iterate on outbound playbooks, cadences, and messaging to improve connect rates, reply rates, and meeting\-set\-to\-opportunity conversion >Partner with Sales, Marketing, and RevOps to align outbound motion with broader GTM strategy and target accounts

Enterprise Business Development Representative at Salesforce, Feb 2026 \- Mar 2026 · 2 mos, Bengaluru, >Owned outbound pipeline creation for enterprise\-market accounts across India— running cold calling campaigns, persona\-based email sequences via Outreach, and LinkedIn outreach averaging 20\+ qualified meetings booked per month\. >Contributed to $1\.2M ARR closure across 3 quarters at 110% pipeline attainment — built on sharp ICP targeting, disciplined daily outbound execution, and tight collaboration with AEs on qualification criteria\. >Built and refined messaging frameworks and objection handling sequences by segment — tested variations weekly, iterating on connect\-to\-meeting and outreach\-to\-meeting conversion data\. >Maintained Salesforce CRM and pipeline dashboards with full visibility across deal stages, activity logs, conversion rates, and pipeline sourced — reported weekly to sales leadership\.

Business Development Representative at Salesforce, Aug 2025 \- Feb 2026 · 7 mos, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Lead \- Sales Development Representative at WebEngage, Mar 2023 \- Sep 2025 · 2 yrs 7 mos, Bengaluru, >Built the SDR function from the ground up — onboarded, and scaled a team of 6 SDRs, created the full training programme covering outbound & inbound outreach, qualification frameworks, objection handling, and CRM discipline\. >Generated $500K\+ MRR USD in pipeline in a single calendar year — the highest in company history — through disciplined Inbound & outbound execution across APAC, MEA, and EU markets\. >Achieved 25% meeting\-to\-opportunity conversion and a 30% uplift in annual pipeline targets through continuous playbook refinement, A/B testing of messaging sequences, and tight AE alignment on qualification criteria\. >Reduced average SDR ramp time by 30% through a hands\-on 90\-day onboarding programme — live call shadowing, talk\-track roleplay, messaging framework walkthroughs, and weekly performance check\-ins\. >Designed variable compensation plans tied to pipeline contribution and revenue influence — benchmarked against meetings booked, pipeline sourced, and MQL\-to\-SQL conversion, not activity volume\. >Closed 5 SMB deals personally in an interim AE capacity averaging $18K ARR — giving credibility and specificity to coaching on qualification, discovery, and handoff\. >Coordinated event\-based meeting booking for field sales teams and partnered with Marketing and RevOps on lead quality, targeting strategy, and MQL\-to\-SQL improvement\.

Sales Development Representative at WebEngage, Mar 2022 \- Mar 2023 · 1 yr 1 mo

Sales Executive at Avathi, Jul 2021 \- Jan 2022 · 7 mos, Bengaluru, Built sales pipeline from scratch at a lean startup — grew revenue by 20% in 6 months through high\-volume cold calling, targeted outreach sequences, and disciplined CRM follow\-up with zero existing process to inherit\.

Senior Sales & Operations Executive at 365 Spaces, Oct 2020 \- Jun 2021 · 9 mos, Managed B2B sales pipeline and day\-to\-day operations simultaneously — developed the process discipline, reporting rigour, and cross\-functional collaboration skills that underpin how I lead teams today\.

## Education

Bachelor's of Hotel Management, M\. S\. RAMAIAH UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES

[View the original profile](https://tal.club/meet/sri-harsha-gownivari)

```json
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@graph": [
    {
      "@type": "Person",
      "@id": "https://tal.club/meet/sri-harsha-gownivari#person",
      "name": "Harsha Gownivari",
      "url": "https://tal.club/meet/sri-harsha-gownivari",
      "image": "https://tal.club/meet/sri-harsha-gownivari/profile-photo.jpg",
      "description": "Meet Harsha Gownivari, Sales Development Manager @ CallHippo | Driving GTM Strategy for India SMB & Mid-Market | Ex-Salesforce, WebEngage based in Bengaluru. AI stack includes claude, gemini, and grok.",
      "jobTitle": "Sales Development Manager",
      "worksFor": {
        "@type": "Organization",
        "name": "CallHippo"
      },
      "hasOccupation": {
        "@type": "Occupation",
        "name": "Sales Development Manager"
      },
      "homeLocation": {
        "@type": "Place",
        "name": "Bengaluru"
      },
      "alumniOf": [
        {
          "@type": "EducationalOrganization",
          "name": "M. S. RAMAIAH UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES"
        }
      ],
      "knowsAbout": [
        "claude",
        "gemini",
        "grok",
        "meta",
        "metaai",
        "perplexity"
      ],
      "mainEntityOfPage": {
        "@id": "https://tal.club/meet/sri-harsha-gownivari#webpage"
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "ProfilePage",
      "@id": "https://tal.club/meet/sri-harsha-gownivari#webpage",
      "url": "https://tal.club/meet/sri-harsha-gownivari",
      "name": "Harsha Gownivari on Tal",
      "description": "Meet Harsha Gownivari, Sales Development Manager @ CallHippo | Driving GTM Strategy for India SMB & Mid-Market | Ex-Salesforce, WebEngage based in Bengaluru. AI stack includes claude, gemini, and grok.",
      "dateModified": "2026-11-03T07:55:34.178Z",
      "isPartOf": {
        "@id": "https://tal.club/#website"
      },
      "mainEntity": {
        "@id": "https://tal.club/meet/sri-harsha-gownivari#person"
      },
      "primaryImageOfPage": {
        "@type": "ImageObject",
        "url": "https://tal.club/meet/sri-harsha-gownivari/profile-photo.jpg",
        "contentUrl": "https://tal.club/meet/sri-harsha-gownivari/profile-photo.jpg",
        "caption": "Harsha Gownivari profile photo on Tal"
      },
      "inLanguage": "en-IN"
    }
  ]
}
```