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Is sales in your firm a strategic driver or just a glorified backroom function?
Yesudas Pillai If you're a leader, spend more time selling. Because when the CEO sells, the entire organization starts to listen better, align faster, and win more often. Don't outsource your most important function to the backroom. Make it the boardroom's beating heart. When a CEO meets customers, listens to objections, sees firsthand what delights or frustrates them—it informs strategy in a way no internal report can.
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A few weeks ago, I found myself in a conversation with the sales team of a leading media company. It began with a transactional pitch, but as the meeting progressed, I couldn't help but notice a missed opportunity—a lack of alignment between what they were selling and how they were selling it.
A few weeks ago, I found myself in a conversation with the sales team of a leading media company. It began with a transactional pitch, but as the meeting progressed, I couldn't help but notice a missed opportunity—a lack of alignment between what they were selling and how they were selling it.
At the end of the meeting, I gave them some candid feedback on how the interaction could have been more strategic, more value-led. To their credit, the senior leader and his deputies took it positively and even invited me to address their larger team. I agreed.
But the deeper insight from that interaction had less to do with that specific sales team—and more to do with how sales is viewed within organizations.
In this case, it was clear: the CEO had decided the strategic direction, the CMO had designed the campaign, and the sales team was expected to just execute. No involvement in the creation, no voice at the table—just deliver numbers.
The question that lingers: Is sales in your company a strategic driver or merely a glorified backroom function? The CEO should be the chief salesperson
There was a time, not long ago, when we saw startup founders personally delivering their products—photographed handing over boxes to customers. It made for a great LinkedIn moment. But that symbolic act ended as quickly as it began.
Sales isn't a photo-op. It's leadership in action.
When a CEO meets customers, listens to objections, sees firsthand what delights or frustrates them—it informs strategy in a way no internal report can.
Great leaders from Steve Jobs to Narayana Murthy, from Elon Musk to Dhirubhai Ambani, have all known this truth: Selling is not beneath leadership—it is integral to it. Also Read | Regional creators battle bias in ad rates, algorithms
If your CEO is disconnected from the market, the chances are that your sales team is treated as a tool, not a partner. And that mindset permeates the culture—creating toxic pressure, unrealistic targets, and disengaged frontline soldiers who have little ownership over what they sell. Sales as a strategic muscle
In his bestselling book Kick Start Your Business, Robert Craven outlines 12 levers that can dramatically transform a company's commercial outcomes.
Notice how many of them are sales-led or sales-dependent:
1. Raise prices by 3% or more.
2. Decrease direct costs by 3% or more.
3. Sack underperforming suppliers, customers, and staff.
4. Rethink how the business is presented.
5. Sort out your value proposition.
6. Get more leads—say, 10%.
7. Improve conversations, ask for the business, close the sale.
8. Get customers to buy at least 3% more.
9. Get customers to buy more often.
11. Collect money 10 days faster.
12. Activate referral-worthy customer experiences.
You can't execute any of these if sales is sitting outside the strategy room. Flipkart, salesforce and the real champions of sales
When Flipkart entered the Indian e-commerce space, it wasn't logistics or tech alone that built trust—it was the sales narrative. 'Cash on delivery" wasn't just a payment method; it was a sales innovation that removed friction and changed customer behaviour.
Salesforce, one of the fastest-growing SaaS companies globally, has sales in its very name. Marc Benioff, its founder, never shied away from selling—be it to investors, customers, or employees. Sales was and is a core culture pillar. Time for a sales reset
If you find your sales team burnt out, disengaged, or overly tactical, it's time to ask tough questions:
Do they have a say in shaping the product or service narrative?
Are they treated as strategic partners or just closers of deals?
Is leadership out there in the market too—or only in the Call to action: make sales matter
The best companies don't just do sales—they live sales.
It's time to stop treating it like a downstream function and start using it as an upstream compass. Invite your sales teams into strategic conversations. Make product, marketing and delivery accountable to the feedback they bring in. And most importantly—if you're a leader, spend more time selling.
Because when the CEO sells, the entire organization starts to listen better, align faster and win more often.
Don't outsource your most important function to the backroom. Make it the boardroom's beating heart.
Yesudas Pillai is the founder of Y&A Transformation and a strategic adviser at Channel Factory. Topics You May Be Interested In
