News from JKSHIM | Alumni Interaction: A Corporate Journey to Sales Leadership

JKSHIM organized an interactive session for the I & II year MBA students with alumnus, Mr. Sandeep Hegde,of 2002-04 batch, currently serving as Asst. Vice President (Sales) at Nykaa.

Sandeep emphasized that "Sales" is the lifeblood of any organization because it is the only function whose performance is directly and clearly measurable in terms of revenue and growth. He pointed out that in most successful companies, the CEOs and MDs have started their careers in Sales because Sales teaches you the entire business. He urged students not to be reluctant to take up Sales and to change any misconceptions or misunderstandings they have about it. He powerfully stated, Everyone does Sales - When HR pitches the company to a candidate, it is sales. When Marketing creates a campaign, it is sales. Even Finance, Operations and Logistics are ultimately enabling sales. He explained that a person in Sales gets a 360-degree view of business as he continuously coordinates with Finance & Costing for pricing and margins, Product Management for market feedback & new launches, Marketing for promotions & strategy, Operations & HR for execution & team building. Sharing his own journey, he recollected his student days at the Institute. He was actively involved in stage activities and was part of Samvedana, the institute's social wing, where he would visit several rural schools to conduct training and other social service activities. He also shared his experience with ETTIN, the Management Fest, where he was part of the sponsorship team and was required to visit several companies to pitch for sponsorships, negotiate, interact and coordinate to get the funds. That, he said, was his first practical lesson in sales, learning to negotiate, handle rejections and convince people, which laid the foundation for his corporate career. In his address, he chronicled his inspiring corporate journey from the MBA classroom to a leadership role in one of India's leading D2C and e-commerce unicorns. He emphasized that sales is not just about numbers but about understanding consumer psychology, building relationships and driving growth through data.

He also highlighted key mantras for aspiring sales leaders, emphasizing that Learnability is more important than knowledge, as the market changes every six months and the ability to unlearn & relearn matters more than academic grades. He also stressed the importance of Owning your targets, sharing how handling pressure and taking ownership of monthly targets early in his career helped shape his leadership mindset. The session concluded with an interactive Q&A, leaving the students with a new respect for sales as a career and as a life skill.