[00:00:00] Welcome, my lovely people, to another fabulous episode of the B2B Sales Trends Podcast. Now, every leader, every sales leader, should I say, knows that feeling. You hit the midpoint of the year, some numbers look great, others maybe not so much. The energy dips after even a great sales kickoff. It's the key to maintain this confidence wobbles a little bit and suddenly the same targets feel heavy.
[00:00:30] Now, that's where leadership becomes less about targets and more about belief. Now, our guest today is Ritu Nadkarni. She's a Senior Director of Sales at Alcon. And Ritu spent her career helping teams find momentum when it mattered most.
[00:00:55] She believes mindset, clarity and agility aren't just soft skills. They are performance levers. In this episode, we'll unpack how to reset after a tough quarter, what separates consistent performers from the rest, and why great leaders simplify instead of overwhelm. Ritu, welcome to the B2B Sales Trends Podcast.
[00:01:25] Thank you so much for having me, Hari. It's a pleasure to be here. Let's kick this off. You have led sales teams through changing markets, shifting expectations, a lot of transformations. Can you share a little bit about how you got earned? What experiences have shaped your current approach?
[00:01:47] Thank you for the lovely introduction. I'm Ritu Kanna Nadkarni. I'm based here in lovely Houston, Texas. And I'm a Senior Sales Executive. My journey is quite interesting. Never in my life growing up, I thought I would be in sales. And here I am, right? I grew up in India. I grew up in India. And interestingly, I grew up at a time where India was really opening its door for global expansion.
[00:02:13] That's the first time we were starting to import stuff, equipment, cars, everything, right? My dad and my uncles owned this medical equipment company. And I got to see firsthand. I really got the front row seat to see how healthcare innovation can change lives. And that really set me that I want to be part of something like that. And that set my journey in healthcare.
[00:02:41] I grew up in India, did my master's there. And my first job was in Germany, working for a medical device company. After working in Germany, moved to US with the same company. And they asked me, I was working in marketing. That's where my career was going to take me. But as I was moving to Houston, the company's headquarter was in LA.
[00:03:05] So they said, if you want to be in marketing, you need to be in LA. But what was getting me to Houston was my marriage to a guy who was in oil and gas. So the location was non-negotiable. So the company's like, let's get you in sales. And I'm like, look, have you seen me? It's a new country. It's new marriage. I've never driven on the right side of the road. And you're asking me to get into sales.
[00:03:28] So it was probably the biggest pivot of my life. And that's how things start, right? And very soon, I failed miserably the first year, I have to admit. But I had the right mentors. I had the right people to support me in this journey. And very soon, I did fall in love with sales. Because I realized sales is not just about pitching. It's about earning trust. It's about diagnosing problems.
[00:03:53] It's really discipline execution. So that's where my journey has taken me. And I'll say over the last 20 years, I've come to realize that, you know, what I first learned as a child, that healthcare innovation can change lives. I've seen that in action, be it working with medical devices where surgeries are changing lives or in vaccines where we are preventing from diseases happening.
[00:04:21] For Alzheimer's therapy, where we change the trajectory of the patient and the caregivers or more recently here in vision care, where we are truly enabling people to see the world better. So we are impacting that. And I feel great being part of that journey. Over the last 20 years, my career has gone through different organizations and different pivots.
[00:04:45] I went to business school five years into that medical device company and really got exposure to broader commercial aspects. So it's just been 20 years of growth, learning, pivoting and just making higher impact. So that's that's been a lovely journey for me. And I'll tell you where my leadership philosophy is today. It's constantly changing. But what I believe today is really candor and care.
[00:05:13] Those are two words that drive most of the decisions I make. It's very important that as a leader, we are clear on high expectations. I truly have very high performance expectation. But what I've also realized that to have high expectations and to have it sustainable, it can only be done by building people. When people feel they're trusted, they're equipped and they're developed, they come in and perform their best.
[00:05:42] And that's how you sustain high performance. So that's where my mind is today when I look at my leadership philosophy. I love your approach and your take on tender and care about this. I think that's something that's. That's often overlooked and it's so key in our sort of interpersonal relationships within in teams. And I really think that's a cool take that you're taking there.
[00:06:09] Now, let's take a look at these sales teams. We shared a little bit about the fact that how do you keep going? You know, it's easy to. It's easy to have momentum if things are going well. Right. But then at some point, maybe at midpoint of a year, you know, the scoreboards up, the energy dips a little bit. Then there's sort of the gap between maybe the top performers and everybody else has become a little bit clearer.
[00:06:38] How do you personally, first of all, re-energize your teams at that stage? And how do you help them reset sort of for the second wave for the second half? I love that question. And Harry, anybody who's in sales will tell you this is what life in sales is, right? When we are quarter in pressure or, you know, after a tough quarter.
[00:07:06] When you're in sales and everybody points finger at sales, the urgency is high. The emotions are running hot. And it sometimes feels like the weight of whole Wall Street is on the shoulder of sales leader, right? So I always say that when we are going through this, it's definitely not the time to add more activity. I learned this from a senior leader a year or so back.
[00:07:34] And I think that's become my mantra as I go through these situations, these lumps, these quarter in pressures, these tough quarters is simplify, clarify and magnify. And I'll tell you what I mean by that. So as I was saying, this is not the time that you want to add more to your salespeople's plate. This is the time you come in as a sales leader and you simplify. You take things off their plate.
[00:08:02] You shift their focus back on what is working. What are the targets? Are we preparing deeply? Are we calling the right customer? So you're simplifying the message for them and you're giving them clear directions on the strategy on what's working, right? So it's time to simplify. The second thing I say is it's time to clarify. And when I say it's time to clarify, I mean, it's the time where we tighten our operating rhythms. We are removing obstacles.
[00:08:32] We are working quickly. We are getting faster huddles in place. That's where we rise to our systems. We want to make sure that we are very clear about what's driving results. And the third is magnify. You know, this is especially important for sales is you're making your wins visible. Because we know this, that small wins are the ones that create momentum.
[00:08:55] This is where we want to make sure that we are very clearly, you know, the low hanging fruits. What's causing these wins to happen? So just magnify the behaviors and the wins. So when we are under this pressure, I truly think coming back to simplify, clarify and magnify is being an approach that I've been taking. The last thing I'll say on this is all of these three things are important.
[00:09:21] But what is also important is having identifying the skill gaps that might be something that the team is facing. Right. And that's a constant conversation. It's not just for quarter end or tough quarters. It's something that I do regularly with my teams. Understand, like if this is our strategy, what might be the skill sets that are missing? How do I constantly upskill the sales force? Because the sales force pressure is good.
[00:09:50] Having higher goals are good, but that can only be sustained if we provide the right tools and training to our sales force. So those are the ways I approach these slumps and the challenging times during sales. Love that. You know, your approach clearly has a strong backbone of coaching and mentoring in it, which I really like. And I know that a lot of people respond, a lot of sales teams respond really well to that if it's done in the right way.
[00:10:19] And it sounds like you're doing an amazing job on that. Now, you've talked a little bit before about simplifying execution and also the fact that you have to have discipline in execution. Now, cutting through the noise and helping people focus on what really drives results is the main reason why we do this, right? What does that look like in practice for you?
[00:10:46] How do you make sure your team knows exactly where to focus their efforts on? You're so right about that, Harry. And I always say my job. I think my number one job as a sales leader is taking that strategy and cutting it down to the point of here's what matters this week and why. And also what we are not going to do.
[00:11:13] So, I've done half my job if I'm being articulate consistently about taking that strategy and saying this is what we are going to do and why. And this is what we are not going to do. So, that's what simplifying means for me. For me, it's being very intentionally and truly protecting the field from the noise.
[00:11:39] There are so many competing priorities that are thrown to the sales field organization. And my role is to make sure that the noise is separated because I know that when everything is urgent, nothing is urgent. And the way I do it is really by doing three things. One is I have two or three priorities max. And I repeat it multiple times to what I was telling you earlier.
[00:12:05] It takes about seven to eight times for us, for human mind to actually resonate with some things. So, be very clear about what those two or three priorities are and make sure that they're repeated multiple times that are clear to the sales field. The second is I want to be very clear about what those winning behaviors look like.
[00:12:26] So, any person in the organization should tell you what the definition of winning behaviors are from the leadership's perspective and making sure that we are recognizing those behaviors consistently. Be it in a town hall, be it in a newsletter, just consistently recognizing those winning behaviors and reemphasizing that. And the third thing I'll go back to is having that operating rhythm. Consistency and cadence is what drives sales.
[00:12:55] So, just making sure that there's an operating rhythm of doing things and everybody's aligned to do that. And really the way to do that is making sure that it starts at every layer, right? Being very intentional, being consistent and making sure that every layer of our sales is very clear about what the strategy is, what we are doing, what we are not doing.
[00:13:20] And making sure that we are having this clear definition of what winning behavior is and just recognizing it consistently. And that's what simplifying execution looks like to me in practice. You know, it's interesting that you also focus on. It's not what a lot of other people do. You know, when you say what matters this week and what we're going to do is one thing.
[00:13:49] But I also like what you said about highlighting the fact that this is what we're not going to do, right? So, being clear on really this is what we're going to do and not burn it. That's a cool little twist to that communication piece that you do. And I really like that. And, you know, we're talking about these winning behaviors as you mentioned. And we often talk about top performers are using these winning behaviors and they think differently.
[00:14:20] But what does that actually mean in real terms? What are the mindsets or habits that you see in your top performers that set them really apart from the rest of them? You want me to give you my secret sauce? I would love that. I'll tell you this. Look, I've been doing this long enough to say that there are certain consistent packets that you see in top performers. And you see it across industry.
[00:14:49] You see it across job functions. The first thing, especially in sales, that I see is they schedule aggressively. The top performers are very intentional about their calendar, right? They're going to the right customers. They're going to those customers with the right cadence. So they are very intentional and consistent as to where they are showing up.
[00:15:17] The second thing that I see is this knowledge backed confidence. You know, when I first started sales, I really had no idea how to sell. So that's where I said, OK, I'm going to fake it till I make it. And that's a good place to start. But really, to sustain it, you have to build your knowledge because real knowledge is what drives confidence and confidence is what drives sales.
[00:15:43] And I'll give you examples of what I'm seeing in field today on my own team. I have a rep who just joined recently and we're talking about multifocal contact lenses and it's technical. She doesn't know anything. But what I've seen her do is she records herself. She came from a training class, recorded herself. And every time she's driving, she's listening to herself on the she's listening to sales forecast and she's just getting better.
[00:16:09] And I was with her in the field a month back and I was amazed like she could speak better about that technology, maybe compared to people who might have been doing it for much longer. So it came from this knowledge, right? And practice that she put it into. It's not about winging it at that point. The third thing I would say is really thinking through solutions and not products.
[00:16:36] What I mean here is being very good at business acumen, right? Understanding the need of your customer and making sure how your product fits that need. So it's this want versus need. Identifying the gap, identifying the challenges of your business and supporting them on being a true consultant. Not just bringing products, but bringing solutions and ideas to make your customer better.
[00:17:02] So that's the third thing that I see consistently in top performance. The fourth thing is authenticity. I truly believe, and I'm a clear example of it, that there are multiple ways of selling, right? Coming from a place of your distinctive advantage, your distinctive competency is a great way to approach sales. Because what happens is when you are coming from your distinctive competency, you're bringing your whole self.
[00:17:32] You're bringing what you're good at. You're also bringing gaps that you might have and you own up to it. And you're showing up with authenticity. And what authenticity really does is it builds trust. And when there's trust, the transaction becomes so much easier and faster, right? So that's why I do believe that authenticity and coming from your distinctive competency is so important. And the last thing I'll say is this persistence in service.
[00:17:59] Are you consistently thinking of what's best for your customer? How do you level up? Like even that one person growth, that growth mindset of being persistent in your service is so important. So really what I see, Harry, is this. You know, you've seen, I think all of us have seen that circle of comfort zone, growth zone. And people who are willing to push themselves to that growth zone are the ones that succeed consistently, not just in sales.
[00:18:28] I think that's just a MO of all top performers that I've seen. Now, it is interesting. You know, the steps that you have shared, aggressively scheduling, intentionally, you know, knowledge back confidence, you know, connect the need to the solution and all these things that you've just shared. Now, it's interesting. Those are not really rocket science, right?
[00:18:57] So the question begs, why aren't people doing them? Because it's pretty simple, but not everybody is a high performer, right? So I always put that down into knowing about these things is not good enough. You really have to execute them to a senior or to an elite level. And that makes you a high performer. What's your take on that? You 100% right. And it's funny you say that. So my daughter just turned 13.
[00:19:27] And, you know, we went around the room and said, okay, everybody record a message for her on the most important thing you want to know, you want a teenager to know. And my message to her was surround yourself with the right people. You are a product of five people you surround yourself with, right? And one of the things of working with great organization is exactly that. You're surrounded by high performers.
[00:19:56] So high performance just isn't a buzzword. It's an expectation. And I want to be clear when I talked about my leadership style. It's candor and care. And candor is high performance is not optional. Being part of this team is you are a high performer. And when you're surrounded by people who are constantly pushing the boundary, that it becomes easier, right? So we're definitely doing that.
[00:20:24] But to do that, you have to support people. And that's where the care piece comes. So the reason you might not see it is could be the environment those people are, right? Can they get by by mediocrity? And I always tell my sales leader, the lowest common denominator of your team and the behaviors that you expect, that becomes the norm of your team.
[00:20:50] So have high expectations because everybody will rise up to that expectation. Whatever the least behavior you expect, that becomes the norm. So just make sure you have the high expectation. But it's essentially, in fact, even more important that you have the tools and the support to help people get to that high expectation. So that's, you know, that's how I say is surround yourself with those high performers and make sure you're in an organization where it's expected.
[00:21:19] But you're also being given the skills and the tools. Like we were telling our daughter, we want you to surround yourself with those people. But and your family will be that high standard for you. And we'll provide you those tools to help you reach your maximum best potential. So I would translate the same thing to organizations. So that's very interesting. And of course, agility is another word that gets thrown around a lot these days.
[00:21:46] But for you, it's clearly a muscle, as it sounds like, and not a slogan. So how do you build agility into your team's culture? That sort of willingness to, you know, adapt and learn and keep moving when those things shift. How do you do that? That's a muscle that I'm getting better at. And I'll tell you what has worked, right? And I'm open to suggestions you might have.
[00:22:14] And this is a field that I want to keep getting better and better. The first thing that I've seen work really well when we are in a situation like that is we do what we call the situation rules. We know that we can have a clear strategy, but then market shifts. A competitor does something that we did not expect them to do, right? And at that point, we just get into these situation rules and come up with quick ways to handle whatever that situation might be.
[00:22:44] Get the right leaders in the organization together. Put our heads together and come up with what does that short-term pivot look like based on the current situation. And what I look at is react versus respond. We don't want to be reactive, but we definitely want to respond to whatever that situation might be. So that situation rule concept has been something that I've used three or four times over this last one year.
[00:23:12] And the other thing for agility that's worked, and this is something I've been doing for a long time, is this listening loop, right? Staying close to the field. I do these small people group interaction regularly where I've sent them pre-prepared question based on strategy, based on what I think our system should be. But then getting their real-time feedback because nobody knows customer better than the voice closest to the customer.
[00:23:42] And that's our field sales team. So as I've grown in having more and more people on my team, currently there are about 60 to 80 people, then these small groups become critically important to stay closer to the voice of the field. And the third thing I'll say, and you hear this thrown around a lot, is fail forward. So normalizing course correction, right?
[00:24:10] When some things don't go wrong, don't point fingers. That's when we get our heads together and say, all right, what's happened has happened. How do we make it better? What do we do differently going forward? Or what did we learn from this and how do we apply in our businesses? So I think normalizing course correction is the third aspect of it. And this is something I'm really working hard on.
[00:24:36] One of my favorite shows, you'll appreciate this, Harry, is Ted Lasso. And I love what he says, lead with curiosity. So as a leader, my job is to model curiosity, to ask better questions, to understand deeper. And that's how we build agility. Thank you. This is great input for the leaders out there. I think they can take a lot away from that.
[00:25:01] So let's do a quick leadership audit, if that's okay with you. What should sales leaders start, stop and keep doing to build that consistency and confidence in their teams, in your opinion? Love this. I would say start with clarity. Yeah. Having fewer priorities, sharper focus. So start with that. What do we stop? Oh, this is a big one. Stop confusing activity with impact.
[00:25:31] It's the impact that matters, not the activity. And the third part is keep, right? I would say I'll go back to systems. They're important to me. So keeping a consistent operating rhythm, because I do believe that systems and cadence beats intensity every single time. Now, I'm curious about the second piece that you said about the stop piece activity. Yes.
[00:25:56] Say a little bit more about that out of curiosity, because that's quite interesting. Yeah. So, you know, we all have KPIs and metrics as sales organizations. It's natural, right? And one of the KPIs that you hear makes seven calls a day, make 10 calls a day. Yes. Do you want your team to go check the box and make seven calls? Or are these seven strategic calls? Are they to the right stakeholders?
[00:26:25] Are these calls to where you're asking the right questions? Are you presenting the right information? For me, that's more important than are there seven calls a day? So, yes, KPIs and metrics are important, but it's not just the activity that matters. It's the impact of that activities that actually drive sales. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And I couldn't agree more with you. So we're almost at the end of our time together.
[00:26:53] And let me ask you a personal question. What's your favorite way to unwind and recharge in our busy, busy schedule? I love that question because I think recharging is so important and so underrated for a leader. So hopefully this doesn't surprise you or your listeners. I'm extremely intentional about how I recharge.
[00:27:20] It's, you know, be it a run or being out in the nature, be it spending quality time with my kids, with my dog, going to an amazing restaurant with my husband, doing a girl's trip with my mom and daughter, reading a really good book, just sitting by the pool and reading a good book. Those are things that I crave for. I intentionally set time aside for it.
[00:27:47] And that's how I continue driving at the level that I do is because I've built in these systems to help me take those intentional breaks. Here's one practice, Harry. It's not conventional, but this is something that's non-negotiable for me is every single year I take a three day solo trip. I get to a place Thursday evening. I call home, say bye to kids, tell my husband, here I am. My mom say bye.
[00:28:17] And then I disconnect from my device. I'm in this place for three days with nothing but just a journal and a pen. And it's the time I take to quiet my mind, to reflect how the year has been and also set goals for what the next year should be. So that's an annual retreat that I gift myself. And I really enjoy that time. And like I said, that's non-negotiable for me. I love it. I'm going to have to consider this to myself.
[00:28:46] So I'm going to take away that idea and suggest that you and my family and also position this as a non-negotiable. Absolutely. Rita, you have been an amazing guest. Our listeners are super, super thankful for your input and into you paying your knowledge into the collective pool of wisdom here. So thank you for taking the time, Rita. Thank you so much, Harry, for having me. I've really enjoyed this conversation.
[00:29:13] I've enjoyed getting to know you and your podcast. You bring some amazing content and I'm honored to be part of this. Absolutely. Thank you so much. My lovely people, if there is one thing this conversation with Rita really reminded me of, and there's actually more than one thing I have to be sure, but it's that consistency that isn't born from pressure. It's built through clarity.
[00:29:37] It's the mindset of simplifying the noise that comes and refocusing the team and believing that momentum that always can be rebuilt and that we should be focusing on. And that's what great sales leadership really is. It's the courage. It's the courage. It's the courage. It's the courage.
[00:30:01] It's the courage to reset, should I say, the refocus and help others to do the same. Okay. My lovely people, if this episode sparked a thought about how you lead or coach your team, share it with a colleague or somebody else who you think would benefit from that amazing contribution that really just passed on in this. So make sure you subscribe, go to our YouTube channel, B2B Sales Trends Podcast.
[00:30:29] And until the next time, look after yourself, your loved ones, and of course, your B2B customers. Bye-bye. If you'd like to put yourself or someone you know forward to be a guest on our show, there is a quick form in the show notes to complete. It only takes a minute and it helps us to find voices and opinions that shape the future of B2B selling. Thank you. We appreciate it.