What consultative selling looks like in a real B2B sales career
By Sangeetha Sadagopan
Last updated on Jul 7, 2026
Explore how Sangeetha Sadagopan's two decades in B2B sales reveal why curiosity, listening, and trust consistently outperform hard-selling, and how AI is changing preparation, not relationships.
- How did you find your way into sales?
- What's a lesson you have learned early in your career that still shapes how you sell today?
- What are your biggest lessons on leadership?
- What trends do you think are shaping the future of B2B sales?
- After the AI wave, how have your sales processes changed, and what seems the most, and how do you sell today?
- Which tools are helping you work smarter today and what difference have they made?
- In an increasingly digital world, how important are in-person relationships and events?
- What advice would you give to someone who is completely new and stepping into sales today and also to a budding sales leader?
People in Sales is a community built by SparrowCRM, bringing together real B2B sales practitioners to share their stories in their own words. This edition is part of the Spotlight Series within People in Sales, and it features a sales leader whose two-decade career offers a clear lesson in consultative selling: listening wins more deals than pitching ever will.
Sangeetha Sadagopan is Vice President of Sales at Erescent, with more than twenty years of experience in sales and customer engagement across industries and regions. Despite her experience, she calls herself a lifelong learner, someone who keeps evolving through new challenges and conversations.
How did you find your way into sales?
Sangeetha did not plan a career in software sales. She started in customer-facing roles, then moved through account management and customer success before landing in sales. Early on, she believed sales meant convincing people.
“So the more I listen, the better my results became.”
Nearly twenty years later, that shift defines how she works. She now sees consultative selling as the real skill, helping customers make better decisions instead of pushing them toward one.
Prefer to hear it straight from Sangeetha? Watch the full conversation below for the moments that don't always come through in text.
What's a lesson you have learned early in your career that still shapes how you sell today?
Early in her career, Sangeetha spent hours polishing presentations, convinced that a flawless slide deck would win the room. Then a customer meeting showed her something different: buyers cared far more about their own business problems than her slides.
“One lesson that stayed with me throughout my career is that customers buy trust before they buy technology.”
That shift taught her to understand the problem before offering a solution, a habit at the center of how to build trust in sales relationships.
What are your biggest lessons on leadership?
When Sangeetha first became a manager, she assumed her team would be motivated the same way she was. She quickly learned that some people want coaching, some want independence, and some simply want room to work.
“When your team grows and becomes more confident, gets promoted and achieves success, that's when you know you have done your job well.”
That discovery reshaped her approach to sales coaching, shifting it from directing people to enabling them to succeed on their own terms.
What trends do you think are shaping the future of B2B sales?
Buyers today walk into meetings already informed. They have researched the company, the competitors, and often the salesperson's own profile before the first call.
“I think the biggest shift is that customers increasingly buy outcome rather than the features.”
Sangeetha says this shift changes what sales teams need to bring to the table: insight and business value, not product facts. Among the wider B2B sales trends she is watching, outcome-based selling is replacing feature-led pitches.
After the AI wave, how have your sales processes changed, and what seems the most, and how do you sell today?
AI has made Sangeetha noticeably faster. Research that once took hours can now be done in minutes, whether it is understanding a prospect, prepping for a meeting, or drafting an email.
“My daughter sometimes jokes that I'm talking to, you know, Chat GPT more than I'm talking to other people.”
Even so, she is careful not to overstate what AI in sales actually changes. The tools speed up preparation. They do not replace the trust, empathy, and relationship-building that still decide whether a deal closes.
See How SparrowCRM Helps Sales Teams Sell Smarter
Which tools are helping you work smarter today and what difference have they made?
Sangeetha uses a mix of CRM platforms, LinkedIn, Apollo, AI assistants, and automation tools. None of them do the selling for her.
“I would rather spend my time speaking with the customers, understanding their challenges and building relationships than updating spreadsheets all day.”
What good sales productivity tools actually do is remove manual busywork, freeing up time for the part of the job that matters most: real conversations with customers.
In an increasingly digital world, how important are in-person relationships and events?
Virtual meetings let Sangeetha work across regions and time zones, which she values. But she is clear that digital tools maintain relationships more than they build them.
“Some of the most meaningful business relationships I built started with a coffee conversation, a conference meeting, or a casual discussion during an event break.”
The habits behind building trust in sales, like a good conversation starter or a shared coffee, still tend to start in person, at a conference or during a casual break between sessions.
What advice would you give to someone who is completely new and stepping into sales today and also to a budding sales leader?
For anyone wondering how to get into sales, Sangeetha's advice is simple: stay curious and focus on learning, not selling. Understand the customer's industry and goals before anything else.
“The best salespeople are usually the best listeners.”
Among her sales tips for beginners, this one comes first. For new sales leaders, she adds one more layer: your job is not to have all the answers; it is to help your team find theirs.
Sangeetha Sadagopan
Sangeetha Sadagopan is Vice President of Sales, APAC & EMEA at Eracent, with 20+ years of experience in enterprise sales, customer success, and account management. She helps organizations optimize IT asset management (ITAM), software asset management (SAM), and cybersecurity through consultative selling, cost reduction, compliance, and stronger customer relationships.
