Selling is a life skill. It is not limited to a function you work in: Gurneesh Khurana

Selling is a life skill. It is not limited to a transaction or a function you work in. That was the emphatic message from Gurneesh Khurana at the e4m Revenue Leaders Conference, where the industry veteran, who is the former president and country head at Bajaj Allianz General Insurance and former director-sales at General Motors India, delivered a no-slide, no-numbers keynote that doubled as a wake-up call for businesses chasing growth in silos.

During his keynote session on ‘Reinventing revenue - reboot and rethink for growth and results’ at e4m Revenue Leaders Conference, Khurana opened by saying, “each one of us sitting out in the room is a salesperson because selling is a life skill.”

“If you are an HR person, you would sell the organization to the incumbents. If you are a marketing guy, you would go in for a pitch to get the right agents. If you are a service guy, you would always look at your customer to tell how the cost of ownership or service is best,” he said.

No matter the designation, he argued, the act of persuasion, influence, and relationship-building runs through all job functions.

“When I was in General Motors, I was heading the sales. But I said the best salesperson is the after-sales person… that guy is not an after-sales guy. He is actually the actual genuine salesman because that precedes the sale,” he said.

Pointing out how leadership titles often evolve into abstract labels, Khurana asked to be referred to not as a revenue leader, but a “sales leader.” He stressed, “We all get fancy glorified designations as we move up. But the primary job we do is selling, irrespective of the function we are. So, if you are not in sales, don't worry, you are still doing a salesperson’s job, he said, adding that even after 32 years of experience, “I still call myself a salesman… only thing that grew up with that was a bigger room and even bigger targets.”

Khurana didn’t shy away from calling out the high-pressure, unforgiving nature of sales roles. “The harsh truth in the life of a salesperson remains—he's either a hero or a zero. If numbers are met, rewards and recognition follow. If not, blame is quick and unforgiving,” he said.

Khurana then posed a direct question to the room, if only the sales team was responsible for numbers not being met? and called for tighter collaboration, better alignment and shared ownership of outcomes.

“The failure of the sales function is the failure of the organization,” he said.

He shared lessons from working at Xerox, once a company so dominant that its name became synonymous with photocopying.

“Xerox had a 70% market share. The GUI, mouse, Ethernet—all were invented by Xerox. But they failed to capitalize… and the giant elephant became a mouse themselves,” he said.

At General Motors, despite global dominance the company failed to localize for Indian consumers, he said, adding, “The cars were globally compliant, but in India, customers wanted something else- low-cost servicing, higher resale value… not just NCAP ratings.”

In a poignant moment, he saluted those in life insurance sales, calling it the toughest job of all.

“Imagine selling someone the anguish of their death and walking away. That is the ultimate sale,” he said.

Khurana closed with a powerful reminder that sales doesn’t succeed in isolation. It is enabled or blocked by every function that touches the customer. “You are responsible for creating the push and the pull for the sales team.”

He urged leaders to confront organizational complacency, embrace change, and move as one unit.