Leading Sales with Strategy and Grit: Sebastien’s Approach to Scaling Business Growth in Asia
- November 27, 2025
Sebastien joined Neurones IT Asia in 2018 as a Business Development Manager. Since then, he has stepped into regional sales leadership, taking on larger markets like Singapore and Hong Kong, growing key accounts across Asia. Now as Sales Director for APAC, he shares what it really takes to scale a business in a competitive region: from building trust with clients to leading his sales team to stay agile in a fast-changing tech environment.
How do you approach sales forecasting and strategic planning to stay ahead of market changes?
In short: Have a long-term vision, diversify your portfolio and stay open to sudden opportunities.
Market forecasting is, in many ways, very similar to financial investment; nobody knows where exactly the market will go, why and when. Our role is to focus on the long-term outlook and to ensure the team is aligned with this objective.
From a strategic perspective, I also believe in diversification. By targeting multiple industries and clients, we reduce our exposure to market shifts or company-specific downturns. It requires more work as we are managing more relationships, but in the long run, it allows us to have steady and predictable growth.
Lastly, be opportunistic. Not everything can be planned, and we must remain agile when new opportunities emerge.
What strategies do you use to maintain focus and momentum when sales cycles become long and complex?
My advice to the team: Focus on what you can control.
Managing sales is about managing time, and managing a sales team is about managing success. But that doesn’t mean controlling; it’s about understanding.
Since decision-making processes vary across projects and clients, the first step is to maintain a diversified project pipeline, and to balance short, mid, and long-term opportunities.
My approach is to split effort between farming and hunting without creating specialized sales roles. Every team member handles both: existing accounts (farming) and new accounts (hunting). This flexibility allows them to stay alert and prioritize according to the business’s current needs and goals.
Finally, we hunt as packs. Every client and person is different, so naturally, every sale is different too. By working together, the team shares and exchanges accounts when they face resistance or feel that they have exhausted their options. It also prevents individual team members from being stuck in markets facing a downturn, which could hinder their success.
What’s your advice on balancing the pressure of meeting sales targets with nurturing long-term client relationships?
Trust the process, focus on what you can control, and diversify your risk. It may seem basic, but these 3 pillars are the foundation of a good sale.
- Trust the process: The more you reach out, mathematically, the higher chance of hearing back, which leads to increased opportunities. Sales remains a number game.
- Focus on what you can control: Save your energy and spend it when it matters. Sales, especially in B2B is a long game. You can’t burn out after 3 months, you need to be strategic and invest your energy where it makes a difference.
- Diversify your risk: Never put all your eggs in the same basket. You need a diversity of clients, markets, and opportunities.
By following these principles, you may become predictable; but predictability is good. You’ll also free up time and bandwidth to stay open to opportunities you did not expect in the first place.
In what ways do you measure and improve customer lifetime value from a sales perspective?
At Neurones IT Asia, we are all about trust. So really, the best way to measure the evolution of a customer relationship is through the trust they place in us. This is also why in addition to our Consulting services; we focus much of our effort on promoting our Transformation and Managed Services capabilities. These services heavily rely on the trust we’ve built with our clients. They first trust the people, and then they begin to extend their trust in Neurones IT Asia and our systems.
And of course, this process will take time, because without a big name, trust can’t be bought; it must be built. That’s why our strategy and vision must align with this process of building trust and creating value for our clients.
What’s a memorable trip or experience that shaped how you see the world?
It‘s hard to pinpoint one specific trip because each brings a different experience and perspective. But I think that travelling is what opens your eyes and mind. If I have one piece of advice to give: keep traveling, interact with different people and cultures, and step out of your comfort zone.
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