How to Be an Authentic Sales Leader with Kris Krustangel

In this episode, I’ll be sitting down with Kris Krustangel, Vice President of Business Development at Saluda Medical, a global neuromodulation company leading the development and commercialization of data-driven, personalized therapies for patients with chronic pain. The company’s first product, Evoke®, is a closed-loop spinal cord stimulator (SCS) system designed to treat chronic pain, a condition that affects more than 540 million people globally. He focuses on innovating strategies for success while increasing the capacity of his team’s performance along the way.  Passion, authenticity, and results have been consistent themes in his career. Having started in pharma, he then took on a 20-year career in medical devices. He served in many roles from a clinical specialist to a frontline manager and everything in between. Kris joins us to share his journey and impart great lessons and insights from his sales experience for those who are in pharma and want to make that pivot to medical devices. He also tells us about his passion for helping and serving other people, showing us how true leaders work and how they inspire. Don’t miss out on this valuable 26-minute episode. On Today’s Episode of The Science of Selling STEM: Starting out in pharmaceutical sales then pivots into medical device sales and ends up as the Vice-President of Business Development of a global neuromodulation company (01:46) The overall experience he had working in the operating room (03:05) Selling a solution while becoming the solution to the target customer’s need (05:06) Transitioning into leadership and his passion for helping and challenging others (06:12) Leaving an established company to join a startup (06:59) Being successful consistently by learning to prioritize and focus (08:09) How he helps his team manage their time so they can always stay on track (10:40)  Why it’s important for leaders to act early when it comes to performance conversations (13:49) Empathy + technical skills to work successfully in the neuromod