Reading is like taking the road less traveled. There are no traffic jams on the road to success. Reading for just 30 minutes every day will offer ideas and knowledge to possibly start your own company, write your own book or at the least provide inspiration to work harder and smarter in your current endeavors. It works for me and it can work for you too!

Recommended books for Inspiration:

How to Win at the Sport of Business by Mark Cuban

The One Thing by Gary Keller with Jay Papasan

Self-Made Success by Saan Patel

Bold by Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler

Rework by Jason Fried and David Hansson

Spin Selling by Neil Rackham

Question Based Selling by Thomas A. Freese

The New Strategic Selling by Robert B. Miller and Stephen E. Heiman

Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In

By Roger Fisher, William L. Ury, Bruce Patton

Yes!: 50 Secrets From the Science of Persuasion

By Noah Goldstein, Robert B. Cialdini, Steve Martin

Blue Ocean Strategy, Expanded Edition: How to Create Uncontested Market … By W. Chan Kim, Renee Mauborgne

Please check out my book “Secrets To Selling Software”! I hope that it inspires you to get started, get going and make more money!

Success is more about perseverance and pressing forward than speed.

Ancient Chinese proverb:  “Be not afraid of going slowly; be afraid of standing still.”

Create your own Luck!

Dreams don’t work unless you do! Get Going!

 “Don’t let the noise of others opinions drown out your own inner voice” Steve Jobs

Think Big.

There is the story of how immigrant Jan Koum went from being on welfare to becoming a Billionaire. The WhatsApp co-founder worked as a janitor, dropped out of college, learned to code, landed a job at Yahoo and then quit to travel, co-started the mobile messaging app WhatsAPP and sold it to Facebook for $19 Billion and he is worth over $9 Billion at the time of writing this book.

If you are going to think at all, THINK BIG!

Be Positive

Take Action

Be Persistent

Be Adaptable

Be Committed

Be Resilient

Be Collaborative

Keep Learning

Add Value

Believe in Yourself – Don’t Lose Heart While You Work and Other’s Play. Stay Focused. Success Takes Effort!

 Responsibilities, Experiences, Skills and Attributes Desired by Software Companies

Typical Responsibilities

• Develop territory or list of named accounts within geography.
• Establish and develop strategic C-level relationships with business and technology decision makers.
• Effectively (Hyper) qualify a prospect or customer and manage relationships strategically for maximum short and long term value.
• Close business as quickly and as effectively as possible.
• Become a subject matter expert quickly and continue to deepen product knowledge expertise over time.
• Thrive in a fast paced and entrepreneurial environment.
• Build strategy with team members to grow customer base.
• Leverage enterprise account selling strategies.
• Sell product, solutions, and services and crush your quota.
• Deliver a predictable book of business to drive forecast accuracy.
• Engage in account planning process to map solutions to client initiatives and determine next steps.

• Proposal generation articulating financial ROI/TCO value.
• Foster deep partnerships and leverage distributors, channel partners and technology partners, locally and regionally.
• Leverage all internal cross-functional resources to achieve your quota: inside sales, channel systems engineering, field marketing, sales specialists, the services team, overlay sales, operations including the deal desk.
• Prospect for new business with new and existing customers.
• Communicate your company value propositions to clients that speak intimately to their needs and requirements.
• Collaborate with customers to help solve their toughest technology challenges.
• Team up with your Sales/Systems Engineering team to prepare account strategies and plans, and to deliver outstanding product demos and proof of concept programs to prospects and customers.

Typical Experience Desired

• Experience selling software as a service, in the cloud, middleware, mobile applications, data analytics, security, database, monitoring or similar technology solutions.
• Proficiency in all aspects of the sales cycle, especially (Hyper) qualifying high value accounts.
• Ability to quickly understand the company product and effectively identify how it can provide value to a prospective prospect or customer.
• Business acumen: ability to apply your knowledge and experience to enhance internal and external relationships.
• A proven track record of exceeding quotas and delivering results: you have a long list of happy customers who will vouch for you.
• Strong relationship building skills that extends to internal team members in pre- and post-sales.
• A comfort level with the dynamic nature of a fast growing company and you are adaptable to change.
• Extensive experience as a trusted advisor to CIOs, C-level executives and throughout the technical and business teams.

Typical Skills and Attributes

• Always act with honesty and integrity.
• Drive to succeed and over achieve.
• Dynamic hunter and sales professional.
• Manage and drive sales engagements.
• Passion for connecting your customers with a solution.
• Significant driver of company revenue and profitable growth.
• Responsible for meeting and completely obliterating your quota by creating and implementing strategic enterprise account plans targeting your top focus accounts.
• Proven ability to build the right relationships inside accounts.
• Land new business, and significantly expand the lifetime customer value over time.
• Proven enterprise account manager with a hunter mentality to win business and market share by actively displacing competing technologies.
• Ability to execute advanced solution selling capabilities, conduct sales presentations, coordinate multiple resources within an account, while consistently and successfully closing business and forecasting within five percent accuracy.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to clearly articulate your company’s value.
• BA/BS or equivalent preferred.
• Self-starter with the ability to work independently or in a team environment.
• Ability to manage multiple tasks and use good judgment in resolving difficult and complex issues.
• Experience with Salesforce, Siebel or a similar CRM tool is strongly preferred.
• Detail and process oriented.

Jerry’s Top 10 Instincts for Sales Success – Have the Heart of a Lion

1. Have an absolute driving desire to succeed – always thinking about strategies to create a deal that is a win/win for the customer and yourself.
2. You FEEL amped when you close a deal – You get great satisfaction, jazzed when you worked hard to create a deal and you close it whether it took 18 months or 8 weeks.
3. Extreme self-discipline is your norm – willing to wake up at 2:30am to get to the airport to travel and meet a customer. Able to block out distractions and interruptions.
4. You are tenacious.
5. You exude perseverance.
6. You project diligence.
7. You can manage resources effectively internally and externally in a timely manner. Master of time management.
8. You understand what business problem your product or solution addresses for the customer and can explain it in layman’s terms quickly, efficiently and charismatically.
9. Ability to listen without interrupting, ask technical, personal and business questions, understand and position your product effectively to increase value and solve business problems while being in tune with emotional needs.
10. Negotiate the best value for both your customer and your company. Think of the big picture and how you can grow the size of the pie.