As the lull of summer begins to (or already has) set in, do not let this idle time go to waste. Reading is a great way to expand your knowledge or hone in on an existing skill. I want to share three titles that have helped me stay ahead in the market and better understand what Mereo clients deal with in their respective fields. Without further ado, here are three books to add to your “to-be-read” list.
1. Selling the Cloud: A Playbook for Success in Cloud Software and Enterprise Sales by Paul Melchiorre and Mark Petruzzi
Paul Melchiorre and Mark Petruzzi share their 25 years of enterprise cloud software sales strategies in this title. The book provides practical lessons and key characteristics needed to succeed in future sales climates and includes insights from titans of software sales from significant companies. Selling the Cloud is a valuable resource for anyone involved in B2B sales.
This book is a practical guide to selling enterprise software in a marketplace now defined as “Software as a Service (SaaS).” While this book targets “software,” it is relevant for all subscription businesses. Having supported Paul Melchiorre on some of the transformations he has led as Chief Revenue Officer, I can speak firsthand that the lessons and leading practices are relevant and deliver the desired outcomes – recurring revenues, revenue growth, sales cycle velocity, win rates. In part, Paul and the team lay out the pillars of scalable, sustainable revenue performance in software sales, namely: passion, velocity, grit, empathy, authenticity, creativity, resilience, trust, strategic thinking and technology leverage.
2. The Boutique by Greg Alexander
Greg Alexander is the founder of Collective 54, a mastermind community for boutique professional service firms. He helps founders increase profits, simplify scaling, and achieve successful exits. Before this, Greg co-founded SBI, where he served as CEO for 11 years before successfully selling his interest in 2017.
This is a must-read book if you have founded or are leading a professional services firm. Greg Alexander starts with the fundamentals and helps put layer upon layer of practical lessons for how to start, scale and sell a professional services firm. No matter where your firm is in the lifecycle, this book is for you. Greg provides examples and “snackable” chapters with critical principles and strategies, plus a checklist of questions to wrap up each chapter, helping the reader benchmark progress and lay out the next steps to attack.
3. The Joy Model: A Step-by-Step Guide to Peace, Purpose, and Balance by Jeff Spadafora
Jeff Spadafora is a life coach who teaches readers how to find joy through faith. Many American Christians feel frustrated as they struggle to find joy in their faith. As a result, some seek meaning, purpose, and joy in other aspects of their lives, such as work, relationships, or possessions. In Jeff’s The Joy Model, you will learn that joy comes from balancing the practical and spiritual sides of our Christian lives.
With roots in Bob Buford’s Halftime, in his own book, Jeff Spadafora offers a plan for a more vibrant and real life – one filled with joy. At the heart of it, Jeff reveals a blueprint for readers to grow from “knowing about God” to actually “experiencing Him” by balancing the “Doing” and the “Being” of life.
Serve Yourself by First Serving Your Buyers
As a bonus for this list, try reading our Seek to Serve™ eBook. Seeking to serve means putting your buyer’s needs at the heart of what you do and offering solutions that will truly ease their pains. In the eBook, learn more about the philosophy and how it can create a win-win situation for you and your buyers.