Mark Petruzzi - Selling the Cloud : A Playbook for Success in Cloud Software and Enterprise Sales

ABOUT PAUL MELCHIORRE

Paul has 30 years of experience in enterprise software sales and business leadership. Raised in South Philadelphia, Paul is a natural-born salesman and entrepreneur. He started his first business at 13 years old selling newspapers on the beaches of Wildwood, New Jersey. Pauls street smarts and entrepreneurial spirit translated to industry-leading performance in enterprise software sales. His innate ability to identify potential, build company portfolios, and take companies public has rewarded him with an illustrious track record of successful exits.

Pauls passion lies in technology, sales leadership, and building go-to-market strategies. He has applied that passion over his career to influence the enterprise software sales industry. He began his career in the enterprise software space at SAP in its early stages. He joined SAP as employee number 200 in the USA, assisting in the early global deployments of SAP R3. As Senior Vice President of Global accounts, he and his group were responsible for over 85% of the companys revenue and helped establish SAP as the global leader in enterprise software. Paul also led industry initiatives supporting SAPs vertical strategy that enabled it to dominate many industries on a global basis.

Recognizing a void in the market for procurement software, Paul helped found Ariba in 1998 and built the field organization for sales, implementation, service, alliances, and channels. Ariba was eventually acquired by SAP for $5 billion in 2012. Paul went on to help several other Software as a Service (SaaS) portfolio companies go public.

Recently, he served as President and Chief Revenue Officer at Anaplan, a leading SaaS platform to facilitate financial planning and management. There, he contributed to a successful IPO in 2018, and saw the company grow from $80 million to $300+ million in annual recurring revenue and to over a $7 billion market cap.

Paul is now sharing his proven, innovative approach as Operating Partner at Stripes. He also serves as an independent director at both R3, an enterprise blockchain technology company, and Scout RFP, a sourcing and procurement software company that was acquired in December 2019 by Workday, as well as nonprofit Spark.org.

Dedicated to giving back, Pauls philanthropic efforts have advanced education for children, future mental health professionals, and womens heart health, through Spark, The Quell Foundation, and The American Heart Association.

Paul holds a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from Villanova University and a Master of Business Administration in Finance from Drexel University. He and his wife, Nicole, have four children and reside in Philadelphia, PA.

FOREWORD
BY GERHARD GSCHWANDTNER

Amateurs score occasional wins. Professionals create consistent results. Top sales professionals dont make quota, they exceed quota. They dont make sales, they create customers. They dont dream of earning a good living, they are living the good life.

This book captures the time-tested sales wisdom of great salespeople that realized early in their career that learning means earning. I have had the privilege of interviewing some of the best salespeople in the world, from Europe and Japan to the United States, and learned that all great salespeople consciously develop five qualities that all begin with the letter C.

Curiosity: Great salespeople are curious about people, processes, financial matters and customer psychology.

Creativity: When Bill McDermott, the CEO of ServiceNow worked as a Xerox salesman, he made a sales call with a colleague in New York City. They visited an elderly woman who was interested in buying a copy machine. As they entered the room, Bill was attacked by her cat. In a flash, he realized that the owner loves the cat and he was curious about the owners fondness for cats. Bill realized that currying favor with the cat was the way to the sale. It worked. They sold the copy machine without talking about the product and without giving a product demonstration.

Credibility: Dr. Robert Cialdini, a leading expert on persuasion shared a story about a real estate company: When customers called to get more information, the receptionist was trained to say, Ill connect you with Peter, the head of sales. He has over 20 years of experience selling high-end properties That credibility statement resulted in 20% more appointments and 15% more sales. Great salespeople turn credibility into success.