I just finished winning the cloud: Sales stories and advice from my days at Microsoft by Trong Nguyen.

Trong is a masterful story teller. He is able to make you laugh causing you to really connect with him. Even though I have never met him. I feel like I was there with him on the ride. All of his battles and stories makes me feel in love with the type of work we do in sales.

He talks about his amazing manager Vanessa. Her ability to be able to adapt and is never afraid to talk about her insecurities and faults. She is confident and is able to tell you the truth even when no one does. People typically are intimidated by Directors, VPs, and C levels even though they are people just like us. He talks about treating them like everyone else and they also have normal everyday problems just like the rest of us.

Humor makes everything better. All of his stories are so funny in every chapter. Humor mixed with storytelling creates amazing results and a lot of money for you if you are in Enterprise technology sales.

Be different. Everyone else is taken so just be yourself. The more you try to be like someone else the more other people can see that. Especially C level executives. They are extremely smart and talented they can see through the BS.

Keeping it real and concise. We are all busy and there is so many things to do with our time but Trong knows this and is able to put down years worth of knowledge for something so complex and make it so simple for everyone to learn in less than 150 pages.

I am super excited to meet him in person for dinner. The value of networking cannot be emphasized even more. The ability to reach out and not being afraid to ask for help is something that will serve you for a really long time.

Not being afraid of rejection and just being persistent. This is a skill that takes time to develop but is very valuable. Obviously, not every single person is going to say yes to meeting with me. At least I tried.

I just finished watching Shawshank redemption. Andy, one of the main characters in the movie keeps writing a letter every day until the government gives him what he wants and more. After he gets what he wants, he starts writing two letters a day. That is the power of resilience and persistence!

Having great mentors is essential to success because then you do not have to fail and learn the hard way. It may be possible to skip a couple of failures. Typically, people can have mentors within your organization and also outside your company to have more diverse opinions and thoughts.

I hope everyone is having an amazing holiday weekend so far!

I got to walk around NYC and really enjoyed the energy out there today! I am super blessed and lucky to have the life I live. Thank you all for taking the time of your busy day to read this book! God bless!

 

 

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