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p. 1
this is a very original and very humorous look at the intricate relationship between sales and finance it delivers the pivotal lessons of the new era of computing in an entertaining way a great read marc benioff chairman ceo salesforce.com unzipping the wall between sales and finance a novel by fen c california[close]
p. 3
praise for the deal the move to cloud computing is rather than some assume much more than a replacement of in-house it with outsourced rather it is a fundamental change which enables a level of transparency collaboration and efficiency that was simply impossible previously this book tells that story in an engaging and entertaining way and as such will do more good than any number of arm waving industry evangelists ben kepes industry analyst in my recent book the new polymath i catalog a number of multi-disciplinary innovations compound ones which bring together strands of infotech cleantech biotech etc a far simpler innovation often with significant payback for most companies involves bringing their sales and finance groups together this book brings out in entertaining fashion many of those opportunities vinnie mirchandani president deal architect inc 2[close]
p. 4
i loved reading this story anyone who s worked in sales or the accounts department for a big-ticket b2b vendor will instantly recognize the tensions characters and home truths humorously captured in this enjoyable and stylish tale phil wainewright saas analyst consultant and blogger i like this book know why because the deal is about the sales and finance tensions at companies before you deem me a morbid soul what makes this book good is that it highlights these tensions in a tongue in cheek way but at the same time gets to the heart of their cause you know what else makes this immensely readable book good it actually is sophisticated enough to blow past the ordinary stereotypes of what makes up a sales guy and a finance person and shows you the more granular and truer way they interact at companies then it goes on to give you guideposts on actually resolving those often destructive tensions there is a lot of metaphor here you know person department metaphor but they are done so well that i literally read this short book in one sitting and when i was finished i was still glad i did if that isn t an endorsement i don t know what is paul greenberg author crm at the speed of light 4th edition 3[close]
p. 8
introduction by marc benioff chairman ceo salesforce.com we ve always believed everything was going to the cloud and now we re excited to see it has made the migration into works of fiction the deal is a creative and comedic take on very real issues that exist in business today and it also provides great insight on how companies can prepare for tomorrow when we started salesforce.com we were convinced that by leveraging the power of the internet we could deliver enterprise software services that were faster easier to use and less expensive than the traditional systems customers have seen the benefits of a new way and voted for the cloud with their pounds euros dollars and yen but we still have work ahead of us for many companies that have not yet embraced the shift to the cloud a disconnect between departments still exists because data is held in different systems and because there s a lack of true collaboration in particular we knew that the relationship between sales and marketing was a tempestuous one and we wanted to do something about it which we have 7[close]
p. 9
now that cloud computing is at a tipping point and we have evolved to cloud 2 the next generation of computing which is social mobile and real time we have capabilities we could not have imagined 10 years ago the power of this new model is to create the next level of productivity collaboration and learning in the enterprise new collaboration apps like chatter have already made the sales process more transparent and more efficient in this book financialforce.com has demonstrated a sharp sense of humor about business today but has also illustrated very real scenarios that exist between sales and finance that still hamper vast numbers of companies from reaching their potential in the same way that our services have connected sales and marketing other cloud computing companies are tearing down walls that exist between finance and sales an entire generation of cloud computing companies are building cloud 2 apps that are social real-time and available on devices like the iphone financialforce.com has addressed this exciting shift in computing and what it means for companies in a unique and highly entertaining way the deal is a great way of telling this key story and it s also 8[close]
p. 10
inspiring if companies can better understand the barriers that exist they will find it easier to knock them down and who knows perhaps love will also happen along the way aloha marc 9[close]
p. 12
the deal dave whitman signed fullerton d_whitman today is a good day dave dave he glanced over his shoulder a girl was hurrying after him wide-eyed bespectacled where did they find these order processing girls the bottom of pools i m so glad i caught you i didn t think you were going to hear me i could hear you he said i was ignoring you he kept walking it was four-thirty for the love of god you close a deal four-thirty was a perfectly respectable time to leave the office especially if you had a maserati waiting for you which dave did the girl stared at him trying to figure out if this was a joke she decided it was oh ha ha ha well dave he quickened his pace she matched him the elevators were forty seconds away forty seconds and he was safe i don t want to keep you excellent he said i m glad we had this chat oh ha ha ha twenty seconds he thought it s just that i need to ask you a few questions 11[close]
p. 13
about the fullerton order fullerton he said because that consumed a few more seconds bringing him that much closer to achieving his ultimate goal of stepping into an elevator and watching the doors close on this girl s face veronica said her id tag he must have spoken with veronica before probably several times but as a general rule he didn t waste time remembering the names of people from order processing they were functionally identical yes it just came in this afternoon i know it came in this afternoon i closed it this afternoon and three months he said three months that s how long they strung me along waiting for board signoff the first board meeting was deferred because of so-called compatibility issues there were no compatibility issues veronica i had established in excruciating detail with all relevant players that there were no compatibility issues but steve malowi neglected to take my carefully prepared talking points into the board meeting and the board was not convinced so a decision was deferred next board meeting there s an attempted hostile takeover a spill fine i appreciate they might have had other 12[close]
p. 14
priorities but it was very inconvenient veronica very inconvenient finally last night they sign off i get the call i get the order he smiled they had reached the elevator he pressed down all is well in the world well actually said veronica there are a few aspects that aren t quite clear to me and i was hoping we could sit down to he shook his head no absolutely not i don t why not i have a maserati dave said well i lease a maserati it s basically the same thing do you know what it feels like to have a maserati waiting for you do you no it s a kind of yearning that s what i m feeling a yearning she cleared her throat that s nice dave but it would be really helpful if since it s almost the weekend we could get this straightened out um before you he was eyeballing her this was usually effective many people had crumbled before dave s eyeballing i mean she said we re on the same side right the elevator arrived but this was too much he put his hand on the doors to keep them open i m sorry 13[close]
p. 15
did you say we re on the same side yes no no veronica we are not on the same side you re in finance i m in sales you realize this don t you of course but we both work for we re the chicken and the fox the dying man and the buzzard the dingo and the baby we are natural enemies it s nothing personal it s just the way it is your job is to make my life harder my job is to prevent you from torpedoing deals you see natural enemies i don t think that s really true it s not your fault it s your job which you re performing very well by the way you re doing everything that could be asked of you in the way of making my life harder more in fact i don t want to make your life harder dave i only shh he said shhh veronica he stepped into the elevator i m leaving now i m leaving you for my maserati in forty-five seconds i will have forgotten you exist she opened her mouth but by the time the doors closed nothing had come out of it dave exhaled on the way down he began to hum a little it was a good day 14[close]
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