.png)
Whether you’re just starting out in sales or you’re a seasoned sales leader, you want to constantly improve and learn. Here at SetSail, we understand that having access to the most cutting edge resources and tools is critical to progressing in your sales career. Having access to a vast collection of the best sales books and resources at your disposal that can help you learn the basics and stay on-top of trends in the industry. From books to podcasts and courses to webinars and conventions, our collective knowledge base abounds with methods to consume the information.
With all of the various sources and ways to consume, it can become overwhelming choosing just how to absorb all that is out there. Yet, the best way to learn, find inspiration, and develop new ideas is by reading books. Reading improves brain connectivity, increases your vocabulary and comprehension skills and helps you absorb information quickly by stimulating circuits and signals in the brain.
If your goal is to acquire the knowledge you need to advance your sales career in a meaningful way, you’ve got to check out our comprehensive list of the best sales books of all time.
120+ Best Sales Books of All Time
Best Sales Books for CROs
CMO to CRO: The Revenue Takeover by the Next Generation Executive
By Mike Geller, Rolly Keenan, and Brandi Starr
In this book, you get knowledge from three industry experts, Mike Geller, Rolly Keenan, and Brandi Starr, on how to bring revenue to the forefront of your business. They explain how to transition from a CMO to a CRO and how to position yourself as an successful, innovative leader.
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable
By Patrick Lencioni
Patrick Lencioni helps leaders improve their organizations’ health and has penned a number of best-selling books around the principles he’s been teaching and implementing since 1997. In The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, he explains five of the most common reasons teams fail to perform and what you can do to address these issues. Leaders often focus on success, yet tuning into failures is how you improve and strengthen your team.
Aligning Strategy and Sales: The Choices, Systems, and Behaviors that Drive Effective Selling
By Frank Cespedes
Frank Cespedes is a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School. He has helped countless companies bridge the gap between their sales efforts and strategies to improve performance and supercharge revenue. Whether you’re a startup or a huge organization, aligning strategy and sales is crucial. This book provides key insights from a professional expert to assist in aligning your business strategies.
Triangle Selling: Sales Fundamentals to Fuel Growth
By Hilmon Sorey and Cory Bray
This book is aimed at CEOs and CROs looking for a new system to improve sales performance, reduce ramp time, enable their reps, and find more growth opportunities. The goal behind Triangle Selling is to make sure salespeople know the ‘whys’, ‘whens’, and ‘what to do next’ throughout the sales process.
Hacking Sales: The Playbook for Building a High-Velocity Sales Machine
By Max Altschuler
If you want to build a high-velocity sales machine, you need to know the steps, tools, and processes to make it happen. This is all laid out in this book, Hacking Sales by Max Altschuler, who has been involved in several multimillion-dollar media companies.
Best Sales Books for Sales Managers
Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
By Simon Sinek
In Start with Why, Simon Sinek looks at why some individuals and organizations are more profitable, influential, and innovative than others. As a sales leader, you’ll get greater insights into your own organization and how you can create a productive selling culture that stands out among competitors.
Think and Grow Rich
By Napoleon Hill
One of the best-selling books of all time and often referred to as the "Granddaddy of All Motivational Literature", Think and Grow Rich takes a look at what motivated some of the greatest minds of all time. A truly inspiring book for anyone in a leadership or managerial role, or looking to become a successful leader.
More Sales, Less Time: Surprisingly Simple Strategies for Today’s Crazy-Busy Sellers
By Jill Konrath
One of the biggest frustrations sales reps complain about is being overwhelmed or swamped in administrative tasks that keep them from doing what they do best - selling. This book provides some fresh and innovative ways to automate sales processes and help your reps spend more time selling, and less time complaining.
Crushing Quota
By Michelle Vazzana
If your reps are struggling to achieve their sales quotas, Crushing Quota will act as a sales coaching manual that you can pass on to your reps. Within sales it’s important to develop a continuous learning culture. This book breaks down many of the ways sales managers can provide better coaching to their reps.
Sales Manager Survival Guide: Lessons from Sales' Front Lines
By David Brock
The Sales Manager Survival Guide recognizes that there is a lot more that goes into being a sales manager than simply overseeing sales reps. This book addresses a long list of issues, from coaching and leveraging systems to dealing with employee problems and hitting targets. If you want to be a (better) sales manager, this is a must-read.
The Accidental Sales Manager
By Suzanne Paling
If you’re a sales manager that almost fell into the role and lacks some of the background and fundamentals you see other sales managers have, this is the book for you. Suzanne Paling is a sales management consultant, and in this book, she shares her wisdom and experience helping sales managers to stop struggling and start succeeding with confidence.
Cracking the Sales Management Code: The Secrets to Measuring and Managing Sales Performance
By Jason Jordan and Michelle Vazzana
Cracking the Sales Management Code is based on extensive research into how sales managers operate within several world-class companies. The authors lay out the critical processes of successful managers, sales metrics they work with, how they hire, and some other key takeaways. Understanding how world-class companies operate allows you to modify and improve your own processes.
Combo Prospecting
By Tony J. Hughes
If finding a constant flow of good prospects is a bottleneck in your sales process, this book is going to be your savior. Tony explains how businesses can combine tried and tested prospecting strategies with cutting-edge social media strategies to find, reach, and attract better-targeted prospects. Combo Prospecting is the go-to book for improving quality prospects.
Sales Management. Simplified.
By Mike Weinberg
Mike Weinberg is a sales management consultant who has helped countless sales managers revamp how they manage their sales teams. In his book, Sales Management. Simplified. he shares all of the tips and tricks he uses in real consultations so you can make the same changes within your organization.
Influence: Science and Practice
By Robert B. Cialdini
This book has an unusual and unique approach to helping sales leaders better understand the science and techniques behind the power of persuasion. It’s written in a narrative style but lays out six categories that’ll help you better understand how to guard yourself against influences and persuade others to do as you wish.
Little Red Book of Selling: 12.5 Principles for sales greatness
By Jeffrey Gitomer
Little Red Book of Selling is a Wall Street Journal Business Best-Seller. In this book, Jeffrey takes you through his 12.5 principles of sales greatness and strategies - helping you understand why sales happen and how to better enable your reps to sell more.
The Long-Distance Leader
By Kevin Eikenberry and Wayne Turmel
We’re in unprecedented times in terms of how many sales reps are now working remotely. This has presented some unique challenges for many organizations, and those who do not adapt will lose ground on their competitors. The Long-Distance Leader brings you up to speed on how to manage a remote sales workforce and keep a positive, motivated workplace culture from your couch.
The Ultimate Sales Machine
By Chet Holmes
Chet Holmes helps sales managers turbocharge their revenue while becoming more effective. In The Ultimate Sales Machine, Chet shares his tactics, wisdom, and experience and says that you can tune up your business with just one hour a week spent on the right tasks.
52 Sales Management Tips - The Sales Manager's Success Guide
By Steven Rosen
For this book, the author Steven Rosen distilled more than 20 years of his own sales management and sales executive coaching insights into 52 sales management tips. It’s packed with actionable nuggets of information you can use to become a better sales manager.
Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions: A Tactical Playbook for Managers and Executives
By Keith Rosen
In this book, Keith Rosen explains that the secret to developing a team of high performing sales reps isn’t more training. It’s better coaching. Keith explains how you can combine his own coaching methodology with proven L.E.A.D.S. Coaching Framework to turn your reps into champions.
B2B Is Really P2P: How to Win With High Touch in a High Tech World
By Frank Somma
B2B Is Really P2P is a step-by-step manual designed to help sales managers and other sales professionals form a stronger rapport with customers and form better, long-term customer loyalty. A perfect read to gain a valuable understanding of another perspective in sales.
The First-Time Manager
By Jim McCormick
Although not directly related to sales, The First-Time Manager has become a go-to resource for managers in all industries. It provides everything you need to know about how to be the best manager you can and is broken down into an easy-to-read step-by-step format.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
by Stephen R. Covey
This is one of the best-selling leadership and personal success books of all time. Stephen looks at 7 habits that highly effective people share. Explaining how you can develop these habits yourself and become more effective in all aspects of your role as a sales manager and teach your sales team ways to optimize their efficiency.
The New Handshake, The: Sales Meets Social Media
By Joan C. Curtis and Barbara Giamanco
Whether you currently sell over social media or you’re thinking about it, The New Handshake is a huge eye-opener into how you can better tap into an audience of hundreds of millions of social media users. Social media requires a different approach to more traditional selling channels, and Joan explains exactly how you can formulate a strategy.
Top of Mind
By John Hall
John Hall is the co-founder and president of the leading scheduling app Calendar.com. He’s an expert in time management. In Top of Mind, John takes a look at some of the things successful businesses and leaders have in common and explains how you can also replicate their habits and better use your time.
Predictable Prospecting: How to Radically Increase Your B2B Sales Pipeline
By Marylou Tyler
If you’re in the B2B market, you need to be an expert at prospecting to keep acquisition costs low and margins high. Predictable Prospecting covers a wide range of advanced prospecting tactics, from how to identify and target the right prospects to landing meetings and securing predictable revenue.
Predictable Revenue: Turn Your Business Into A Sales Machine
By Aaron Ross & Marylou Tyler
On the back of Predictable Prospecting, this is another book by Marylou Tyler, this time with Aaron Ross. It looks at how you can create predictable revenue for your business. It codifies and targets a wide range of sales techniques and strategies and looks at some of the things successful companies do well.
Winning with Data: Transform Your Culture, Empower Your People, and Shape the Future
Tomasz Tunguz & Frank Bien
Some managers work better off of data over anecdotal evidence of experience. If you’re one of those managers that like to work with data, you’ll love Winning with Data. This book looks at how you can leverage all kinds of relevant data to make better business decisions.
Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
By Larry Bossidy
We can all improve our discipline and become more efficient. It’s a matter of knowing where to start. In Execution, Larry Bossidy, one of the world’s most acclaimed CEOs, shares how he helps people execute more by linking the three of the core processes behind any business; people, strategy, and operations.
By David Nadler
If you’re using a conversion funnel, you absolutely must read The Perfect Conversion Funnel. In this book, David equips you with all the tools and knowledge you need to build the perfect funnel, providing examples, templates, case studies, and plenty of actionable tips.
Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts
By Brené Brown
Being a great leader is crucial to being a great sales manager. If you can lead by example and motivate your reps, they’re going to perform better, have higher morale, and be all-around more productive. In this brook, Brené looks at four of the main skillsets that drive the best leaders and provides you with a psychological lens on how to approach the betterment of your leadership skills.
Best Sales Books for Sales VPs
The No.1 Best Seller: A Unique Insight into the Mind, Strategy and Processes of a Top Salesman
By Lee Bartlett
The No. 1 Best Seller provides unique insights into top sales reps’ minds, strategies, and preferred processes. From a Sales Vice President’s perspective, this book provides some valuable insights into how you can better identify those key traits that make a successful sales rep and how they fit into your organization.
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
By Carol Dweck
Carol Dweck is a psychologist at Stanford University and is one of the leading experts in the field of psychology and business success. This book takes a deep dive into how we can foster a growth mindset for greater success. Something that can be used to help sales reps grow their mind and skill sets to become more successful.
The Sales Acceleration Formula
By Mark Roberge
Mark Roberge is a former CRO of Hubspot and has a wealth of knowledge around inbound sales and managing sales teams. In this book, he outlines a scalable, predictable approach that any VP can use to develop and execute winning sales strategies.
Agile Selling: Get Up to Speed Quickly in Today's Ever-Changing Sales World
By Jill Konrath
In Agile Selling, Jill Konrath provides the framework to help anyone working in sales adapt to changes and new business environments. With one of the key duties of a sales VP being hiring and development, this is a great handbook for VPs managing change.
Beyond the Sales Process: 12 Proven Strategies for a Customer-Driven World
By Steve Andersen and Dave Stein
Want your reps to be more customer-driven and improve their sales performance? This is the book for you. It outlines 12 proven strategies you can work through to take your team's performance to a whole new level with clear instructional case studies.
Nonstop Sales Boom: Powerful Strategies to Drive Consistent Growth Year After Year
By Colleen Francis
Nonstop Sales Boom teaches sales VPs and executives how to smooth out their sales volume and achieve healthier, more sustainable sales growth year after year. It does this by explaining how to set up processes to fill your pipeline with qualified leads and turn them into customers faster.
The Truth About Leads
by Dan McDade and Jeff Fisher
If you’re in the B2B space, The Truth About Leads is going to change the way you currently think about leads and how you market your efforts to attract those leads. Dan and Jeff focus on helping you uncover the truths that lead to larger, more profitable wins that’ll make a bigger impact on your bottom line.
Master Your Next Move
By Michael Watkins
As a sales VP, adapting and changing alongside your business is crucial to an organization’s success. Michael Watkins coaches C-level executives of global organizations and helps them adapt to any and all changes. In this book, he shares real-world examples and his personal experiences over the years.
Power Phone Scripts: 500 Word-for-Word Questions, Phrases, and Conversations to Open and Close More Sales
By Mike Brooks
If you have sales reps on the phones prospecting and dealing with customers, this book could become the best training resource you have. With 500 word-for-word questions, phrases, and other things that are proven to work when selling over the phone, your reps will not be short of things to say.
Best Sales Books for Sales Operations
The Sales Development Playbook
By Trish Bertuzzi
Trish Bertuzzi has decades of experience successfully teaching sales leaders how to build and grow their pipelines. In The Sales Development Playbook, she lays out exactly how you can increase your own pipeline through size key elements.
The Sales Enablement Playbook
By Cory Bray
Ensuring sales reps are properly enabled, supported, and able to perform at their best is a core element of sales operations. The Sales Enablement Playbook provides unique and effective insights into how you can better enable your reps and create a winning culture.
Lightning Sales Ops: Building Salesforce for Sales Development Teams
By Matt Bertuzzi
If you use Salesforce in your organization, Lightning Sales Ops will help you better use the world’s most popular CRM. If you don’t, adopting Salesforce could be the game-changer you’ve been looking for to take your operations to the next level. Read this book to help incorporate or enhance Salesforce seamlessly in your organization.
The Market-Driven Supply Chain
By Robert Burrows
If you’re looking for ways to improve and unify the three key areas in most supply chains; manufacturing, operations, and sales, then The Market-Driven Supply Chain is the read for you. This book combines analytics with dynamic thinking and has tips, case studies, and more.
Sales & Operations Planning RESULTS
By Eric Tinker
Results are everything in sales, and that’s exactly what Sales & Operations Planning RESULTS focuses on. This book is a concise summary of how you can improve your sales operations. Particularly finding cost savings and ultimately seeing more profit on your bottom line.
Sales Engagement: How The World's Fastest-Growing Companies are Modernizing Sales Through Humanization at Scale
By Manny Medina
Sales Engagement details a modern strategy for engaging and interacting with potential buyers and using humanized sales to produce better results. It’s a real eye-opener in terms of techniques and presents some interesting operational strategies, making it a must read.
Sales Enablement
By Byron Matthews and Tamara Schenk
Sales enablement is one of the keys to boosting revenue and productivity, so as a sales manager, you can never have too many books on the subject. This title, simply called Sales Enablement, walks you through sales enablement best practices and how you can implement them within your sales team.
The High-Velocity Edge: How Market Leaders Leverage Operational Excellence to Beat the Competition
by Steven J. Spear
The High-Velocity Edge is more than a sales book. It covers continuous learning and improvements professionals can make in every aspect of their lives. It offers many solutions for sales leaders looking to build better systems, solve problems, and streamline operations.
The First 90 Days
By Michael Watkins
The First 90 Days provides a roadmap for sales leaders and managers going through a transition phase or making changes to sales operations within their organization. Michael does a good job of walking through the steps you need to follow. It’s easy to digest and to turn advice into actions.
Best Sales Books for Sales Reps
To Sell is Human
By Daniel H. Pink
Daniel Pink has authored a number of bestselling books around sales, motivation, and business. In To Sell is Human, Daniel takes a fresh look at the art and science of selling. This book is a must-read for sales reps interested in the science and psychology behind modern selling techniques.
The 10X Rule
By Grant Cardone
The 10X Rule does two things; it’s a great motivational read, and it also shows you what you can achieve if you 10x your output. The author, Grant Cardone, lives his life by this principle, and he outlines how you can too, and how you can be exponentially more productive.
How I Raised Myself From Failure to Success in Selling
By Frank Bettger
Sometimes you just need a feel-good motivational story to help you get a little extra clarity and direction in your own career - and that’s exactly what How I Raised Myself From Failure to Success in Selling does. Frank Betteger turned his own sales career around in epic fashion and explains exactly how he did it.
A Mind for Sales: Daily Habits and Practical Strategies for Sales Success
By Mark Hunter
This is a must-read for any sales reps feeling stressed out, overworked, and tired of hearing “no” from customers (isn’t that most reps?). A Mind for Sales outlines how you can develop successful habits and a mindset to push your performance to a new level.
How to Win Friends and Influence People
By Dale Carnegie
How to Win Friends and Influence People dates back almost 100 years and is one of the best-selling and most iconic books of all time. Many of the lessons and principles about how to interact with people are still relevant today. You can’t interact with people day-to-day to the capacity you’re capable of without having read this classic.
Gap Selling: Getting the Customer to Yes
By Keenan
In this book, the Author, Keenan, breaks down what he calls “tired old sales myths” and brings several fresh selling techniques to the table that he’s had success with. If you’ve hit a plateau or you feel like your conversion rate is suffering, you’ll enjoy the selling techniques covered in Gap Selling.
Emotional Intelligence for Sales Success: Connect with Customers and Get Results
By Colleen Stanley
Whether you’re currently aware of it or not, emotional intelligence (EI) plays a vital role at every stage of the sales process. In this book, Colleen Stanley cites studies that explain the role EI plays in sales success and how you can use EI yourself to sell more.
The Introvert's Edge: How the Quiet and Shy Can Outsell Anyone
By Matthew Pollard and Derek Lewis
Sales reps can be introverts and still be successful. This book sets out to prove that sales is a skill that can be worked on and improved, regardless of your personality. It does a great job of explaining how you can leverage your natural strengths, introvert or not.
The Science of Selling
By David Hoffeld
The Science of Selling summarizes cutting-edge research in the fields of social psychology, behavioral economics, and neuroscience to help you better understand how our brains process buying decisions. Brimming with advice and anecdotes, this book is a great resource for reps looking to boost their influence over others.
The Lost Art of Closing
By Anthony Iannarino
If closing on deals is a sticking point for you, The Lost Art of Closing provides a fresh take on how you can close deals. Anthony Iannarino explains that if you do everything right leading up to the close, the closing is actually the easiest part of the process.
Rebirth of the Salesman
By Cian McLoughlin
Sales is an ever-changing environment. Sure, there are some basic principles that don’t change, but there are also a lot of aspects of selling that are always evolving. Rebirth of The Salesman provides insights, interviews, and tips into how you can ensure you evolve and change with the sales landscape to stay ahead of the curve.
Stop Selling and Start Leading
By James Kouzes, Barry Posner, and Deb Calvert
Stop Selling and Start Leading looks at the behaviors that make great leaders so effective and how those same behaviors can translate into better connections with customers and an improved sales experience. It’s a fresh take on how to interact with customers and one that a lot of reps are seeing success with.
Conversations That Sell: Collaborate with Buyers and Make Every Conversation Count
By Nancy Bleeke
In this book, Nancy explains that today’s customers want more from a sales professional than just a simple consultation or being taken through the motions. They want meaningful, helpful conversations that help them understand how a product/service will address a pain point. Nancy outlines her own five-step sales system that does exactly that, as well as how you can implement it yourself.
Exactly What to Say: The Magic Words for Influence and Impact
By Phil M. Jones
Phil M. Jones is one of the world’s leading sales trainers. He’s trained more than two million sales professionals and knows exactly what to say when it comes to selling. Everything he’s learned over the years and teaches around the world is laid out in this book. It’s a valuable resource for any sales reps looking to sharpen their persuasiveness and influence.
New Sales. Simplified.: The Essential Handbook for Prospecting and New Business Development
By Mike Weinberg
Mike Weinberg is out to prove that too many sales reps overcomplicate the selling process, and their results suffer for it. In this book, Mike provides loads of examples and anecdotes of how you can take a simpler approach to selling while improving your results.
Talent is Overrated
By Geoff Colvin
If you’ve ever thought that you couldn’t achieve a certain level of success due to lacking natural talents or abilities, stop right there. In Talent is Overrated, Geoff Colvin explains that anyone can become truly great at what they do with ‘deliberate practice’. This can be applied to selling, management, and all aspects of working in a competitive environment like sales.
Eat Their Lunch: Winning Customers Away from Your Competition
By Anthony Iannarino
Let’s be honest, sales are ruthless at times - and Eat Their Lunch doesn’t shy away from exploring this. In fact, this book explains how you can win customers and clients that your competitors are already servicing. If you’re in a competitive space, this book could be the secret weapon you’re missing right now.
Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It
By Chris Voss
Although not directly related to sales, as a former FBI hostage negotiator Chris Voss provides some powerful insights into how you can become a better negotiator in Never Split the Difference. If negotiating with new prospects or closing on sales is something you’re struggling with, you’re going to love this book.
The Psychology of Selling
By Brian Tracy
The narrative of this book is a simple one; to give you a series of ideas, tips, methods, and strategies that you can use to sell more. The thing that makes The Psychology of Selling stand out from all the other books is that it’s written by Brian Tracy. Brian was a sales superstar and is now an author of more than 80 books and is a world-class motivational speaker.
Selling 101: What Every Successful Sales Professional Needs to Know
By Zig Ziglar
A successful salesman turned himself into one of the world’s most famous motivational speakers, there’s a lot to be learned from the great Zig Ziglar. In this book, Zig draws from his wealth of experience and explains how anyone can become a more successful sales professional. No matter how experienced you are in sales, you’ll pick up new nuggets from this book.
The Transparency Sale
By Todd Caponi
This book turns the traditional selling model on its head. Todd explains that sometimes you can lead with your flaws and be transparent with customers from the start to build better trust and increase your win rates. An interesting read for open-minded sales professionals.
The New Solution Selling
By Keith M. Eades
The New Solution Selling is an update to a popular book called Solution Selling from the early 90s. This edition focuses on streamlining proven selling processes while being able to differentiate yourself from your competition to give yourself a unique selling angle.
21.5 Unbreakable Laws of Selling
By Jeffrey Gitomer
If you’re the kind of person who likes to follow hard rules, then the 21.5 Unbreakable Laws of Selling is going to appeal to you. This isn’t another dry, salesy book that goes through the motions. Jeffrey uses humor, thinks outside of the box, and delivers some unique and innovative selling techniques.
How to Master the Art of Selling
By Tom Hopkins
This book is packed with hundreds of ideas to help you master the art of selling - and at the very least increase your sales volume. It has ‘how-to’ strategies, methodologies, techniques, and more—a great resource for new sales professionals. Hopkins does a great job giving you insights to becoming a true master to selling.
Sales Secrets: The World's Top Salespeople Share Their Secrets to Success
By Brandon Bornancin
Some of the best advice you’ll ever get is from the world’s top salespeople. In this book, Brandon has done all the hard work chasing down some world-class salespeople and asking for their top tips. You’ll get advice from the likes of Gary Vaynerchuk, Jordan Belfort, Heather Monahan, Anthony Iannarino, and more.
SPIN Selling
By Neil Rackham
Most sales professionals are aware of what the SPIN (Situation, Problem, Implication, Need-payoff) strategy is. It’s one of the most tried and tested sales techniques. In this book, Neil Rackham shows you how you can use SPIN to improve your sales volume and better enable your reps.
Jeffrey Gitomer's Sales Bible: The Ultimate Sales Resource
By Jeffrey Gitomer
Jeffrey didn’t hold back when coming up with a title for this book. The Sales Bible was originally published in 1994 and has sold more than 200,000 copies to date. If you’re looking for an established sales book with a proven track record of helping salespeople reach their full potential, this is one to read.
Insight Selling: Surprising Research on What Sales Winners Do Differently
by Mike Schultz and John E. Doerr
Mike Schultz and John Doerr, two best-selling authors in their own rights, joined forces to study more than 700 B2B purchases to gain insights into what sales winners are doing differently. They analyze their results and explain how you can replicate the actions of sales winners.
SPEAR Selling: The ultimate Account-Based Sales guide for the modern digital sales professional
By Jamie Shanks
Self-billed as “The ultimate account-based sales guide for the modern, digital seller”, SPEAR Selling looks at how sales leaders and professionals can achieve better account-based sales results. If you’re in accounts-based selling, this book will be your guide to greater success.
Sales Development: Cracking the Code of Outbound Sales
By Hilmon Sorey and Cory Bray
Sales Development is designed for new and aspiring salespeople. It’ll become your personal guidebook, taking you through the ‘hows’, ‘whys’, and ‘what to dos’ of being a sales professional. The two minds of Sorey and Bray combine to help you crack the code needed for ultimate success.
#Sales Truth: Debunk the Myths. Apply Powerful Principles. Win More New Sales
By Mike Weinberg
#Sales Truth sets out to separate the good from the bad in terms of sales ‘experts’, techniques and resources. Mike explains how to know which sales influencers to trust, what tricks, strategies, and techniques you should use, and what’s working for him. It’s an engaging read and will serve as a wake-up call for some sales professionals.
A Simple Guide to Technical Sales and Field Application Engineering
by Russell Williamson
Being a technical sales professional requires a particular mindset, skillset, and industry knowledge. If you feel like you’re playing catchup, this book is for you. Russell Williamson does a great job of keeping it simple and describing everything you need to know on your way to being a successful technical sales professional.
How to Write Copy That Sells
By Ray Edwards
Being able to write compelling sales copy is often the difference between getting or losing a sale. Writing engaging sales copy is not something most people can learn overnight, but it’s definitely a skill that can be learned. If you write copy as part of your role, I recommend following the advice in How to Write Copy That Sells.
Selling to Big Companies
By Jill Konrath
Jill Konrath is an expert in complex sales strategies involving selling to big companies. If your role involves dealing with big companies, you couldn’t be in better hands. In this book, Jill shares her knowledge, expertise, and experience that’ll help you make contact with large companies and close on big deals.
Virtual Selling: How to Build Relationships, Differentiate, and Win Sales Remotely
By Mike Schultz, Dave Shaby, and Andy Springer
Virtual selling has been on the rise for years, and recent world events have pushed this form of sales to unprecedented levels. The virtual landscape is different from an in-person one and this book helps you make that transition. If you want to develop strong relationships with your customer virtually and sell successfully, you need to know how to navigate the virtual landscape.
Demand-Side Sales 101: Stop Selling and Help Your Customers Make Progress
By Bob Moesta
If selling feels “icky” to you or your customers, Demand-Side Sales 101 is going to come as a much-needed savor. Bob Moesta wrote this book to help take the “icky” out of selling. He explains how by listening to your customers and understanding their needs, you can sell more and feel better doing it.
Mastering the Complex Sale: How to Compete and Win When the Stakes are High!
By Jeff Thull
If you’re involved in complex sales, such as cross-company, cross-border, or any sales process that requires innovative thinking, Mastering the Complex Sale will help simplify the process for you. It’s packed with easy to follow detailed examples and real-world case studies that challenge traditional sales wisdom.
Fanatical Prospecting
By Jeb Blount
Prospecting is one of the most important activities in sales. If you’re not successfully prospecting and bringing customers into your sales pipeline, revenue is going to dry up. This book reveals the secrets, techniques, and tips of top earners that have mastered the art of prospecting.
Ditch the Pitch: The Art of Improvised Persuasion
By Steve Yastrow
As sales professionals, we spend a lot of time working on pitches, all while knowing most customers don’t want to hear them. In Ditch the Pitch, Steve’s advice is to ditch the pitch and work on persuasive conversations. A great read if you want to try a different approach.
The Win Without Pitching Manifesto
By Blair Enns
On the same topic as Ditch the Pitch, The Win Without Pitching Manifesto from Blair Enns preaches the same message. Blair lays out 12 steps you can follow to get an edge over your competition and use more creative selling techniques than repeating the same pitch over and over.
How to Get a Meeting with Anyone: The Untapped Selling Power of Contact Marketing
By Stu Heinecke
If you’ve been selling for any length of time, you will have hit more than one wall trying to get meetings with the right people within organizations. This book helps you understand how you can break down those walls and get a meeting with anyone!
High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads
By Mark Hunter
In High-Profit Prospecting, sales expert Mark Hunter explains a number of ways how you can target higher-profit prospects - while spending less - and eliminates a lot of the confusion around what is really working in today’s digital landscape.
Smart Calling: Eliminate the Fear, Failure, and Rejection from Cold Calling
By Art Sobczak
Love it or hate it, cold calling still plays a huge role in many industries. There is definitely an art and a skill to cold calling, and improving your own methods will have a huge impact on your success rate. In this book, Art covers everything from the foundational steps of great cold calling to advanced strategies and how to deal with the dreaded rejection.
DISCOVER Questions Get You Connected: for Professional Sellers
By Deb Calvert
Asking the right questions at the right time will often be the difference between closing on a sale and missing out. How do you know what and when you should ask certain questions? In this book, Deb Calvert draws on data from more than 100,000 sales calls over 25 years to give you a headstart.
Secrets of a Master Closer: A Simpler, Easier, and Faster Way to Sell Anything to Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere
By Mike Kaplan
Mike Kaplan has built 3 multimillion-dollar sales companies and attributes much of his success to his sales ability. In this book, Mike shares everything he’s learned throughout his career and tells you how you can close on more deals, anywhere, anytime, and with anyone.
Pitch Anything: An Innovative Method for Presenting, Persuading, and Winning the Deal
By Oren Klaff
Oren Klaff is an expert in delivering a pitch. He’s raised more than $400 million over the past 13 years doing so and has refined his pitching techniques over this time. In Pitch Anything, Oren shares all of his tips, tactics, and strategies so you, too, can become a world-class pitcher and secure more sales.
The Perfect Close: The Secret To Closing Sales
By James Muir
With so many unique challenges to selling, you can never read too many books on how to close more deals. In The Perfect Close, James Muir shares his own unique insights on how he had a successful sales career using non-pushy, flexible, natural closing techniques.
Sales Differentiation
By Lee B. Salz
In Sales Differentiation, Lee Salz lays out 19 easy-to-implement concepts to help any salesperson sell more while protecting their margins. No matter how much experience you have in sales, there are some valuable insights and lessons in this book that you’ll be able to use in your sales environment.
The Selling Revolution: Prospering in the New World of Artificial Intelligence
By DJ Sebastian
Whatever your thoughts on AI may be, there’s no doubt that AI is progressing rapidly, and it’s going to impact the sales profession. How much of an impact? We can’t be sure right now, but DJ Sebastian provides some interesting insights backed by real-world examples that will help you get a better understanding of what’s to come.
Brilliant Selling
By Tom Bird & Jeremy Cassell
Simply titled Brilliant Selling, this book is packed with tips, information, and actionable advice from expert sales professionals that will help you raise your selling game. It also looks at different personality types and how yours aligns with customer’s needs, an interesting read.
Sales EQ: How Ultra High Performers Leverage Sales-Specific Emotional Intelligence to Close the Complex Deal
By Jeb Blount
In this book, Jeb looks at the behaviors, techniques, and secrets of the highest-earning salespeople in various industries. He pays special attention to the behaviors that separate the great sellers from the average and how salespeople in today’s market can improve performance.
How To Be A GREAT Salesperson...By Monday Morning!
By David R Cook
OK, this book doesn’t come with any guarantees that you’ll be a great salesperson by Monday morning. But it has an overwhelming number of testimonials from salespeople that have become great after reading it and implementing the strategies laid out by David Cook.
The Motivation Myth: How High Achievers Really Set Themselves Up to Win
By Jeff Haden
Motivation is the backbone of any successful sales team and individual. Motivating reps is a skill that has a fine line, however. In this book, Jeff turns the usual motivational tactics on their heads, providing insights into how high achievers motivate themselves and others. Some great takeaways for those looking for an added motivational boost.
The Slight Edge: Getting from Average to Advantage
By Leo A. Weidner
Leo Weidner has been a personal coach for more than 40 years and has helped more than 2,000 successful individuals achieve a more balanced life. The Slight Edge isn’t a sales-focused book, but Leo’s shared some valuable lessons you can apply to any aspect of your professional life.
Next Level Selling: The Definitive Guide to Closing High Dollar Deals
By Tom Fedro
Next Level Selling comes with a warning that taking action with the advice in this book can; “result in high dollar sales and long term agreements with companies with high-value sales opportunities.” If closing higher dollar deals are important to you, I recommend checking it out.
The No.1 Best Seller: A Unique Insight into the Mind, Strategy and Processes of a Top Salesman
by Lee Bartlett
The No.1 Best Seller provides some unique insights into the mindset, strategy, and processes of top salespeople. This book covers core sales principles, as well as modern selling-day techniques. Inside you’ll find plenty of powerful selling tips for sales professionals hungry to improve their own selling game.
80/20 Sales and Marketing: The Definitive Guide to Working Less and Making More
by Perry Marshall
You’ve probably heard of the 80/20 rule, but how well do you know how to leverage it in sales? In 80/20 Sales and Marketing, Perry Marshall explains how you can use the 80/20 principle to your advantage and leverage more sales with less effort.
SNAP Selling: Speed Up Sales and Win More Business with Today's Frazzled Customers
By Jill Konrath
In SNAP Selling, Jill explains how you can use SNAP (Keep it simple, Be iN valuable, Always Align, and Raise Priorities) to get more done, in less time, with fewer resources, and ultimately sell more. This book delivers a combination of common sense and a methodical approach to selling that is easy to relate to.
Value-Added Selling: How to Sell More Profitably, Confidently, and Professionally by Competing on Value, Not Price
By Tom Reilly
This is the third edition of a book first released 25 years ago. Tom Reilly has updated parts of the book to meet the demands and challenges of modern customers. The message is still the same. If you deliver a value-added service to your customers and compete at a higher level than your competitors, you’ll sell more efficiently.
Selling To Vito: The Very Important Top Officer
By Anthony Parinello
Selling To Vito (Very Important Top Officer) contains tips, strategies, and tactics to help you get appointments and arrange meetings with hard-to-reach decision-makers. If prospecting and getting through to the important decision-makers in your industry has been holding you back, this book is going to provide the breakthrough you’ve been looking for.
Beat The Bots: How Your Humanity Can Future-Proof Your Tech Sales Career
by Anita Nielsen
With AI and robot activity on the increase, you may feel like you’re up against something bigger than you. Anita Nielsen begs to differ. She says that with passion and confidence, humanity will always have the edge over AI when it comes to selling.
The Selling Plan: How To Get New Customers, Make More Money And Sell Like Crazy
By Emma Jones
In The Selling Plan, Emma Jones explains that if you have a plan, and a great plan, then you can close more sales in almost a systemic way without feeling uncomfortable, sleazy, or lost at any point in the process. Emma helps you build your own plan and explains how you can execute it to start driving more sales.
SELL LIKE CRAZY: How to Get As Many Clients, Customers, and Sales As You Can Possibly Handle
By Sabri Suby
Sell Like Crazy provides an 8-phase selling system designed to help salespeople of any level or experience sell more. It’s the same system that the author, Sabri Suby, used to generate more than $10 million in annual revenue, so it’s well worth a read if you want to discover a new selling system.
Selling with EASE: The Four-Step Sales Cycle Found in Every Successful Business Transaction
By Chris Murray
Selling is hard, and I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that. This book sets out to prove that selling doesn’t have to be hard, so it’s worth a read if you feel like you’re always in a struggle to meet quotas. It’s based around just four steps, is easy to read and digest, and will change the way you view selling for the better.
7L: The Seven Levels of Communication: Go From Relationships to Referrals
By Michael J. Maher
7L refers to seven levels of communication that anyone in a sales position can learn to help them create more meaningful and engaging conversations with customers. The better the conversation and engagement, the higher chance there is of closing on deals and getting referral business.
Heart and Sell: 10 Universal Truths Every Salesperson Needs to Know
By Shari Levitin
This book offers a balance of science-backed studies and experience to help you improve your sales techniques. Shari is a global sales training expert who has taught all over the world. In Heart and Sell, she shares her knowledge, wisdom, and, most importantly, expertise in an easy-to-digest format.
Words that Sell: More than 6000 Entries to Help You Promote Your Products, Services, and Ideas
By Richard Bayan
Struggling to find the right thing to say at the right time? Words that Sell has bailed out many a sales rep in need of the perfect opener, question, and close, and everything in between. With more than 6,000 entries, you’ll never run out of things to say with this book to hand.
Own Your Niche: Hype-Free Internet Marketing Tactics
By Stephanie Chandler
Own Your Niche is a masterclass in tactful, hype-free internet marketing sales techniques. From ways to better connect with prospects to building an online presence and generating more exposure, if you want/have an online presence and want to sell online, this is a must-read.
The TOP Sales Leader Playbook: How to Win 5X Deals Repeatedly
By Lisa D. Magnuson
This sales leader playbook is for sales reps that want to play big and start adding a multiple next to the number and value of deals they’re closing on. It contains 16 ‘plays’ to help you challenge yourself and discover more ways to increase your sales numbers.
The Sales Magnet: How to Get More Customers Without Cold Calling
By Kendra Lee
In The Sales Magnet, Kendra Lee proves that you don’t have to cold call dozens or hundreds of prospects to land customers. She lays out several strategies that have proven to be much more effective than cold calling for her and explains how you can implement them yourself to replicate her success.
Book Yourself Solid
By Michael Port
Book Yourself Solid covers a wide range of tactics and strategies to help you get more clients. It explores social media strategies, pricing models, product launch strategies, and outreach if those areas are of particular interest to you.
The New Strategic Selling: The Unique Sales System Proven Successful by the World's Best Companies
By Robert B. Miller and Stephen E. Heiman
Every salesperson can learn from the world’s most successful companies. You just need someone to summarize and analyze what those companies are doing, and that’s what Robert MIll and Stephen Heiman have done in this book. It’s packed with real-world examples and case studies and is sure to introduce you to some new techniques.
The Only Sales Guide You'll Ever Need
By Anthony Iannarino
This book has a bold title and goes a long way to backing up what it states. In The Only Sales Guide You'll Ever Need, Anthony Iannarino shares what he’s learned in the last 25 years performing as a top salesman. He lays out a number of core strategies you can use to improve your selling techniques and build on your sales skill set.
