The Best Sales Books That Will Up Your Sales Game

Salespeople are always chasing targets and are under the pump almost all of the time. But, they must also hone their skills continue to make themselves more efficient so they can close more deals.

 

Be it sales techniques, best practices for sales pitches or quick tips to improve conversion rates – sales reps need to stay updated all the time.

 

In this post, we have identified the best sales books that will make you a better sales rep. Books that you can read once, keep in your shelf and refer back to them whenever you are looking for a little motivation.

 

How did we shortlist this list of ‘Best Sales Books’?

We asked our sales folks to name their most favorite sales books, ones that have impacted their daily life at work. They came up with several of them, but then to shortlist the ones that stand out from the rest was still a task.

 

So, we cross-verified these with folks outside our organization. We even asked startup entrepreneurs, investors, former salespeople, and a lot more people. That helped us arrive at a list that was a good fit across all sales teams. In a nutshell, this list has the best sales books that are worth your time.

 

Let us dive right in.

1. New Sales. Simplified.

 

Amazon Rating: 4.8/5 Stars

 

This book is one-of-its-kind in our collection that focuses on the basics – customer needs and challenges. Whether you are a rookie salesman or a grizzled veteran, this book offers practical insights and easy-to-follow methodology for developing new business. Mike Weinberg gives a field guide to anybody looking to get more sales in the kitty and makes the whole process seem workable.

 

For example, his suggestions that every salesperson must craft his own sales story and choose his words is crucial advice nobody would like to ignore. We particularly liked one key takeaway that goes like this: "Sales follows strategy. It is the CEO whose job is to set the strategy and articulate it to perfection."

 

Mike explains 16 reasons why salespeople fail at new business generation, but essentially, there are just three components needed for establishing a new initiative.

 

 

About Mike Weinberg

Mike is a consultant, coach, speaker, and best-selling author. His second book “Sales Management. Simplified. - The Straight Truth About Getting Exceptional Results from Your Sales Team” is considered as a blueprint for leading salespeople and building high-performance sales teams.

 

2. Fanatical Prospecting

 

Amazon Rating: 4.8/5 Stars

 

In about 300 pages, Jeb Blount explains that the main reason why even capable sales folks fail is an empty pipeline and they often ignore the strength of prospecting. He describes it with concepts such as the “30-Day Rule” that says even successful sales reps cannot afford to dodge prospecting for more than thirty days.

 

The author beats stereotypes that salespeople are gifted and are not guilty about lying. Instead, he emphasizes the need for professionalism and technique. Jeb provides specific call and voice mail examples, including the rationale why specific phrases and sentences salespersons should use to experience more success. He explains how to prospect on different platforms and environments, including social media.

 

About Jeb Blount

Jeb is an influential sales and marketing leader and the author of no less than seven books. His podcasts are the most downloaded in iTunes history. Jeb is the founder of Sales Gravy, an online sales community, and is mostly on the road, teaching leadership teams how to build better sales strategies.

 

 

3. The Only Sales Guide You'll Ever Need

 

Amazon Rating: 4.8/5 Stars

 

The title of the book says “The Only Sales Guide You’ll Ever Need,” and not the “The Only Sales Book You’ll Ever Need.” That is because the author has cleverly called it a guide instead of a book because he has drawn references from a lot of other books.

 

That’s why this book is a refreshing take on things that are anything but sales methodologies and tools. The first nine chapters of this book talk about caring, optimism, competitiveness, self-discipline, perseverance – all must-have attributes of successful salesmen. Anthony has drawn on his vast experience to focus on having the reader choose between transaction-based selling or value creation.

 

When you use a value-adding approach to selling, you will have a smaller niche market to sell to and lesser deals to work. The beauty of this approach is that each transaction will have a higher gross profit and lower customer acquisition cost. He smartly points out that the ratio between the price of a product and the value that it gives customers should be 1:10. This sales book is a highly recommended for anyone in sales.

 

About Anthony Iannarino

Anthony Iannarino is an accomplished entrepreneur, speaker, columnist, and author. He is an internationally acclaimed figure as a thought leader in sales. He is a part-owner of his family’s staffing business and also a coach on topics such as professional selling, persuasive marketing social media marketing. His flagship brand The Sales Blog has an audience of 65,000 members each month, and his Sunday Newsletters go to 80,000 people.

 

 

4. The Lost Art of Closing

 

Amazon Rating: 4.8/5 stars

 

This is the second sales book from Anthony Iannarino that we have recommended in our list of best sales books and there is a reason for that. Anthony Iannarino explains how by using specific wording, you can win the commitments of people and their business as well. People who have read this book have reported that they have experienced success by using this technique.

 

In a sale process, closing out the deal is often the toughest, but the author makes it sound simple by getting commitments of buyers at essential points in the buyer’s journey.

 

Among the commitments that Anthony has named, Commitment to Resolve Concerns from buyers is particularly impressive. It prevents the possibility of a failed sales deal. He has a dedicated chapter for sales leaders that talks about how to coach teams, so they’re able to obtain commitments from customers.

 

 

5.High-Profit Prospecting

Amazon Rating: 4.8/5 stars

 

This book is exactly what the title says – High-Profit Prospecting. If you are a fan of Mark Hunter’s YouTube channel, you are most likely to enjoy this book as well. Mark shares more of his wisdom from years of experience in a no-nonsensical approach.

 

For example, one idea that he proposes is that salespeople do not do enough justice to gather ideas from sales and marketing teams in other industries. It may be commonplace for some, but it is an invaluable suggestion. He then lists put 30 tactical questions that will help you gauge the efficacy of your sales prospecting.

 

He even explains why pricing should never be a part of your prospecting strategy, and it made complete sense to us. In many ways, it tells us to go back to the basics of sales, i.e., to be successful in sales, it takes a lot of hard work, deals and leads do not come on their own.

 

About Mark Hunter

 

Mark is an award-winning sales blogger, and speaker and his clients include Salesforce, Lenovo, Mattel, and Kawasaki. His first book High-Profit Selling: Win the Sale Without Compromising on Price released in 2012.

 

 

6. Little Red Book of Selling

 

Amazon Rating: 4.5/5 stars

 

In today’s economy, everybody is selling or helping in selling. Any activity that we do ultimately culminate in the process of sales. This sales book is a must-read for two reasons:

1) It is incredibly precise, and

2) It is ideal for quick bursts of reading (you can be in an airport, pull it out and continue from where you left it).

 

Jeffrey’s book is an easy-to-understand manual on not just the art of sales, but for anybody who is trying hard to succeed. This book also has plenty of ‘To-Do’ stuff, techniques, tricks, and resources that might need you to visit his website frequently.

 

It includes a self-evaluation quiz that tells you what you need to do to get your act together. Reviews of this book ranged in between two extremes – ones who like it and the ones who don’t. We loved it though and will recommend it to anybody in sales.

 

About Jeffrey Gitomer

 

Some of the most famous business people are college dropouts, and Jeffrey Gitomer is one among them. If you have not read his biography, make sure to read it here. Not many authors will describe themselves this way. He is an author, professional speaker, and business trainer, who writes and lectures on sales, customer loyalty, and personal development. He began writing and publishing Sales Moves, a weekly column on the science of selling, in the Charlotte Business Journal in 1992, which is internationally acclaimed.

 

 

7. The Sales Enablement Playbook

 

"Some sales teams hire people who don't know how to sell and expect magic to happen.” This sentence on page #30 of this book sums up the core value that it offers.

 

This short book has been authored by industry veterans Cory Bray and Hilmon Sorey. It is probably the most concise books in our list of best sales books that you could finish reading over a weekend. But, the lessons will remain with you over an entire lifetime. Each chapter in this book has a practical ‘how-to’ guide for you to implement in your sales conversations.

 

The fundamental concept in this book is that sales enablement is not an individual role. Instead, people in all departments are involved in sales enablement, and the customer is at the center of it. There are concentric circles around the customer as other team members contribute to sales enablement.

 

About Cory Bray and Hilmon Sorey

The authors are co-founders of ClozeLoop, a sales enablement platform, so they surely are experts well equipped to speak on the subject. Cory is an author of books on sales and a founding member of the Sales Enablement Society, while Hilmon was a Silicon Valley management consultant for ten years.

 

 

All these books have helped our sales teams in many ways, and we think you'll like them too. Using the numerous tips and tricks that these books have, our teams are getting through to more prospective clients, mine deeper in existing accounts, and are getting better email responses. 

 

Here is an even more comprehensive list of sales books, if you are keen on honing your sales techniques. 

 

If you have any favorites, do let us know at marketing@paperflite.com.