Introduction
Selling is one of the most important skills for everyone.
Whether it is positioning yourself, delivering a fundraising pitch or selling your products, you’re actually “selling” something. I’ve compiled a list of books to help you master the art of selling anything and everything!
If you’re not only looking to read sales books, check out our recommended books.
Top 10 Sales Books To Read
1. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Caldini
As long as you’re involved in the process of selling or marketing a product, this book by Robert Caldini is a must read. He dives deep into the scientifically backed psychological learnings and how you can use these to your advantage when it comes to selling ANYTHING. All in all, a fantastic book.
2. Endless Referrals by Bob Burg
If you have a great network, you may be sitting on a gold mine. In Endless Referrals, the author talks about a super powerful methodology that brings more clients to your door by virtue of relationship-building, leveraging and maximizing your contacts and generate ongoing sales opportunities. I won’t spoil it for you, if you want to learn how to do this – read this book!
3. The Secrets Of Closing The Sale by Zig Ziglar
Zig Ziglar, or the grandfather of modern selling is extremely articulate in teaching you how to sell with emotional logic in this book. Some of the examples of the tips he’s shared in this book are, breaking the price into smaller bite chunk sizes while you build trust, capitalize on the information you have and subconsciously leading the customer to your solution.
4. Fanatical Prospecting by Jeb Blount
Have you tried all the sales techniques in the world? Have you cold called, cold emailed and knocked on doors? Did you know that prospecting is a key step that most sales people ignore?
If you’ve tried everything and still can’t find something that works, perhaps you want to learn about the art of prospecting. In this book, the author outlines an extremely innovative approach to prospecting for leads.
5) Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss & Tahl Raz
Negotiation is a big part in business. When it comes to partnerships, dealmaking, hiring amongst the many other things, negotiation is an important skill to pick up as an entrepreneur. If you’re interested in learning how to negotiate from an FBI negotiator, check out this book.
6. The 1-Page Marketing Plan: Get New Customers, Make More Money, And Stand Out From The Crowd by Allan Dib
Just like having a sales plan, having a marketing plan is essential when it comes to selling anything. To be a good salesperson, you will need learn how to distill the most important things you need to include into your business’ marketing plan. A must have for newer entrepreneurs or sales people who want to learn the art and science of marketing plan development.
7. Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuk
Selling on social media is a totally different science.
Who else is better at teaching social media selling than the OG hustler GaryVee?
A word of warning, there are some fluff in this book, but there are also extremely actionable tips in there that can help you sell in the noisy, crowded social media space.
8. Grinding It Out : The Making of McDonald's by Ray Kroc
If there’s one person to learn about selling from, it has to be Ray Kroc. He’s the legendary salesman that has helped build the McDonald’s empire as we know it. Not a book about sales techniques, but this book is a deep dive into his psyche, his behaviour and his beliefs when it comes to selling.
9. How To Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie
This classic (written in 1936) talks about the ways to get anyone to like you. Even though this sounds cheesy, but getting people to like you is a surefire way to make it easier to close sales! If you’re an awkward potato like myself, you want to read this book. It’s written in old-ish English so you might have some trouble reading it, but I assure you that the lessons in this book is extremely worth learning.
10. Sell or Be Sold: How to Get Your Way in Business and in Life by Grant Cardone
In this world, you’re either the consumer or the producer. If you have a consumer mindset, you will be sold to – period. What you want to do is to flip the table and start looking from the side of producers. The trick to improving in selling is to think these questions when you are being sold to. Start asking yourself, how can I sell this better? How can I integrate this to my sales process? Learn the tactics master salesman Grant Cardone use in his day to day business all in this book.
Rounding Up
These are all amazing sales books that I think every person looking to improve their sales skills and mindset should read.
However, don’t feel pressured to read all of them, pick out which sales book best fits your current situation. Most importantly, implement what you learn. Knowledge without implementation is just, you know, knowledge.
If this isn’t enough for you and you’re looking for more books, check out our book recommendations page.