In the age of online courses, workshops, and internships, it is undeniable that books remain the best mentor for an employee even today. As they say, sales is an art. It requires strong communication, negotiation, and problem-solving skills. There are some best sales books of all time written by various renowned authors around the world. They help the salespeople to enhance their knowledge further and excel in their sales careers. The experience we get through reading books is unparalleled compared to other learning methods because we have enough time to focus, stop midway and think about, note down the important takeaway points and continue with it.
Also, there are some best-selling books on sales that redefine the sales ideas you had earlier and nurture you with a whole new perspective. It is necessary to find time to read such books to keep your knowledge alive and updated. In this blog, we have curated a list of 5 top sales books that every salesperson should read in his lifetime to enrich their sales skills.
Advantages of reading sales books
Sales books help you in the following ways:
- To give up old and follow newly updated principles
- Perfect your sales pitch
- Improve your interpersonal & communication skills
- Get to know various sales scenarios
- Improve negotiation skills
- Remove the obstacles in your sales career
- Get quality leads and close more deals
Here is a list of 5 best sales books every salesperson should read:
- To Sell is Human
New York Times(NYT) bestselling author Daniel Pink’s “To Sell is Human” – The Surprising Truth about Moving Others is one of the best sales books for the new age salespeople. His ideas and techniques are very useful for effective sales persuasions. He also points out that we can see sales everywhere at the office, at home like pitching our new ideas to our friends/colleagues, convincing our children to study, etc. However, he emphasizes that honesty and transparency are the qualities that will help salespeople in the process of moving others.
The key concepts of this book are the new ABCs of selling – Attunement, Buoyancy, and Clarity, the shift towards non-sales selling from traditional selling, and six types of competitive replacements the author suggests for the elevator pitch. Apart from these, there are many other techniques and bits of advice throughout the book that every salesperson should read and follow in his sales career. “Make it personal and make it purposeful” is one such advice from the book to keep in mind while serving the client.
- Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B.Cialdini is a classic book on sales and one of the best-seller books that is translated into several languages. The author, being a psychologist himself, gives a detailed view of the human psychology behind purchasing a product. While reading this book, a salesperson gets to understand the buyer’s point of view clearly. Through his own research, the author comes up with 6 principles of persuasion that every salesperson must read to persuade and influence the audience i.e, the customers. They are – Reciprocity, Commitment/Consistency, Social Proof, Authority, Liking, and Scarcity. Without a doubt, this book will be a gamechanger in your career as well as your personal life and drive you towards success.
- SPIN Selling
SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham was first published in 1988. Oh, that’s pretty old! – if this is your mind voice, wait. Even after decades, the basic ideas presented in this book are found relevant by the salespeople and suggested for the newcomers. After all, this book is an outcome of researching more than 35,000 sales calls. SPIN principles are popular, especially in B2B sales abbreviated as – Situation, Problem, Implication, and Need payoff question types. Under each type, frame relevant and concise questions to get answers from your prospects that give you deeper insight into their pain points. Filled with a lot of examples, charts, graphs, and tests, this classic book is like a mine for sales information.
- The Ultimate Sales Machine
The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes mainly focuses on 12 key strategies that will turbocharge your business. All these are explained with plenty of example scenarios which makes it easy to understand and implement. Also, they are from the personal experiences of the author gained while improving the sales of many companies. Time utilization, the importance of sales employee training, hiring the best, tips to conduct productive meetings, targeting high-quality prospects, perfecting the marketing and sales strategies, setting highly competitive goals, and measuring the performance are some of the key concepts briefed in this book. Read this book to get deeper insights into various aspects of the sales process.
- Never Split the Difference
“Negotiating as if your life depended on it” is the byline of this book by Chriss Voss. He is a former FBI hostage negotiator and through this book, he takes us through his world of negotiation and gives us hints on how to turn the tables to our side in sales. This book is for everyone because we all are into some sort of negotiation in our day-to-day life. Buying/selling is an everyday event in this digital world today. To unleash your negotiating powers and excel in your sales career, this book paves the way.
“He who has learned to disagree without being disagreeable has discovered the most valuable secret of negotiation” – Chriss Voss. For those who wish to learn this tactic, this book is a riveting read.
Summing Up
Sales is an art that should be learned by yourself. Resources like books, online courses, etc can help you in the process. Choosing the right books to help your learning journey is necessary because there are a lot of sales books available in the market but only a few are worth reading. Instead of a vague theoretical book with loads of advice, pick a book that gives you more real-time examples and helps solve the problems or obstacles you face in your sales career. Read these best sales books to climb up your career ladder and close more deals successfully. Happy reading!
