Some of My Favorite Sales Books

Can a Sales Book Help You?

Sales is hard. No doubt about it. If it was easy, everybody would do it.

What I want to do here is to introduce a few books for conversation. There are literally thousands of books about sales. Some are original, most are retreads of ideas that have been around for a long time.

I'd love to hear any suggestions you have as well, so please leave your comments.

Let's get started.

1. The Sales Bible by Jeffrey Gitomer

Probably the least-known, best resource for sales that exists, and for one major reason: sheer density of content. Instead of a SINGLE book about ONE idea, Jeffrey has crammed just about every idea there is into one single resource. Think of it more as a desktop reference.You should be in this book at least once a week. I've been selling for 25 years, and I still read it every week.

What's great is that it's available on Audible. If you don't have Audible, get it, even if you do so just for this resource. This book is so dense with helpful, actionable content that you can literally go to any random spot in the audiobook, hit "Play" and you'll get help. It's just outstanding (Edit: I just discovered Scribd . It's a few dollars cheaper than Audible, but the main advantage is that the entire library is available to you instead of just one book per month).

Pro Tip: Listen to the "39 Rules" section, chapter 2 starting at the 12 minute mark. Repeat until it's a part of you.

Quote from the book:

"The number one thing stopping you from selling is in your mirror".

I love this, because it causes me to take responsibility for what I can, and look at what I can control.

Love Jeffrey Gitomer and how much he gives back to his audience. Been a fan for years.

Here's his website if you want to learn more from his books or courses.

How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

This book is coming up on its 90th birthday, and it's still relevant. It has many key concepts that will help you, mainly in the area of keying on the customer's perspective, and it's not a dense read at all. The audiobook is great if you have a decent drive in front of you. Listen to chunks at a time.

If you've never read it, it could be a real game-changer.

Quote from the book:

"Every person is in some way my superior, and thus I can learn from them". Dale Carnegie quoting Emerson.

The One Minute Sales Person by Ken Blanchard

The greatness of this book is implied by the title, and points at the premise: instead of a massive book to read, filled with dense chapters about sales theory, how about a quick read that's comprised of a succession of solid gold sales nuggets?

Really great book.

Quote from the book:

"Feedback is the breakfast of champions" - Ken Blanchard

Again, this book is high on my list because of its brevity. I can quickly access the key points, which makes it much easier to make a part of my daily sales life.

I could go on quoting book after book, here; thousands have been written. But what do YOU think? What makes a difference for you? What's been missing in sales books that cause them not to be helpful for you in sales?

At the end of the day, I hope this is helpful. I wish good sales numbers for everyone, and if you have any way I might be able to help you, please reach out.