Top 15 Sales Books: Revealing Secrets to Unmatched Success

Posted by
Natalia Zhontsa

March 14, 2022

Every sales manager wants to be smarter and applies more creative solutions to sticky problems. You can try to motivate yourself in millions of different ways, yet still fail in accomplishing your goals. This list of must-read books for sales will educate and delight you. Moreover, you’ll redefine your issues and change your work habits.

Either way, apart from deepening practical skills and assessing their effectiveness, you will affect your performance from a different perspective. So this selection of sales books will aid in uncovering the ways to boost your productivity and switch on the selling machine hidden in you.

Top 15 sales books that are worth reading

#1 Cracking the Sales Management Code

by Jason Jordan and Michelle Vazzana

Quick Summary: Being considered as groundbreaking research, this book enables the tried and tested practices for improving sales team performance and strategic selling. The main emphasis is placed on the fact that sales reps can’t manage the result. However, they can build and organize the processes that drive to the desired results. This sales book will show you how to employ the data-driving metrics and speed up buyers’ journey.

Takeaway: With this blueprint book, you will get instructive tips:

• Defining the main processes for effective sales process running
• Figuring out how to apply sophisticated thinking and good management instead of working harder
• Optimization the critical sales objectives
• Aligning business goals with the actions taken by sellers
• Selecting the best-tuned process flow for your team
• Implementing a CRM system

#2 The Little Red Book of Selling

by Jeffrey Gitomer

Quick Summary: This must-have book for sales managers reveals the secrets of the trade and teaches the strategies of increasingly successful performance. The author describes the key elements to prove the selling and explains why the customers actually buy. With this simple and exciting piece of reading, you figure out how to offer, give a positive response and acquire a more enthusiastic, motivated approach to convincing non-decision makers. So in a few words, this is one of the sales books that will help you to find the answers every rep is looking for on the daily basis.

Takeaway: Turn-key methods covered in this book:

• Give a hint on how to make people buy instead of being sold
• Show real-life whims of salespeople with workable responses to handling issues
• Enrich your performance with new, inspirational ideas
• Make your sales go to with the easily explained principles
• Teach how to offer the worthwhile sales journey in 8 simple stages

#3 Secrets of a Master Closer

by Mike Kaplan

Quick Summary: Every sales rep wants to learn how to drive the customer's attention and control their interest in the product or service features, as well as show them an easy way to solve the issues. This book for sales will teach you how to encourage people to buy instead of manipulating them. Here you find useful techniques and best practices for converting even the most skeptical clients. Your books for sales list won’t be complete without this one.

Takeaway: Make the life of a sales manager a whole lot easier with:

• Depicting the specific stages of the process and steps worth to take
• The approaches to keep the pipeline full and moving with gaining more loyal customers
• Acquiring deep insight into the eight sales steps
• Defining the must-have parts of the presentations
• The right time management to ensure you use it wisely

#4 Agile Selling

by Jill Konrath

Quick Summary: The selling process is often seen as a roller-coaster ride, and the desired outcome requires well-tuned skills and techniques. In contrast to other sales books, this one teaches you how to develop the agile mindset for your skills upgrading and provide your customers with an outstanding buying experience. Here you’ll find a new resource for building your proficiency in the ever-changing selling world.

Takeaway: Apart from practical advice, this book offers you the following assets as:

• The guide to learning quickly new information and showing the desired results in selling
• Tips on strengthening the credibility with clients and establishing more impact on their sales journey
• Easy-to-implement strategies for speeding up a pipeline
• The coaching art insight and tools to provide everyone on the team to win
• The instructions on to win modern crazy-busy leads and prospects

#5 The Ultimate Sales Machine

by Chet Holmes

Quick Summary: How many sales books do you refer to after reading? This one will be that useful and practical. The author suggests the 12 foundational principles of selling to smooth the pipeline, keep it full and increase the number of customers. The goal of this book is to teach you how to blow off the competitors and fulfill the prospects' expectations.

Takeaway: The following aspects will impact your workflow and you will:

• Get clear insight into the 12 key sales areas
• Set the proper focus, targets, and tactics
• Improve your time and planning
• Tune-up every activity of your sales team and company

#6 Difficult Conversations

by Douglas Stone and Bruce Patton

Quick Summary: Despite your experience in sales, negative and complicated talks with prospects and customers have a place in your daily round. The desire to eliminate such incidents is shared by many leaders. Various books for sales offer strategies, yet with this guide, you’ll find the productive solution for these arguments and learn how to avoid them.

Takeaway: To make the tough conversations less stressful, this book lays:

• The options to improve the performance of your team
• The basic skills and tactful ways of negotiating with tough clients
• The tricks to stay balanced and calm during the accusations and word attacks
• The principles for a convincing talk instead of an emotional argument win

#7 Smart Calling

by Art Sobczak

Quick Summary: More often cold calling is seen as an old-school practice that doesn’t work anymore. This sales book busts all these preconceptions and reveals numerous workable strategies for successful prospects pitching over the phone. After getting inside these techniques and tips, you’ll figure out how to avoid rejections and how to make persuasive objectives.

Takeaway: Other books for sales may perpetuate the idea of cold calling as a game while this paperback quips you with:

• The value and requirements to the systematic preparations for the calls
• The tips for creating a welcoming and friendly atmosphere of the conversation
• The presentation secrets and the importance of the first 10 seconds of the call
• The right time the sales rep should ask for a sale

#8 Insight Selling

by Mike Schultz and John E. Doerr

Quick Summary: Modern buyers are well informed and educated, and often consider the product or service as easily replaceable. The authors of this book provide workable assets and tips for the transformation of selling performance and increase of competitiveness. After studying the 3-level model offered by these experts, you’ll improve your skills in b2b selling and get a higher ROI.

Takeaway: By far not all tips and advice in books for sales are useful and good, but here you find:

• The buyers’ perspective on the selling process and their requirements for closing the deal
• The strategic and tactical guide for better connecting and collaboration with customers
• The tips for directing clients’ attention, influencing their choice and agenda
• The potential pitfalls in the buyer’s journey and effective solutions for overcoming and elimination

#9 The Inside Game

by Mark Shriner

Quick Summary: The attitude and mindset of the sales rep have a strong impact on the performance. The author emphasizes the importance of planning and activities you day during the day and explains how to take the advantage of time and reach your goals. Read this sales book to improve your skills and enrich your practices with the best examples.

Takeaway: Discover a new perspective on:

• The time and activities management for becoming a better sales rep
• The personal attitude to the work and value of emotional atmosphere within the team
• The approaches and techniques in cold calling and networking
• The constructive and helpful pieces of advice for boosting your sales skills and quality

#10 Selling to the C-Suite

by Dr. Stephen J. Bistritz

Quick Summary: As one of the best books for sales, this one is a must-read for those reps that aim to succeed in the b2b area. The proven tactics and techniques will help you to get the right moment when the CEOs are ready to make their decisions. The book itself consists of interviews with C-level executives and provides tips to improve your pitches and proposals to ensure the decision-makers will hear you.

Takeaway: There is no silver bullet in this book, but you will:

• Get the guidelines for connecting with C-executives and offer real solutions
• Find the sample agenda of the CEO and tools for establishing a relationship with them
• Discover the field-tested approaches to the main challenges faced by sales reps
• Figure out the key constituents of the value proposition

#11 Inbound selling

by Brian Signorelli

Quick summary: Inbound sales process means sales without a sales rep. That is the most desired science of selling for any company as a self-encouraged customer is the best person to recommend your company to others. So there’s no better strategy than word of mouth to follow.

Takeaway: How to build a strong team for inbound marketing:

• Customers themselves make 60% of sales decisions
• Get the tools and steps to move your team to inbound sales strategies
• The book is written funnily and is easy to read

#12 Book Yourself Solid

by Michael Port

Quick summary: Here, you can find everything about building brand recognition through social media presence and other channels. Also, read about different pricing strategies. Everything to become a sales guru.

Takeaway: Be honest with yourself and the people you help:

• Be yourself and not pretend to be someone else
• Enjoyable read

#13 Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

By Dr. Robert Cialdini

Quick summary: Understanding human behavior is a crucial factor in sales performance. This is one of the best sales books where there is a complete description of the steps to perform to get the word “yes.” Apply reliable techniques to your business for professional selling.

Takeaway: Create the idea of the potential loss:

• People are more likely to bo buy something valuable, and they can potentially lose
• The possibility of losing a useful product automatically increases the price of the product

#14 Pitch Anything: An Innovative Method for Presenting, Persuading, and Winning the Deal

By Oren Klaff

Quick summary: Oren Klaff is a sales expert who earned $400 million using his unique sales pitches. He proved this method efficient and described it in his great sales book. In addition, the author described a scientific approach to pitching the sales process.

Takeaway: We need to know how people’s brains work, as any pitch won’t come through evolutionary filters created by nature. Our task is to learn how to bypass them by following the stages:

• Set the frame
• Tell the story
• Reveal the intrigue
• Propose the prize
• Nail the hook point
• Get the decision

#15 From Impossible to Inevitable

by Aaron Ross and Jason Lemkin

Quick summary: Authors of the book give examples from Salesforce(the fastest growing software) and Zenefits (which rose from $1 million to $100 million in profit in two years). They describe the recipe of Hypergrowth.

Takeaway: There are seven ingredients of rapid growth:

• Pick up your niche
• Build a predictable pipeline
• Make your sales scalable
• Learn about how to increase your sales amount and deal size
• Manage your time correctly
• Hold employee ownership
• Take your role to make a difference

Also, the authors emphasize that your primary purpose is not to close the deal faster but to solve customer problems and satisfy their needs.

Draw A Line

There are thousands of books on selling offering you tips, techniques, and solutions. The list collected above is aiming to give the top sales books for joining the winner's circle of successful selling professionals.