The 7 Best B2B Sales Books

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“I read 500 pages every day. this is how knowledge works. accumulates, like compound interest. all of you can do it, but I guarantee that few of you will do it.” warren buffett

Top business leaders like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Mark Cuban, and Oprah Winfrey make reading an important part of their daily lifestyles. but they are also very selective about what to read, opting for education over entertainment by choosing educational books and publications over novels, tabloids, and magazines.

You are reading: Best books for b2b sales

I understand that not everyone wants to read 30+ books a year to figure out how to get better at b2b sales, e.g. Accelerate market traction for your startup. Therefore, I’ve selected my 7 favorite b2b sales books in this article so you don’t have to.

Now, I’m a firm believer in the power of storytelling. yes, there is a strong neurobiological argument for why our parents raised us with fairy tales and not business plans. therefore, any great educational book must also tell compelling and emotional stories to help us better maintain the knowledge gained. so let’s start with what the ex-ceo of sony entertainment has to say about sales.

say win by peter guber

“I have an amazing product and the business case makes sense, but the prospect doesn’t have enough money or time to work with me.” that’s an argument I hear weekly from customers. but it is, no offense, crap. people do not prefer solution a to solution b because it is 4.9% less expensive. people are predictably irrational creatures who make buying decisions emotionally. therefore, they need to like you, trust you, or, ideally, both. but they also want to get a compelling story. guber does a fantastic job of telling to win to enrich your knowledge with his own tales but also stories from nelson mandela, david copperfield, steven spielberg and many more legends of grand storytelling.

key information

customer centricity: please stop saying “me, me, me”. nobody cares who you are, only what you can do for them. I know it sounds harsh, but active listening takes you much further than saying how many features your product has.
Be yourself: This is not about bragging, hype, or fabrication. storytelling only works or at least works better if you tell your own true stories.
Hone Your Craft: Storytelling is a skill just like walking, reading, and writing. you need to practice it to master it. do it.

the brain audit by sean d’souza

d’souza tells a similar story, but provides a more in-depth audit of how our brains make decisions. Sean is a master at paring down information to the minimum and explaining complex concepts with simple illustrations and ongoing practical examples. the book is also a model to follow that <200 pages can say all that is needed if the author is smart enough and takes the time to zero in on the gist.

key information

sales can be learned: “sales is an art. I can never learn that. shit. apply rigor in qualification, process, strategy and structure on e.g. your buying center and what objections are preventing the sale is always the right move. and it has 0 to do with talent.
focus on the client’s problem: solutions need to solve problems. otherwise they are useless. make sure you fully understand the customer’s problem before you even think about talking about how great your solution is.
It’s all people: buyers, referrals, roles, and processes. these are covered and directed by other human beings. you don’t sell to ubs, you don’t even sell to the ceo. you sell to a homo sapiens with their own biases, experiences, value drivers, and objections.

the habit of training by michael bungay stanier

say less. ask more. some say you can group vendors into “lions” and “elephants.” “Lions” have a huge mouth and an even bigger ego, so they can constantly tell prospects how great they, their company, and their products are. “Elephants” have huge ears and don’t need to prove themselves in a sales meeting, so they spend most of their time listening. To summarize: please become an “elephant”, as “lions” are ruining the image of sellers.

but to become a great active listener you need to know and ask the right questions, which is where michael does an amazing job of structuring any discovery call over 7 questions. if he had to pick one too for transforming seemingly endless meetings going nowhere, it would be “how can I help you specifically right now?”

key information

stop selling, stop buying: prospects need to “own” their stories and therefore tell them themselves. training them to get there is much better than telling them what to do, and yes, even they are both saying the same things functionally.
patience: training requires patience. sometimes a lot but it is worth guiding a client to a solution if he already knows what will work best in the first minute of an interaction.

the sale of the challenger by matthew dixon & brent adamson

I’m still amazed at the “sales state of the nation”, at least in switzerland. negatively, unfortunately, as many sellers are constantly in transactional selling mode. If I don’t know I have a problem, I won’t buy anything from you. never. ever. even if it is 90% off. And this is even more true in the case of sales of innovative b2b solutions, since switching costs, risks and understanding gaps are greater than in b2c.

enter challenging selling, challenging the notion that we should always strive for harmony in selling. If a prospect doesn’t “get” that there is an important and urgent issue, we often walk away. but we can also become smart enough to challenge their current paradigm, biases and positions and set the problem statement, trigger and solution path for them.

key information

target, adapt, take control: “the client knows exactly what he wants and will call me in 4 weeks if it’s relevant.” Sure, in a fairy tale always, but rarely on planet earth. and he wants to set up his company for predictable income. people did not wait for you to approach them; they have busy jobs and a life. therefore, make the effort to prospect carefully, adapt your offer and take control of the sales process as new sales propose it as well. made easy by mike weinberg.
date in date out: if you can only select one sales habit, take this one. Assuming there is a valid business opportunity, remove prospects’ work to remember to call you back.

yes, there are many more good sales books that are not on the list…

let’s be real or not play by mahan khalsa & randy illig

Probably the best sales book for providing structure to the often unstructured personalities that salespeople tend to be. I am confident that establishing key beliefs in a business mix with actionable frameworks can accelerate sales education by a factor of magnitude.

one of the main frameworks is the “order”: opportunity, resources, decisions, exact solution and results. Whichever framework you use, use it consistently across the organization to achieve consistent results and learn along the way exactly where you’re losing business.

key information

No guessing: We all like to assume that a prospect is ready to buy or even capable of buying what we offer. but unless the customer is specifically saying and acting on things, these are more wishes than reality. even if it’s awkward, “be realistic” and shed light on “yellow flags” that could kill this or future deals.
abc. no: “abc — always be closing” is traditional sales wisdom and is still applied by many salespeople. if a customer doesn’t want to buy something, these salespeople often go into “hard selling,” putting pressure on prospects by creating (artificial) urgency, breaking profit margins with discounts, and other sales tactics. let go of a customer who isn’t ready to buy, but follow up a few months later if it’s not a good fit.
acknowledge, understand, resolve: only one person can really help client if he recognizes and understands his situation, objectives and challenges. wait to provide solutions until you have confirmed the first.

never split the difference by chris voss & tahl raz

In terms of sales, I grew up with yes as “the gold standard” for negotiating anything. and I think it still works in many cases (thus see honorable mentions). But since Chris Voss was the chief negotiator for the FBI, he first needed to develop new practical ways that would save many lives before turning them into explicit, teachable knowledge to help salespeople become better negotiators.

One of the main things is that old-school transactional negotiation doesn’t work in hostage situations. a hostage taker might demand something like “give me $10,000,000 or I kill all 4 hostages.” striving to “come to yes” may cause him to respond something like “I understand your position, but I can only give you $1,000,000, if you release 3 out of 4 hostages.” But paying a terrorist $1,000,000 and risking the death of 1 human being is not a great bargaining result in and of itself.

key information

(counter)intuition: The 9 negotiation principles elaborated are often contradictory, but they work well in practice. be resourceful in where to select an intuitive approach and where new and therefore counterintuitive approaches are most effective.
empathize: make a sincere effort to understand the rational situation , but also emotionally take the position of your counterpart. that doesn’t mean you should agree.
neutralize: let’s be honest: any argument goes awry at the stage where it gets into the “you said, I did, you think , not me mode.” Take yourself out of the equation with a statement like “it looks like you’re doing x to achieve y, but you feel challenge z prevents you from doing it.”

behind the cloud by marc benioff & carlye adler

The story of how salesforce became the first cloud company to achieve $1 billion in annual revenue is not a classic sales book. but it’s a fantastic set of memorable and actionable lessons in the form of 9 “playbooks” with 111 “games”.

key information

Customers Are Partners: You successfully completed the sale when your customer is successful. treat customers like partners, and they will return a great return through product reviews, market insights, and referrals.
sales is a numbers game: volume funnel conversion. retention. increasing any ratio will make you more successful, but if any of these are low, you may need to go out of business.
land & expand: never be a jerk with small businesses. they could grow and become your main clients.

this text became much more extensive than a simple list of my top 7 favorite b2b sales books. but as paul jarvis says in the company of one: “you can’t outspend bigger competitors. but you can surpass them in sharing and teaching.” right?

Thanks for reading and please reach out via linkedin or manuel@thesalesplaybook.io to share your feedback or discuss your b2b sales challenges!

Other content

The 7 Best B2B Sales Books

say win by peter guber

the brain audit by sean d’souza

the habit of training by michael bungay stanier

the sale of the challenger by matthew dixon & brent adamson

let’s be real or not play by mahan khalsa & randy illig

never split the difference by chris voss & tahl raz

behind the cloud by marc benioff & carlye adler

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