Constantly mastering new approaches and honing your selling skills is a must for any salesperson. Whether you’re a newcomer or an experienced sales rep, you need to get out there and learn learn learn.
here are 14 books, from the cult classic to the most recent releases that our team think are a must read for any sales expert. we’d like to know what your favorites are! favourites!
You are reading: Best sales books 2020
1. “sell like you buy” by david premier (2020)
We often forget how we act being “on the other side”. when it comes to sales, it’s a crucial mistake that prevents you from making the right connection with customers. In Selling the Way You Buy, Priemer reveals scientifically-backed methods for understanding your customer, identifying their needs, and guiding them to the right solution, while avoiding the behaviors that make the average person dislike salespeople.
Selling the way you buy is much more than putting yourself in the customer’s shoes. it’s about learning how to ask questions, how to listen, how to tell a compelling brand story, and how to talk to customers in a human way that really connects. in short: sell as you buy.
2. “sales acceleration formula” by mark roberge (2015)
The Sales Acceleration Formula provides a scalable and predictable approach to increasing revenue and building a winning sales team. Everyone wants to build the next $100 million business and author Mark Roberge has done it using a unique methodology that he shares with his readers. As an MIT student with an engineering background, Roberge challenged conventional methods of scaling sales using the process-oriented, metrics-driven lens through which he was trained to view the world. In this book, he reveals his formulas for success.
Readers will learn how to apply data, technology, and inbound sales to all aspects of sales acceleration, including recruiting, training, management, and demand generation. Use data, technology, and inbound sales to build a remarkable team and accelerate sales.
3. “selling spins” by neil rackham (2015)
Published in 1988, the book is based on the results of the largest long-term study of sales ever conducted. Rachman and the team at Huthwaite Corporation spent about 12 years and $1 million to study more than 35,000 sales calls and create the sales framework called s.p.i.n.
spin represents the four different types of questions designed to get potential customers interested in your product or solution: situation, problem, implication, and need checkout. rackham answers key questions like “what makes big sales successful” and “why do techniques like closing work on small sales but fail on larger ones?” He’ll learn why traditional sales methods that were developed for sales to small consumers don’t work for big sales and why conventional sales methods are doomed to fail on big sales.
4. “The Challenger’s Sale” by Matthew Dixon & brent adamson (2011)
What is the secret to success in sales? If you’re like most business leaders, you’d say it’s all about relationships, and you’d be wrong. The best salespeople don’t just build customer relationships. they defy them. The need to understand what high-performing reps do that their average-performing peers don’t prompt Matthew Dixon, Brent Adamson, and their colleagues on the corporate executive board to investigate the skills, behaviors, knowledge, and attitudes that matter most to the high performance. And what they discovered may be the biggest shock to conventional sales wisdom in decades.
Based on a comprehensive study of thousands of sales reps across multiple industries and geographies, Defiant Selling argues that classic relationship building is a failed approach, especially when it comes to selling complex business-to-business solutions at scale. . The authors’ study found that every sales rep in the world falls into one of five distinct profiles, and while all of these rep types can deliver average sales performance, only one, the challenger, delivers a constant high performance.
5. “predictable income” by aaron ross & marylou tyler (2011)
Discover the outbound sales process that, in just a few years, helped add $100 million in recurring revenue to salesforce.com, nearly doubling their company’s growth… without cold calling. This is not another book on how to cold call or close deals. This is a whole new kind of sales bible for CEOs, entrepreneurs, and sales vps to help you build a sales machine.
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What you’ll learn from the book: What your sales team needs to generate as many highly qualified leads as you want, generate predictable revenue, and meet your financial goals without your constant focus and attention. how an outbound sales process (“cold calling 2.0”), which without cold calling or a marketing budget, can generate a 9% response rate and millions of dollars of cold leads. The Seven Fatal Sales Mistakes CEOs and VPs of Sales (even seasoned ones) make over and over again, and more.
6. “selling holes” by keenan (2008)
Why should someone let you “have 15 minutes of their time”? only if these minutes will improve their lives. Your customers don’t care about you, they care about themselves and their needs. This is the ultimate truth that Keinan states in her bold book.
People don’t buy from people they like. No! Your buyer doesn’t care about you or your product or service. It’s not your job to overcome objections, it’s your buyer’s. closing is not a skill of good salespeople; it is the skill of weak salespeople. price is not the main reason sellers lose the sale. Gap selling shatters the traditional, deep-seated sales beliefs that have been handicapping salespeople for decades. In his irreverent and unapologetic style, Keenan shatters the old sales myths that cause today’s frustrating sales problems, to highlight a deceptively powerful new way to connect with shoppers.
7. “fanatical prospecting” by jeb blount (2015)
what is the key to successful sales? the art of convincing or begging for sympathy? none of those. for jeb blount, it’s continuous prospecting.
the author claims that, in fact, real sales reps must be fanatics. It doesn’t mean that you have to sell by all means (well, not without this), but you must continually strive to keep your pipeline full of qualified prospects. once the pipeline is empty, high performance is unattainable. this book outlines a balanced methodology that can help prevent such an outcome. How should a seller act? How to activate all possible prospecting channels? how to achieve a constant fill of your pipeline? all these questions have been carefully formulated and are worth exploring.
8. “secrets to close the sale” by zig ziglar (1982)
If selling had been declared a religion, this book would have been its bible. First published in 1982, it provides the essential principles of successful sales and has been widely recognized as a source of helpful advice and inspiration for sales representatives. The book includes over 100 successful closings for all types of persuasion and over 700 questions that will open your eyes to new possibilities you may have missed.
Fabulous speaker of all time, zin ziglar shared dozens of tips on how to get the message across, listen to customers, make the right connection with them, activate the imagination, and make anyone say “oh, Yes”. , I want it.”. As the book is filled with examples, jokes, and illustrations, it becomes even more engaging and enjoyable, so don’t miss out on reading it.
9. “the ultimate sales machine” by chet holmes (2008)
chet holmes has been called “one of the top 20 foreign exchange experts in the country.” he helps his clients exceed both the competition and their own expectations. and his advice starts with a simple concept: focus! Instead of trying to master four thousand strategies to improve your business, focus on the few essential skill areas that make the biggest difference.
Too many managers jump on every new trend, but don’t stick with any of them. Instead, says Holmes, focus on twelve critical areas for improvement, one at a time, and practice them over and over again with dogged discipline. The Ultimate Sales Machine shows you how to fine-tune and boost virtually every part of your business by spending just one hour a week on each area of impact you want to improve. Like a tennis player who only hits backhands for a few hours a week to perfect his game, you can systematically improve each key area.
10. “intelligent call” by art sobczak (2013)
This highly-reviewed book illustrates effective techniques that not only make cold calling less scary, confusing, and boring, but even more enjoyable for both the salesperson and potential customers. therefore, such a friendly chat becomes the most effective tool to use: by making the right first impression, sales reps are likely to hear the polite “good afternoon, sir…” the next time, if not they receive ten calls a day from their own clients. .
Proven Techniques for Mastering the Art of Cold Calling Cold calling is not only one of the fastest and most cost-effective ways to initiate a new sales contact and build a business; it is also one of the most feared, both for the seller and for the recipient. smart call has the solution: art sobczak’s proven system that will never experience rejection again. now in an updated second edition, it offers even smarter tips and techniques for finding new business and minimizing fear and rejection.
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While other cold calling books dispense with long-perpetuated myths like “prospecting is a numbers game” and salespeople should “love rejection,” this book will empower readers to take action, call prospects and get a yes every time. .
11. “agile selling” by jill konrath (2015)
lack of time and a lot of information to absorb: these are the incompatible components that bosses always want their employees to combine perfectly. As a result, even an up-and-coming sales specialist may not handle the pressure and therefore underperform.
jill konrath generously helped all sales newbies get up to speed with the basics quickly and bring their skills up to the necessary level. necessary mindsets, learning strategies, inspiring ideas and tips…using all of these myriad strategies packed into one book, beginning salespeople will become familiar with essential principles for getting into the sales game and they will learn techniques to achieve long-term high performance.
12. “how to win friends and influence people” by dale carnegie (1936)
Do you want people to buy? learn to convince them without scaring or boring them… every salesperson must learn psychology to be more successful.
In his well-known book published in 1936, the American writer and psychologist lists the great amount of advice that helps to win the affection of any person. Among them are the essential techniques for dealing with people, six ways to please people, twelve ways to attract people to your way of thinking, and nine ways to change people without arousing resentment. what a treasure for sales reps, huh? as well as for all people in general.
13. daniel disney’s “million pound linkedin message” (2019)
The author describes the story of a single message that resulted in a £1 million deal. impressive, right? daniel is sure: everyone can achieve the same success. therefore, in the book he will find 25 winning message templates that can be easily adjusted for your purposes. ready to sign up or feel like you need to work on existing account? disney hadn’t left out this crucial aspect: tips for creating a strong profile are also included. Hurry through the book and multiply your sales revenue by sending the right message to a potential customer over their morning coffee.
14. “Secrets of Inquiry-Based Selling” by Thomas Freese (1999)
Salespeople must differentiate themselves and their products to gain strategic advantage, but while companies around the world spend millions of dollars telling their salespeople “what to say,” they spend next to nothing teaching them “what to ask.” “.
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Question-Based Selling is a common-sense approach to selling based on the theory that “what” a salesperson asks, and “how” they ask, is more important than what they will say . makes sense because to present solutions, salespeople must first discover a need. How do you discover and expand the customer’s need? qbs will show you!
We hope you enjoyed our bestseller list!
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