Birth of a Salesman:The Transformation of Selling in America
By Walter Friedman, Harvard University Historian
Here is an account of how the hawker, the street peddler, the lowly bagman, then the exhausted and ridiculed Willie Loman figure evolved into the mighty selling and marketing gurus of today, surrounded and supported by a battery of psychologists, economists, colour consultants, social scientists, statisticians, advertising experts and--yes!--philosophers. A GREAT read on how important salespeople really are.
10 Secrets of Time Management for Salespeople: Gain the Competitive Edge and Make Every Second Count
By Dave Kahle
The typical salesperson today is overwhelmed, trapped in a chaotic, pressure-filled environment with too much to do and not enough time to do it. Salespeople need help! This book provides it. Dave Kahle contends that smart time management is not about cramming more activity into each hour; but about achieving greater results in that hour. The content has been honed in hundreds of seminars and refined by the perceptions and experiences of thousands of salespeople. 10 Secrets of Time Management for Salespeople provides powerful, practical insights and ideas that really work, including hundreds of specific, practical, effective time management tips from dozens of salespeople who are on the "front lines" every day.
The 12 Cliches of Selling (and Why They Work)
By Barry J. Farber
Good book on why the ole tried and true things you heard from the “seasoned sales pro” might just work after all
Discover your Sales Strengths:
How the World's Greatest Salespeople Develop Winning Careers
by Benson Smith, Tony Rutigliano
Unlike many how-to-sell books written by motivational gurus and successful salespeople, Smith and Rutigliano's work is backed up by facts and figures gleaned from 40 years of Gallup research. The authors, both Gallup consultants, dissect stereotypes and debunk popular "myths" about selling to determine that there is no one formula for success, and that training, knowledge and experience cannot make a great salesperson. Instead, they find, great salesmanship stems from exploiting individual talents. Top salespeople succeed by figuring out what they do best and then finding a way and a place to do it.
Goals: How to Get Everything You Want-Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible
By Brian Tracy
Though goal-setting is often over intellectualized, achievement expert Brian Tracy makes the process come to life as an essential ingredient for any type of personal development. He's been refining these ideas for 20 years, and no important insight is overlooked. Tracy 's extraordinary thinking is always expressed in practical action steps.
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The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
by Stephen R. Covey
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change was a groundbreaker when it was first published in 1990, and it continues to be a business bestseller with more than 10 million copies sold. Stephen Covey, an internationally respected leadership authority, realizes that true success encompasses a balance of personal and professional effectiveness, so this book is a manual for performing better in both arenas. His anecdotes are as frequently from family situations as from business challenges.
Wake up and Sell!
Theresa Gayle and Mary Ann Wampler
There are thousands of books on the market that teach people how to sell, but few address the inner state of the salesperson as they attempt to execute the tactics and strategies taught by the experts.
Hired Gun: You're #1, and Somebody Hates It
by Robert Workman
While every salesperson should read Hired Gun , it is not a book on how to sell, but rather a guide to discovering your personal identity and learning why it is your most precious asset in sales. Trust Workman, if you're a top gun, you can bet there is someone gunning for you. This book tells you why. You'll learn why top sales producers scare the hell out of those who manage them. Workman's sales personality evaluation test alone is worth the price of the book. Hired Gun is iconoclastic, quirky, rambling and very funny. Perfect. It is exactly the book you would expect from a cigar-smoking, Ferrari-driving Texan who lives in a converted warehouse with his pet cougar.
The Sales Bible
By Jeffrey Gitomer
Gitomer provides motivational advice and practical techniques selling. Written in a breezy manner with short, easy-to-remember suggestions, this book should prove popular with persons just getting started in this field or those needing an inspirational pep talk. In an area where there are literally dozens of works already available, this isn't an essential purchase, but it will prove helpful to anyone who reads it. It is usually accompanied by flash cards and a computer disc on sales techniques.
Think and Grow Rich
by Napoleon Hill
Napolean Hill was a very successful individual. When Hill met with Andrew Carnegie, he was offered only a place to stay and no salary. Here was Hill with pennies in his pockets sitting in front of the richest man in the world at that time who offered Hill no financial remuneration. Carnegie felt that if Hill were to write a book about how to create wealth then Hill would have to become wealthy himself and he did. Think & Grow Rich is a classic that should be read by everyone, especially in times like we are going through right now. Over the last 30 years or so I have encountered many successful people from various walks of life who attribute Think & Grow Rich to helping them reach new limits in success.
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You Can't Teach a Kid to Ride a Bike at a Seminar : The Sandler Sales Institute's 7-Step System for Successful Selling
by David H Sandler
One of the most provocative books on selling out there. This is a “straight-to-the-point” type of sales methodology. Great for putting you in the proper mindset and really thinking about things from your position. Sandler was one of the first to recommend “qualify or disqualify and then move on!.” Most sales books focus only on a sales process or skills. Sandler focuses on both plus attitude and behavior often ignored by others.
The New Strategic Selling: The Unique Sales System Proven Successful by the World's Best Companies, Revised and Updated for the 21st Century
by Stephen E. Heiman, Diane Sanchez
Great book from a strategic selling perspective (not tactical). If you are involved in complex sales with multiple decision makers and influencers get this book. It will help you navigate your way through the organization.
Consultative Selling: The Hanan Formula for High-Margin Sales at High Levels
by MacK Hanan
This is a classic must have and in every top producers library! The focus is on how to become a consultant to the executives of your targeted companies. This isn't lip service he really shows you how to do it!
Selling to Big Companies
Jill Konrath
Friendly, fresh, filled with insights. Guaranteed to rev up the performance of anyone selling in the business-to-business marketplace. Penetrating large accounts has never been tougher. The challenge of finding decision-maker's names and breaking through voice mail is huge.
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Buyer-Approved Selling:
Sales Strategies From The Buyer's Side If The Desk
by Michael Schell
Schell interviews 228 professional buyer's and focuses almost entirely on the sales process from the buyer's perspective. Great read no matter how long you have been in sales or who you call on.
Integrity Selling and Integrity Selling for the 21st Century:
How to Sell how People Buy
by Ron Willingham
If you've tried manipulative, self-focused selling techniques that demean you and your customer, if you've ever wondered if selling could be more than just talking people into buying, then Integrity Selling for the 21st Century is the book for you. Its concept is simple: Only by getting to know your customers and their needs — and believing that you can meet those needs — will you enjoy relationships with customers built on trust. And only then, when you bring more value to your customers than you receive in payment, will you begin to reap the rewards of high sales.
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How To Win Friends And Influence People
by Dale Carnegie
This is the bible of building relationship! The classic book on getting along with virtually anyone. In sales relationships are everything and if you have not read this book go buy it now!
Cracking the Networking CODE:
Four Steps to Priceless Business Relationships
by Dean Lindsay
Networking was one area that you have got to do well. This book addresses how to get comfortable meeting new people and building on the meeting. The CODE in this book broke down the steps to successful networking and makes it much less intimidating.
How to Connect in Business in 90 Seconds or Less
by Nicholas Boothman
This book is not about a new business theory; it's about how you can become more successful in business by learning to connect with your customers, colleagues, bosses, employees, and even total strangers in ninety seconds or less. Armed with simple tools that include eye contact, attitude, body movements, and voice techniques, the average person can become a more successful communicator. Boothman is a vibrant writer with a fine wit that maintains the reader's attention by way of effective person-to-person scenarios that correspond to average daily encounters. Whether employed in sales, education, business, or even public speaking, effective communication is mandatory, and Boothman's techniques may be the express ticket necessary to progress to that next level.
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SPIN Selling
by Neil Rackham
This is the definitive work on how to ask questions. Very question focused. What makes this different is the amount of research it is based upon. This is a very popular system and it works.
Selling To VITO (The Very Important Top Officer)
by Anthony Parinello
Full of ideas on how to reach executives executive. This works if you are willing to do what he says. It will take some experimenting, observation and fine tuning but it will pay off.
Ultimate Selling Power: How to Create and Enjoy a Multi-Million Dollar Sales Career
by Donald J. Moine, Ken, Ph.D. Lloyd
Ultimate Selling Power reveals how average salespeople in a variety of industries have created multimillion dollar careers using many powerful newly-developed sales and marketing techniques. It is a practical, step-by-step guide showing what the best, most successful salespeople in the world are doing to attract an almost unlimited number of customers and clients and to close a record-breaking number of sales. In this unique new book, you will learn how to use the most powerful words in existence to create compelling sales and marketing presentations, how to get the media to sell for you, how to sell to dozens or even hundreds of people at one time by using sales seminars, how to harness the incredible power of CRM (customer relationship management), how to find a sales coach who can help you double or triple your income, and dozens of other million dollar sales and marketing strategies.
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Let's Get Real, or Let's Not Play
By Mahan Khalsa
This book teaches you to become totally client-focused, break down the barriers of dysfunctional business development, and find rewarding, productive business relationships. With honesty, clarity, and authenticity, the book cuts through the nonsense and focuses on getting results and helping clients succeed.
Selling 101
By Zig Ziglar
Short, compact and concise format is the basics of how to persuade more people more effectively, more ethically, and more often. Ziglar draws from his fundamental selling experiences and shows that while the fundamentals of selling may remain constant, sales people must continue learning, living, and looking: learning from the past without living there; living in the present by seizing each vital moment of every single day; and looking to the future with hope, optimism, and education. His tips will not only keep your clients happy and add to your income, but will also teach you ideas and principles that will, most importantly, add to the quality of your life.
How to Master the Art of Selling
By Tom Hopkins
The book that launched over 3,000,000 real-estate and selling careers worldwide! No longer a well-kept secret, Tom's mega-hit book is placed within arm's reach on every top producer's desk. It's considered the world's best reference guide and has been used for more than 17 years in every sales profession. Even if you've been selling for years, you'll find page after page of valuable information guaranteed to help you serve more clients while boosting your bank account.
Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind
by Al Ries, Jack Trout
This is the definitive book on positioning, a concept developed by the authors. This talks about how to deal with the problems of communicating in an over communicated society.Witty and fast-paced, this book spells out how to position a leader so that it gets into the mind and stays there, position a follower in a way that finds a 'hole' not occupied by the leader, and avoid the pitfalls of letting a second product ride on the coattails of an established one. Revised to reflect significant developments in the five years since its original publication, Positioning reveals the fascinating case histories and anecdotes behind the campaigns of many stunning successes and failures in the world of advertising.
Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In
by Roger Fisher, William L. Ury
We're constantly negotiating in our lives, whether it's convincing the kids to do their homework or settling million-dollar lawsuits. For those who need help winning these battles, Roger Fisher has developed a simple and straightforward five-step system for how to behave in negotiations.
Solution Selling: Creating Buyers in Difficult Selling Markets
by Michael Bosworth
Resource for sales managers in large account, corporate sales with specific advice on assigning leads, managing the sales process, and controlling costs. Effective techniques for prospecting, overcoming objections, and creating value are also covered. A solid book.
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