Being a successful entrepreneur means the quest for new skills and knowledge never ends. Reading, taking online courses, speaking with more experienced contemporaries, learning from mistakes and failures are all part of the process that will take you where you want to go.
As a sales professional, your area of study should be a little more focused as you need to enhance your persuasion techniques and negotiation skills as well as your ability to communicate effectively with potential clients and customers. These are some of the most important traits of a successful salesperson as you endeavor to separate yourself, your company and your products from the competition.
At first, just knowing where to go to find the information to help you on your journey can be challenging. If you already work with a trusted sales coach, you should ask them to provide you with a list of resources for additional study.
Otherwise, here is a list of the five best sales books ever written to help you get started. Whether you are an experienced professional looking to beat your current monthly sales record or a rookie just starting out, these books are must-reads that will change your life! Enjoy:
ZigZiglar’s Secrets of Closing the Sale
Written by Zig Ziglar, this book contains tips and trick on how to sell your product and make everyone you pitch to say: “I’ll take it!“ In less than 500 pages, the author outlines more than 100 persuasive closes in addition to over 700 questions every salesman should ask himself. Renowned for his powers of persuasion, Ziglar is widely considered one of the most successful motivational speakers in history. This book is something every serious salesperson should own.
How to Sell Anything to Anybody
Authored by Joe Girard, this book was first published in 1978 and is now considered a classic. Part of the reason for this lies in the fact that Girard made it into the Guinness Book of World Records for selling 1,425 cars in one year (1973). Throughout the book, Girard shares best sales practices learned throughout his career and offers useful advice to those hoping to follow in his footsteps.
The Greatest Salesman in the World
Through the story of a poor camel boy named Hamid who achieves success with his selling skills, author Og Mandino shares his key essentials to becoming a successful sales professional. The book includes The Legend of the Ten Scrolls with each scroll outlining a key attribute necessary to make it in the sales business. Oscar-winning actor Matthew McConaughey has said this book changed his life so why don’t you let it change yours too?
How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling
Following an unremarkable careers in professional baseball, author Frank Bettger turned to selling insurance to make a living. Nothing short of an epic failure at the beginning of his career, he considered moving into a different field after just 10 months. However, heeding a lesson learned from a baseball manager who had cut him, he changed his attitude and his approach and by the time his was 40-years-old, he owned a large country estate and was one of the most successful salespeople in the world. A must-read for anyone doubting the power of “faking it until you make it.“
How to Win Friends and Influence People
With over 30 millions of copies sold worldwide, Dale Carnegie’s classic is one of the bestselling books of all the time. With good reason as Carnegie offers solid advice on how to make people like you and how to win them over to your way of thinking with little or no resistance. The book expounds on the fundamentals of handling people in addition to offering tips and tricks on how to make your home life happier. Keep an eye out for the passage that talks about the magic of the phrase, “Do me a favor …“ The power of starting a request with these five words is truly remarkable!
While reading all of these books will take a while, it will be time well spent and your sales managers will thank and reward you for it. Inside these volumes, you will find some of the best sales coaching practices out there and the sooner you start implementing them, the sooner you will start blowing away the competition.
Don’t forget … if you’re not a big reader, all of the above titles are now available on audiobook. Alternatively, any industry-leading sales coach or sales trainer will be well versed in the strategies outlined in their pages.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Natasa Tomic is journalist and content producer who specializes in writing about business and sales.
