Must-Read Sales Books For Every Top Sales Professional

Some people live by the training materials their company gives them. What a shame.

The best salespeople believe in continuing education. What titles are on your list of the best sales books out there?

We’ll start the conversation and debate with an initial 10 sales books. This page is continuously updated – so check back often.

In the past, we’ve reviewed more books and we’ll provide links to those top sales books as well.

It’s important to keep your social, interviewing, presentation, and negotiation skills sharp. You won’t do that by twiddling your thumbs, waiting for your company to train you. And you certainly won’t do it by practicing poor skills sales call after sales call.

Be smart and keep up. Read a sales book or two. Here’s our suggested list – leave your own favorites and recommendations in the comments below!

Dale Carnegie – How to Win Friends & Influence People

The grandfather of all people-skills books was first published in 1937. It was an overnight hit, eventually selling 15 million copies.

How to Win Friends and Influence People is just as useful today as it was when it was first published, because Dale Carnegie had an understanding of human nature that will never be outdated.

You learn how to make people like you, win people over to your way of thinking, and change people without causing offense. It’s a must-read for every sales and business person.

Keith Ferrazzi – Never Eat Alone

Do you want to get ahead in life? Climb the ladder to personal success?

The secret, master networker Keith Ferrazzi claims in his sales book called Never Eat Alone, is in reaching out to other people. As Ferrazzi discovered early in life, what distinguishes highly successful people from everyone else is the way they use the power of relationships—so that everyone wins.

In Never Eat Alone, Ferrazzi lays out the specific steps—and inner mindset—he uses to reach out to connect with the thousands of colleagues, friends, and associates on his Rolodex, people he has helped and who have helped him.

Jill Konrath – Selling to Big Companies

Setting up meetings with corporate decision makers has never been harder. It’s time to stop making endless cold calls or waiting for the phone to ring. In today’s crazy marketplace, new sales strategies are needed to penetrate these big accounts.

In this sales book called Selling to Big Companies, Jill Konrath provides ideas on how to target the right account, find the names of decision makers, develop a compelling value proposition and much, much more.

Steve Marx – Close Like The Pros

The time pressures today on salespeople and clients are out of control. In a misguided effort to save their prospects’ time, the salesperson does all of her work first and by himself – hands off the proposal to the prospect as if it were a baton in a relay race.

Close Like The Pros shows how the most top sellers combine selling and buying into a single process – interactive selling. Presented here is a fresh look at what you can do to collaborate and partner with prospective customers instead of bidding against them.

Jeffrey Gitomer – The Little Red Book of Selling

No list of recommended sales books is ever complete without Gitomer.

It’s written in the typical Gitomer “in your face, no-nonsense” style so expect a combination of fundamental sales and motivational advice and humor.

The Little Red Book of Selling is short, sweet, and to the point, but there’s nothing fundamentally new here. Still, this is a must-have in your sales library.

Sam Richter – Take the Cold Out of Cold Calling

Occasionally a book comes along for sales professionals that offers something completely different and important. Take the Cold Out of Cold Calling is one of those books.

Not a traditional tactics and skills book here – instead, you will learn how to find basic and crucial data on prospects by using cutting-edge web search tactics that even the more astute sales professionals aren’t aware of. Get relevant data prior to your meetings with prospects and customers so you can demonstrate value. This is book is a great resource.

Stephan Schiffman – Getting to Closed

In this book, Stephan Schiffman introduces his Prospect Management System – a clear break with the various “sales is a numbers game” approaches around.

Getting to Closed offers a structured process to rank and define prospects according to action and commitment (rather than “gut feeling”), recognize the “no” answers and calculate cold calling ratios that you need in to succeed in your business. Getting to Closed relies heavily on ratios and charts – it’s a very useful sales book for people in high-activity industries.

Last Updated: 12/10/08