If you’re looking for a crash course in selling, or want to learn about best practices that will help take your business to the next level, then you need to read one (or more) of these best books about selling.
Written by some of the top experts in the field, these books can help teach you everything from how to identify and qualify potential customers to closing the sale and handling objections. So if you’re ready to learn, dive into one of these bestsellers today!
1. This is Marketing by Seth Godin
If you’re looking for a book that will challenge your thinking about marketing, then This is Marketing by Seth Godin is a must-read.
In this book, Godin challenges the traditional ways of marketing and instead offers a new approach focused on creating change and making a difference. This is Marketing shows readers how to reframe how a product or service is represented in the real world and highlights why the old marketing and sales methods are used and how to replace them.
Why it’s so popular: This is Marketing is one of the best books about selling because it offers a new perspective on how to approach marketing. Seth Godin is a well-respected thought leader in the marketing world, and his book provides valuable insights that can help businesses of all sizes, hailed by the fact this is both a Wall Street Journal and New York Times bestseller!
What it can help you learn: This is a complete guide to sales that dives into positioning and how you should hyperfocus your product to your target market, how to set goals in the most actionable and productive way, and so much more!
2. To Sell is Human by Daniel Pink
In To Sell is Human, best-selling author Daniel Pink examines the modern-day salesman. He argues that whether we like it or not, we are all in sales now – from the stay-at-home mom trying to convince her kids to eat their vegetables to the CEO making a presentation to potential investors. In today’s world, the ability to sell is no longer a skill that is reserved for a select few – it is now a requirement for just about everyone.
Why it’s so popular: To Sell is Human is one of the best books about selling because it offers a fresh perspective on what it means to be in sales today. It’s not necessarily about selling products and services (although this is undoubtedly at the book’s core), but rather how selling affects all aspects of our lives, from job interviews to encouraging our loved ones to get help.
What it can help you learn: To Sell is Human can help you learn how to sell in the modern world, pitch your ideas effectively, and handle objections. It can teach every modern human how to represent themselves in a way where people listen and onboard the pictures you’re communicating.
3. The Psychology of Selling by Brian Tracy
This book is a classic, providing readers with a definitive step-by-step guide to selling successfully. Tracy covers topics such as how to increase your motivation, develop a winning attitude, overcome objections, and close more sales. If you’re looking for a practical and actionable selling book, this book is for you.
Why it’s so popular: The Psychology of Selling isn’t so successful just because it’s a step-by-step guide, but rather it’s a book about you and yourself. It’s not so much about other people and their ideas, but how you see and understand yourself and how you can bring this insight into every selling pitch you ever make.
What it can help you learn: The Psychology of Selling can help you learn how to increase your motivation, how to develop a winning attitude, how to overcome objections, and how to close more sales. It’s all about overcoming the fears of failure and rejection so you can be your most confident self.
4. The One-Page Marketing Plan by Allan Dib
If you’re looking for a hard and fast marketing book that does focus on products and services and getting them into the hands of your leads, Allan Dib has got the book for you.
In The One-Page Marketing Plan showcases the very best strategies for creating simple and effective marketing plans. Each chapter details how to map out their goals, strategies, and actions on a single page and provides templates and examples to help them get started.
If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to create a marketing plan, then this is the book for you.
Why it’s so popular: The One-Page Marketing Plan is one of the best books about selling because it offers a simple and effective way to create a marketing plan. It’s ridiculously actionable, and any business of any scale can learn something (usually a lot) from this text.
What it can help you learn: The One-Page Marketing Plan can help you learn how to create a marketing plan, how to set goals and objectives, how to develop strategies, and how to implement action plans.
5. Inbound Selling by Brian Signorelli
While Inbound Selling may not be the most renowned or famous book on this list, it’s still an incredibly highly rated book with some priceless insights into selling, marketing, and how to sell.
All the fundamentals are covered here, including how to attract more prospects, how to engage your prospects, how to convert your prospects into customers, and how to close more sales. As the title suggests, this book is specifically about harnessing the power of new-age inbound sales, so if you’re interested, this is the book for you!
Why it’s so popular: The content in this book is so unique and refreshing and defies any expectation that this is just rehashed content from other books. There’s a bit of a stigma among sales books that they all have the same info in a different way, but that’s just not the case here.
What it can help you learn: This is a very detailed yet concise and easy-to-understand book that provides an exclusive step-by-step guide on how to be an inbound seller and maximize your opportunities as a front-line manager.
6. The Little Red Book of Selling by Jeffrey Gitomer
Interestingly marketed with 12.5 principles of sales greatness, this book is all about mastering the philosophy of success. That’s not trying to go for as many hard and fast sales as you can, but rather how to nurture and develop long-term success by having a relationship with your clients, customers, and fans, yet in a way that doesn’t rely on the manipulative practices of the past.
Why it’s so popular: I love this book because it takes a very human approach to sales, which is rare in so many books. So many sellers see customers as leads that exist to make money rather than human beings, and this book does an excellent job at breaking this mindset.
What it can help you learn: You’ll learn everything you could ever need to know about buying motives of modern customers, ethical standpoints of brand and product positioning, and how to build relationships in the modern business age.
7. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
You can never talk about selling and its history without a mention of this book. Having sold over 15 million copies worldwide, this book is often credited as being the first bestseller in the subject of selling. In it, Dale Carnegie shares his secrets on how to win friends and influence people in a way that benefits both parties. While some of the methods may seem a little dated, the principles are still very much relevant today and can be applied in several different situations.
Why it’s so popular: How to Win Friends and Influence People is one of the best books about selling because it offers timeless advice on building relationships and influencing people.
What it can help you learn: How to Win Friends and Influence People can help you learn how to build relationships, how to communicate effectively, how to handle difficult situations, and how to influence people.
8. Permission Marketing by Seth Godin
My second entry from Seth Godin here, this time focusing on the topic of permission marketing. In a world where we are constantly bombarded with marketing messages, it can be challenging to get noticed and even harder to get people to take notice of what you’re selling.
However, getting someone’s permission before you start marketing to them dramatically increases the chances that they will actually listen to what you have to say. In Permission Marketing, Godin gives readers a step-by-step guide to getting permission from prospects and customers before marketing to them.
Why it’s so popular: Nobody likes intrusive ads, yet we’re still bombarded with them day in, day out. Have you ever bought something you’ve seen in a YouTube ad? I haven’t, really. This is modern marketing and sales for a contemporary world, so it’s no wonder it’s taking off.
What it can help you learn: Nowadays, we’re all talking about attention and grabbing our attention. You sit down to watch your favorite TV program or YouTube creator, and you’re bombarded by ads that want you to look at them. Seth calls this ‘Interruption Marketing,’ and it doesn’t work. Here, he teaches the alternative.
9. Buyology by Martin Lindstrom
Have you ever wondered what really drives people to buy things? In Buyology, best-selling author Martin Lindstrom takes a scientific approach to answer this question. He shares the findings of a three-year (and $7,000,000) study that he conducted with neuromarketing experts worldwide. If you’re looking for a book that will give you insights into the psychology of buying, then this is the book for you.
Why it’s so popular: It’s backed by cold, hard science that Martin carried out himself, diving into the real neurological aspects of sales and how the mind works, and this is just information you can’t get anywhere else.
What it can help you learn: The study covered so many areas of studies, processed through the minds of over 2,000 people. You’ll learn about how ads work, logos, commercials, brands, and products. The results shatter so many previous thought-true statements and really will change the world over the coming years.