35 Best Sales Books (of All Time) to Read, Grow & Level up Your Sales Skills in 2023

35 Best Sales Books (of All Time) to Read, Grow & Level up Your Sales Skills in 2023

Want to improve your close rates, learn to be a better manager, and work more efficiently? You need to read more sales books.

Reading is how billionaire investor Warren Buffett spends most of his day; Bill Gates swears by it; Mark Cuban spends four or five hours a day doing it.

Research shows reading helps prevent stress, depression, and dementia while enhancing confidence, decision-making, and overall life satisfaction.

Reading the best sales books can even lead to higher income and more meaningful careers.

Books give you access to the greatest minds of our generation and generations past (for some of the lowest prices of any educational tool out there)—which is why it’s so important to carve out time to read.

To compile this list of the best sales books of all time, we combed the must-read lists of some of the most successful entrepreneurs and asked the sales team here at Close. Even better, most of these sales books come in audio-book format so you can listen while driving, entering data into your CRM, or even working out.

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How to Make the Most Out of Reading These Best-Selling Sales Books

Choosing the right sales book is just part of the battle. You also want to make sure you understand and absorb what you read. It's easy to get sucked into a book—and by the end you realize you didn't absorb anything.

To get the most out of the sales books we recommend, try these tricks to help you retain more information:

  • Read with a friend/colleague: Ask a friend or colleague to read the book at the same time and discuss what you learn. Discussing the book will help you pay closer attention while reading and reinforce main points.
  • Take notes: Write down your favorite sales quotes or a high-level overview as you read. The repetition will help you retain the new information.
  • Highlight passages: Some book-lovers might hate the idea of writing or highlighting a book, but it's a great way to reinforce new ideas and makes it easier to flip back to find your favorite passages. (Of course, this doesn't work for borrowed copies!)
  • Read slower: Aim to read a chapter or two a day, rather than trying to fly through the book as fast as possible. Each day, flip through the pages from the day before to help solidify those new ideas.  

Reading with intention will ensure you’re not just flipping pages and have actionable advice when you finally get to the back cover.

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Now, let’s get into the best sales books! To make our list easier to use, these books are grouped together based on their core topics, include advice on who should read each book and a quick explanation of what you'll learn from each author.

Essential Sales Books for Everyone in Sales

These sales books are must-reads for everyone involved in the sales no matter the industry—whether you're an SDR at a software startup, a real estate agent, an entrepreneur, or VP of Sales, these books have a ton of information and best practices on the science of selling—to help you succeed in your sales career.

1. To Sell is Human by Daniel H. Pink: Best Sales Book for Breaking Sales Stereotypes

Best Sales Book for Breaking Stereotypes (Daniel Pink To Sell is Human)

What you'll learn from this sales book:

If you want to understand the modern sales landscape and the psychology of selling anything, this is a must-read book to become a better salesperson. It offers tips on persuasion, the importance of honesty, and the importance of non-sales selling.

Daniel Pink is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post best-selling author who completely destroys and disproves every outdated stereotype about sales in this fantastic book.

Key Quote: “Anytime you're tempted to upsell someone else, stop what you're doing and upserve instead.”

2. Everybody Lies by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz: Best Book About Using Data for Sales Success

Best Sales Book About Data (Everybody Lies Screenshot)

What you'll learn about sales success:

What if you knew what your sales lead would do before speaking to them? The internet has led to such a proliferation of data that we can predict behaviors based on everything from what sports you like to who you voted for.

In this book, data scientist Seth Stephens-Davidowitz digs deeper and reveals truths about how we think and feel as humans, which is helpful to salespeople who want to understand their prospects better.

Key Quote: “First, and perhaps most important, if you are going to try to use new data to revolutionize a field, it is best to go into a field where old methods are lousy.”

3. Blueprints For A SaaS Sales Organization by Jacco van der Kooji and Fernando Pizarro: For Scaling a SaaS Sales Team

Sales Books for SaaS Sales (Blueprints for a SaaS Sales Organization Screenshot)

What you'll learn about sales for SaaS:

This book redefined how SaaS sales teams are built. Authors Jacco van der Kooji and Fernando Pizarro distill decades of combined experience building high-performance SaaS teams into detailed instructions that help sales managers design, implement, and execute better sales plans.

Key Quote: “Get the model right in order to avoid losing time. Time is the only resource you can’t replace, and in today’s fast-moving market your competitors are quick to leap ahead of you and cash in on the market you and your marketing dollars created.”

4. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Dr. Robert Cialdini: Best Classic Sales Book on Psychology

Best Sales Book About Psychology (Influence by Robert Cialdini Screenshot)

What you'll learn about influence in sales:

This international best-selling sales book teaches the six principles of influence and how to apply them.

Understanding how people are influenced is such an incredibly important part of sales, and Dr. Robert Cialdini is the expert. Influence is the classic text on the psychology of why people say "yes." More importantly, you'll learn how to apply these understandings to your sales process.

Key Quote: “The idea of potential loss plays a large role in human decision making. In fact, people seem to be more motivated by the thought of losing something than by the thought of gaining something of equal value.”

5. Pitch Anything: An Innovative Method for Presenting, Persuading, and Winning the Deal by Oren Klaff: Best Guide for Nailing Your Sales Pitches

Best Sales Book for Pitching (Pitch Anything by Oren Klaff)

What you'll learn about pitching:

One truly great sales pitch can make your career. Which is what author Oren Klaff, who used his own unique pitching method to raise over $400 million, proves in this fantastic book.

Klaff explains a scientific approach to the pitch, outlining the key points every great pitch needs to hit and how exactly to do it:

  • Setting the Frame
  • Telling the Story
  • Revealing the Intrigue
  • Offering the Prize
  • Nailing the Hookpoint
  • Getting a Decision

While this sales book discusses pitching for funding, many of the principles also apply to sales professionals and entrepreneurs looking to close more sales.

Key Quote: “No pitch or message is going to get to the logic center of the other person’s brain without passing through the survival filters of the crocodile brain system first. And because of the way we evolved, those filters make pitching anything extremely difficult.”

6. Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss: Classic Sales Book on Negotiating

Best Sales Book About Negotiation (Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss)

What you'll learn about negotiating in this sales book:

Want to up your negotiating skills? Who better to learn from than a former international hostage negotiator for the FBI?

Chris Voss highlights the hard skills and practical principles that helped him save lives and will help give you an edge in any negotiation. Whether you're looking to close a sale or save on your next car purchase, this action guide has earned its rank amongst the best sales books of all-time.

Key Quote: “Negotiate in their world. Persuasion is not about how bright or smooth or forceful you are. It’s about the other party convincing themselves that the solution you want is their own idea. So don’t beat them with logic or brute force. Ask them questions that open paths to your goals. It’s not about you.”

7. Zig Ziglar's Secrets of Closing the Sale: A Classic Sales Book for Every Sales Professional

Classic Sales Books (Zig Ziglar's Secrets of Closing the Sale)

What you'll learn about closing sales:

Looking to improve your sales career? You can't go wrong with this classic book by Zig Ziglar.

In the sales world, Zig Ziglar is the giant on whose shoulders we all stand. His pioneering book focuses on the all-important close, providing hundreds of examples of how to close and questions to ask yourself before you go in for the ‘yes.’

This sales book covers more than 700 questions to ask, professional tips from sales experts, and 100 different closing strategies.

Key Quote: “If you do not believe in your product or service enough to offer it to your own family and friends, then you should question the value of what you are selling.”

8. Little Red Book of Selling: 12.5 Principles of Sales Greatness by Jeffrey Gitomer: Shortest Book that Packs a Ton of Information

Best Sales Books (Jeffrey Gitomer's Little Red Book of Selling)

What you'll learn in Jeffrey Gitomer's classic sales book:

This short and sweet sales book outlines the most important aspects of sales in quick chapters punctuated with funny cartoons. You'll learn practical tips on tackling complaints, networking, meeting decision makers, and using creativity to make people want to buy.

Key Quote:

"People don't like to be sold, but they love to buy. Your job as a master salesman is to create an atmosphere where people want to buy."

9. SNAP Selling by Jill Konrath: Learn New Sales Strategies to Close Deals Faster

Snap Selling by Jill Konrath (Photo of Book)

What you'll learn in this foundational sales book:

With more than 100 five-star reviews on Amazon and several awards, this book by Jill Konrath is a must-read for new or established salespeople. The book shares strategies for closing deals faster, gaining access to prospects—even when they're busy—and keeping the buying process moving forward.

The book outlines a simple framework called SNAP, which stands for Simple, iNvaluable, Aligned, and Priority.

Key Quote:

"Frazzled customers don’t want to hear about your products or services. They will grant you access only if you pique their curiosity or provoke their thinking.”

Best-Selling Sales Books on Management

Knowledge is your best friend, whether you're a VP of Sales, managing a sales team, or a founder running point on sales. These books cover the nitty-gritty of managing a sales team as well as the psychology of management in business.

10. Cracking the Sales Management Code by Jason Jordan: For Current or Soon-to-Be Sales Managers

Sales Management Books (Cracking the Sales Management Code by Jason Jordan)

What you'll learn about sales management:

If you’re sick of high-level advice and are ready to dig into the specifics of how a high-functioning sales team works, this is a must-read.

Authors Jason Jordan and Michelle Vazzana explain what drives sales performance, including:

  • How to choose the right sales processes for your own team
  • Which metrics you can "manage" and which ones you can't
  • How to prioritize conflicting sales objectives
  • How to align seller activities with business results
  • How to use a CRM to improve the impact of coaching

Pro tip: Pair this fantastic sales management book with Mike Weinberg's seminal Sales Management. Simplified. to really get the most out of your learning on this topic.

Key Quote: “Hiring the right salespeople, deploying them in the right way, targeting the right customers, and selling the right products is the only formula for long-term organizational health.”

11. The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes: For Sales Managers to Learn About Strategy

Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes (Top Sales Books for Sales Managers to Read)

What you'll learn about sales strategy:

As a sales manager, one of your most important roles is not just to identify strategies and opportunities, but to get rid of ones that don’t work.

Chet Holmes’ book shows you how to focus on the strategies that work and systematically improve areas of your business in just an hour a week.

Whether you're struggling to figure out if cold calling works or looking for new ways to leverage social selling, this book will get you on the right path.

Key Quote: “The one who gives the market the most and best information will always slaughter the one who just wants to sell products or services.”

12. SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham: For Sales Reps Looking to Up Their Game

Spin Selling by Neil Rackham

What you'll learn about spin selling:

This book is a few decades old (which means being prepared for outdated references), but the fundamentals presented by author Neil Rackham in SPIN are those that every sales rep needs to know.

SPIN, which stands for Situation, Problem, Implication, and Need-payoff, turned selling from an art to a science and is a playbook for closing large, complex sales.

This book offers simple, practical advice you can use to dramatically increase your sales, streamline your sales process, and get away from older strategies that just don't work.

Key Quote: “People do not buy from salespeople because they understand their products but because they felt the salesperson understood their problems.”

13. Coaching Salespeople Into Sales Champions by Keith Rosen: For Sales Managers Looking to Improve Their Coaching Skills

Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions by Keith Rosen

What you'll learn about sales coaching:

If you don’t know the difference between sales training and coaching, your sales team will never truly excel. Keith Rosen’s award-winning book shares specific methods to lead your top performers to success and create a culture of coaching at your organization.

This sales book is a great choice for anyone wanting to inspire and create a more positive working environment.

Key Quote: “If you do not have a defined process that moves your people forward so they can achieve greater results, then what is it you are managing?”

14. The Art of War by Sun Tzu: Best Book to Learn How to Handle Conflict

The Art of War by Sun Tzu (Classic Sales Books)

What you'll learn about conflict (and how that applies to sales):

Sure, it’s nearly 2000 years old, but Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu’s classic is still the authority on how to handle conflict in the best way possible. The strategies in this book have been applied to everyone from ancient military leaders to modern-day politicians and executives.

It also covers the importance of learning, using disruption as an advantage, and leveraging creativity.

Key Quotes (we couldn’t pick just one): “Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.”

“In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.”

“Engage people with what they expect; it is what they are able to discern and confirm their projections. It settles them into predictable patterns of response, occupying their minds while you wait for the extraordinary moment — that which they cannot anticipate.”

The Best Books for Sales Managers

Sales managers aren't just responsible for ensuring their reps hit new sales goals or finding new recruits. True sales leaders constantly learn and grow—and help their sales team do the same.

Whether you're at a new business or looking to help your long-term team grow, these books will help your team learn new strategies.

15. From Impossible to Inevitable by Aaron Ross and Jason Lemkin: Best For Sales Reps and Managers in High-Growth Companies

Aaron Ross and Jason Limken's From Impossible to Inevitable (Best Sales Books for High Growth)

What  you'll learn about driving growth through sales:

Authors Aaron Ross and Jason Lemkin use real-world examples from Zenefits (which skyrocketed from $1 million to $100 million in two years) to Salesforce (the fastest growing multibillion-dollar software company) to describe their 7 Ingredients of hyper growth:

  1. Nail a niche
  2. Build sustainable systems that create a predictable pipeline
  3. Make sales scalable
  4. Figure out how to double your deal size
  5. Make sure you can do the time
  6. Embrace employee ownership
  7. Define your destiny to make a difference

This sales book serves as a road map for building predictable revenue streams using a proven template and detailed instructions.

Key Quote: “Your primary goal should not be to close a deal, but to help your “customers” solve problems and realize success.” - Aaron Ross

Sales Management Books (Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin)

What you'll learn about leadership:

The metaphor of sales as a battlefield might be overused, but it’s an apt description of how we feel when the stakes are high and we know the competition is always around the corner.

That’s why this book, written by celebrated SEAL veterans Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, offers so many incredible insights on leading a sales team, relationship building, and taking responsibility.

Extreme Ownership details the mindset and principles that enable the SEALs to succeed and has helped everyone from startups to Fortune 500 companies to lead more effectively.

Key Quote: “The test is not a complex one: when the alarm goes off, do you get up out of bed, or do you lie there in comfort and fall back to sleep? If you have the discipline to get out of bed, you win—you pass the test. If you are mentally weak for that moment and you let that weakness keep you in bed, you fail. Though it seems small, that weakness translates to more significant decisions. But if you exercise discipline, that too translates to more substantial elements of your life.”

17. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck: Top Book About The Importance of a Growth Mindset

Mindset the New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck Book

What you'll learn about growth in this book:

To grow and succeed in this new sales world, we need to grow and succeed. Simple right? Yet, how many times have you or your team missed a target or lost an account and thought ‘it was just meant to be'?

In this book, psychologist Carol Dweck drills into the core of having a growth mindset, and how you can inspire yourself, your team, and your entire organization to grow.

Key Quote: “We like to think of our champions and idols as superheroes who were born different from us. We don’t like to think of them as relatively ordinary people who made themselves extraordinary.”

18. Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers by Tim Ferriss: Best Book to Inspire Your Sales Team

Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss (Best Sales Books for Managers)

What you'll learn about leadership and becoming a more successful salesperson:

Author, entrepreneur, and investor Tim Ferriss deep dive into what creates greatness is a monstrous 650-pages of advice from 200+ business gurus, including Tony Robbins, Derek Sivers, Daymond John, and many more. If you want to be a great leader, Tim lets you learn from the best—regardless of whether or not you're in sales.

Key Quote: “When 99% of people doubt you, you’re either gravely wrong or about to make history.”

19. Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi: The Perfect Book To Learn How to Grow Relationships

Sales Books About Relationships (Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi)

What you'll learn about building relationships:

If the son of a small-town steelworker can network his way to a Harvard MBA and land features in Forbes, Fortune, and the Wall Street Journal, then I listen to him.

In this sales book, author Keith Ferrazzi takes all the negative, soul-sucking drudgery of ‘networking’ and outlines how to build connections that matter and get you what you want in life.

Whether you're going to a social event or want to use social media more effectively, this book will help you learn how to connect to the people around you.

Key Quote: “Real networking is about finding ways to make other people more successful.”

20. Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Travis Bradberry: Learn How Emotions Impact Buying Behavior

Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Travis Bradberry (Sales Books for Building Emotional Intelligence)

What you'll learn about emotional intelligence:

The most successful salespeople know emotions are behind every decision we make—from who we choose to spend our time with to what brand of toothpaste we buy.

Based on answers from over half a million people, Dr. Travis Bradberry shows how to develop your emotional intelligence to become more in-tune with the needs and wants of the people you sell to.

Key Quote: “Anyone can become angry—that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way, this is not easy.”

21. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card: Best For Sales Manager Who Don't Want to Read Sales Books

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (Books to Learn About Sales and Leadership)

What you'll learn about leadership + teamwork :

Why is this sci-fi novel on the US Marine Corps' reading list (and our list of sales books)? Orson Scott Card not only tells a fantastic story of futuristic war, but sneaks in some of the best lessons on leadership, teamwork, and empathy—which are the key to any successful sales team.

Key Quote: “If you try and lose then it isn't your fault. But if you don't try and we lose, then it's all your fault.”

22. Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek: Ideal Choice to Learn About the Fundamentals of Selling

Start With Why by Simon Sinek (Sales Books about Driving Purposeful Action)

What you'll learn about driving action in sales:

Any organization can explain what it does. Some can explain how they do it. But very few can clearly articulate why. This is the focal point of Simon Sinek’s brilliant book. When you’re selling, understanding the why behind your product gives you a leg-up on the competition.

While not specifically a sales book, this fantastic read teaches you to answer questions that go beyond the surface—and really show your prospect that they need what you’re selling.

Key Quote: “People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe.”

Sales Books that Teach Key Life Lessons

Reading shouldn’t just be about smashing metrics and smashing more deals. It should be about personal growth and building a better, more successful life. These sales books cover the spectrum from growing your mental fortitude to learning how to have more respectful sales conversations.

23. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey: Ideal Book for Working More Efficiently

Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey (Best Sales Books of All Time)

What you'll learn about building an efficient sales process (and life!):

Ever wish you had more time in the day or could speed up a long sales cycle? There’s a reason this book is so well-regarded in both business schools and personal development circles.

Stephen R. Covey's book is a guide on living a meaningful life, empathizing with everyone you meet, and setting realistic, actionable goals (and sales goals, for that matter). If you’re in a slump or need motivation, pick this one up.

Key Quote: “Habit is the intersection of knowledge (what to do), skill (how to do), and desire (want to do).”

24. Rejection Proof by Jia Jiang: Best Choice For Learning How to Handle Rejection in Sales

Rejection Proof by Jia Jiang (Best Sales Books about Handing Rejection)

What you'll learn about rejection in this sales book:

If you're in sales, you know objections and rejections very well. But without the mental fortitude to push through, those rejections can quickly weigh down your motivation. The author of this sales book, Jia Jiang, decided to go through more rejection than most people can handle.

The result was this book covering the secrets of successful asking, how to pick targets, and how to tell when an initial no can be converted into something positive—and when you're just wasting your time.

Key Quote: “Is your dream bigger than your rejections? If it is, maybe it’s time to keep going, instead of giving up.”

25. Sell or Be Sold: How to Get Your Way in Business and in Life by Grant Cardone: Learn How to (Gracefully) Apply Sales Techniques to The Rest of Your Life

Sell or Be Sold by Grant Cardone (Best Sales Books of All Time to Read)

What you'll learn about persuasion:

As salespeople, it’s hard to separate the work we do every day from the rest of our lives. When you’re ‘always on’, it can be hard to tone it down and stop selling to everyone in your life—which author and serial entrepreneur Grant Cardone knows all too well.

But why should we try to turn off the sale in the first place? This sales book takes the traditional idea of selling and puts a fresh spin on it by applying sales techniques and philosophies to every facet of your life, from your career to your love life.

Key Quote: “No person will ever gain true power and stature in the world without the ability to persuade others.”

26. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie: Best Motivational Book for Fast Growing Sales Teams

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie (Sales Books)

What you'll learn about working with people:

Yes, it was written in the 1930s. But, it has sold more than 15 million copies and is still taught today. As the title suggests, Dale Carnegie’s bestselling (undercover) sales book teaches you how to effectively work with other people and become a better leader and connector.

More than that, it teaches you how to genuinely get along with people and live a happier, more successful life. Those lessons are important whether you're looking to increase B2B sales, get a better job, or just enjoy your life.

Key Quote: “You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”

27. Wherever You Go There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn: Best Selection to Reduce Stress

Sales Books About Mindfulness (Jon Kabat-Zinn's Wherever You Go There You Are)

What you'll learn about mindfulness:

Working in sales is stressful. While some of us choose to put our heads down and power through the long, tense days, author Jon Kabat-Zinn thinks we can live a more meaningful life through meditation.

This isn't directly a sales book, but if you’ve been ‘hearing about this mindfulness stuff’ for a while and want to try to lower your stress, this is a great place to start. Even better, this is one of Close founder, Steli Efti's, favorite sales books.

Key Quote: “You might be tempted to avoid the messiness of daily living for the tranquility of stillness and peacefulness. This of course would be an attachment to stillness, and like any strong attachment, it leads to delusion. It arrests development and short-circuits the cultivation of wisdom.”

28. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport: Best Sales-Adjacent Book to Improve Focus

Sales Books for Focused Work (Deep Work by Cal Newport)

What you'll learn about sales (and life) in Deep Work:

In our distracted world, attention and focus are our two most precious resources. Especially in sales, where you're constantly looking for leads, researching the market, and out performing your competition, it can be easy to get swept away by distractions.

This book by author and Georgetown professor, Cal Newport, changes that. Deep Work is part inspiring stories and part actionable advice on building an attention-strengthening regime so you can become a master in your field.

Key Quote: “Clarity about what matters provides clarity about what does not.”

29. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson: Best Choice for People Who Don't Want to Read Another Sales Book

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck by Mark Manson (to Sell Better)

What this book teaches you about sales—and business in general:

First, this book has probably the best title of any business book out there. Secondly, Mark Manson’s best-seller is built around the core argument, backed by academic research, that improving our lives hinges not on our ability to turn “lemons into lemonade,” but on learning to stomach the lemons better.

This book explores the importance of setting realistic expectations and embracing our fears, faults, and uncertainties.

Key Quote: "Everything worthwhile in life is won through surmounting the associated negative experience. Any attempt to escape the negative, to avoid it or quash it or silence it, only backfires. The avoidance of suffering is a form of suffering. The avoidance of struggle is a struggle. The denial of failure is a failure. Hiding what is shameful is itself a form of shame."

30. Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy: Learn How to Manage Your Time More Efficiently

Sales Books About Procrastination (Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy)

What you'll learn in this classic sales book from Brian Tracy:

Brian Tracy is well known in the world of sales with books like The Psychology of Selling or Sales Success. While Eat That Frog isn't specifically a sales book in the sense that it won't teach you a new sales methodology or provide cold calling scripts, it's definitely worth a read.

What it will do is help you learn to tackle those annoying tasks you keep putting off and learn to get more done. And if there's one thing top sales reps need, it's more time!

Key Quote:

"One of the very worst uses of time is to do something very well that needs not to be done at all."

The Best Sales Books About the Future of Sales

You might think a book is the last place to look to the future, but big, life-changing ideas are often hidden within well-read tomes. These sales books look at some of the greatest ideas of how to build and grow an influential sales team (and a company in general).

31. The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson: Learn From Thousands of Top-Performing Sales Reps

The Challenger Sale by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson (Best Sales Books)

What you'll learn about the core of sales in this book:

Based on a study of thousands of sales reps across many industries, Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson found that the best sales teams don't just build relationships, but challenge them. This unique sales book takes what most people consider the core of sales and flips it on its head.

Where The Challenger Sale excels is in pinpointing the exact sales strategies and techniques that work well—presenting them in a digestible, repeatable format for readers to replicate in their own sales processes. Pro tip: This sales book makes for a really great read when paired with Gap Selling by Jim Keenan.

Key Quote: “What sets the best suppliers apart is not the quality of their products, but the value of their insight—new ideas to help customers either make money or save money in ways they didn’t even know were possible.”

32. Winning With Data by Tomasz Tunguz: Best Data-Focused Sales Book

Winning With Data by Tomasz Tunguz

What you'll learn using data to increase sales:

If you know your sales team needs to be data-driven but aren't sure where to start, this is the book for you. Venture capitalist Tomasz Tunguz’s book provides a crash course on what the term means and shares how to transform your team or organization into a data-driven culture.

Key Quote: "...Illusion of validity fools us into believing that gathering more data will help us predict the future better."

33. The Sales Acceleration Formula by Mark Roberge: Best Choice for Learning to Leverage Tech + Data To Drive Sales Success

The Sales Acceleration Formula by Mark Roberge (Top Sales Books)

What you'll learn about technology sales in this book:

Every business wants to grow, but how many actually scaled their sales team effectively? The Formula provided by Mark Roberge is a step-by-step guide to using data, technology, and inbound marketing to build a massive, scalable, and productive sales team and propel your company to success.

Key Quote: “What is the most important goal the company needs to achieve? Customer count? Profitability? Customer success? Market share? New product distribution? New market penetration?” Then ask yourself, ‘How can the sales compensation plan be aligned with this goal?’ Do not underestimate the power of the compensation plan.”

34. Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products by Nir Eyal: Best Guide for Building a More Efficient Sales Process

Hooked by Nir Eyal on the Psychology of Habit-Forming in Sales

What this sales books is about:

If you haven’t read Hooked, your competition has; and they’re using it against you. Nir Eyal’s book does more than just explain why people love certain products more than others. It provides a research-backed, four-step process to help you create a system that brings users and customers back again and again.

You'll read interviews and learn practical insights on creating user habits and actionable steps to build a better product.

Key Quote: “There are three ingredients required to initiate any and all behaviors: (1) the user must have sufficient motivation; (2) the user must have the ability to complete the desired action; and (3) a trigger must be present to activate the behavior.”

35. Fanatical Prospecting: The Ultimate Guide to Opening Sales Conversations and Filling the Pipeline by Leveraging Social Selling, Telephone, Email, Text, and Cold Calling by Jeb Blount: Best for Scaling Your Lead Generation Process

Sales Books About Prospecting (Fanatical Prospecting by Jeb Blount)

Why you should read this sales book:

The way we communicate has changed. In the past, it was all about cold calling, in-person meetings, and emailing. While those strategies still work, newer sales outreach techniques like social selling are gaining traction.

This book shares how to build a sustainable pipeline, avoid sales slumps, and leverage high-power strategies to improve productivity and keep sales rolling month after month.

Key Quote:

“Here is the brutal reality. If you don't have a plan, you will become a part of someone else's plan. You can either take control of your life or someone else will use you to enhance theirs. It's your choice.”

Find Your New Favorite Sales Book (and Get Our Free Sales Books Today)

These sales books contain some of the best research and insight into building, managing, and leading a successful sales team.

But they also cover ways to live a better life by increasing happiness and battling the stress and rollercoaster of emotions salespeople know all too well.

Yet it’s important to remember that reading isn’t a quick fix solution. It’s a long-term, life-changing practice that requires consistent practice.

So instead of treating this like a sales book summer reading list, treat it like a starting point on your journey to a better life and a better sales career.

For even more great sales books, download our free Startup Sales Resource Bundle right now. You'll get 7 of the best sales books from the Close team—along with copy & paste email templates, sales scripts, and much more.

Download the Startup Sales Resource Bundle