Sales Books By an Amazon.com customer | |
 | 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 Buy used from: $12.45 |
 | Baseline Selling: How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know About the Game of Baseball by Dave Kurlan Buy new: $15.01 / Used from: $6.56 written in 2006 -- provides a great history of selling, jam packed with good ideas and practical advice. Baseball analogies throughout Suspects -- 1rst Base Prospects -- 2cnd Base Qualified - 3rd Base Closed - Home |
 | Mastering the Complex Sale: How to Compete and Win When the Stakes are High! by Jeff Thull Buy used from: $0.01 2003 Maybe my favorite book on selling. says that most buyers don't know how-to buy. They need a professional to help guide them -- and encourages sales people to emulate the traits of doctors - wonderful stuff Discover Diagnose Design Deliver |
 | SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham Buy new: $15.57 / Used from: $1.46 1988 The classic sales Questioning book. all about getting prospects to see their pain. pyschology courses in college could have helped S ituation P roblem I mplication N eed payoff Conceptual selling is similar |
 | Cold Calling Techniques: That Really Work by Stephan Schiffman Buy new: $9.95 / Used from: $2.47 1999 this guy also publishes in the Telephone Selling report, www.businessbyphone.com It was cheap enough on amazon, so I bought it but you get what you pay for I guess. He has some okay ideas on voicemails, but I just hate 'copy writer guy' trying to milk out a career selling to sales guys. lots of laughable outdated techniques use opening scripts from solution selling instead |
 | Conceptual Selling by Stephen E. Heiman Buy used from: $0.01 1987 Classic book from Millerheimann.com guys. 'Good selling is good information flow' Questioning Process ( to be repeated at each sales call) Confirmation Questions New information Questions Attitude Questions Commitment QUestions |
 | Exceptional Selling: How the Best Connect and Win in High Stakes Sales by Jeff Thull Buy new: $16.47 / Used from: $3.75 2006 Jeff Thull's most recent book on selling. Kind of like Back-to-the-Future II. some new material.. but its hard to top the first one. Value proposition Value Assumption Value Required Value Expected Value Achieved All his books encourage salespeople to start thinking like business people and start speaking more of the language of business |
 | The Platinum Rule: Discover the Four Basic Business Personalities and How They Can Lead You to Success by Tony Alessandra Buy new: $10.17 / Used from: $2.87 1996 Great book on Adaptive selling -- like all the other personality books I have read Color Code, Please Understand me II it emphasizes doing unto others as they would have you do unto them. Sandler selling (you can't teach a kid to ride a bike at a seminar) counter balances this please the customer at all costs mentality quite well. |
 | Solution Selling: Creating Buyers in Difficult Selling Markets by Michael Bosworth Buy new: $19.63 / Used from: $0.20 1995 Its all about the PAIN. Uses a 9-box matrix based on: Diagnose reasons for it Explore impact from it visualize capabilities to get away from it Open ended questions Control questions (yes or no) Confirmation questions great sample letters, call scripts in the book |
 | I.T. Sales Boot Camp: Sure-Fire Techniques for Selling Technology Products to Mainstream Companies by Brian Giese Buy new: $16.95 / Used from: $9.77 2002 Wonderful book good ideas on mapping out the territory before engaging and gathering information so you can targe 'selling like a fox' is really big on knowing the political landscape before engaging. He encourages using -- the SECRET (ooh,ahh.. but i think its just going to confuse ya) Security Expandibility Cost Reliability Ease of Use Throughput |
 | Close the Deal: 120 Checklists for Sales Success by Sam Deep Buy new: $11.63 / Used from: $0.01 1999 Affiliated with Sandler Sales-- so I bought it because I like that system so much very practical book of lists which results in a great reference guide. maybe a bit outdated. |
 | Prospecting Your Way to Sales Success by Bill Good Buy new: $24.19 / Used from: $0.21 1997 I felt the book was pretty damn hard to read , and outdated as well. the main idea of the book is selling requires 'prospecting' to find gold nuggets (cherries as he calls them) dont waste time prospecting if no gold exists(bad product, industry, company) Basically 1) get a list 2) get a well crafted message 3) have a system for monitoring results 4) call efficiently |
 | Power Base Selling: Secrets of an Ivy League Street Fighter by Jim Holden Buy new: $12.50 / Used from: $0.01 1999 'The Art of War' for selling. Drucker said, "Business is legalized warfare'. This book kind of helps you realize that. It would be a great book if you were to run a political campaign -- which is exactly what you are doing in complex, high end buisness to business selling |
 | ROI Selling: Increasing Revenue, Profit, and Customer Loyalty through the 360 Sales Cycle by Michael Nick Buy used from: $0.07 2004 Very, Very technical book -- most likely written as a way to establish expert credibility en route to selling consulting services. Have a few ROI tools in your back pocket is great -- but unless you;re a sales/marketing manager I'd stay away from this one. Check out How to Dollarize (pg 148 of How to become a rainmaker for a simplistic ROI model) |
 | The Sales and Marketing Excellence Challenge: Changing How The Game Is Played Buy used from: $0.02 2003 A very unique book mostly overlooked by sales people. its 20+ books in one, summarizing VP/CEO experience with sales. If there were a course offered in MBA school on selling, this would be the textbook Jim Dickie and Barry Trailer have a consulting business www.csoinsights.com they do a lot of work with CRM and SFA implementations |
 | The Fundamentals of Business-to-Business Sales & Marketing by John Coe Buy new: $16.47 / Used from: $8.76 2003 one of the first books to really identify that you can no longer just have the sales department and the marketing department. Sales calls and the sales processes now need to integrate into the larger marketing messaging as todays savvy customers no longer understand why you as a company can't perfectly coordinate your approaches |
 | High Trust Selling: Make More Money in Less Time with Less Stress by Todd Duncan Buy new: $10.94 / Used from: $2.85 2002 lots of cutesy 'laws'. Its a feel good book that you might read if you are having a hard time selling. but in my opinion there are lot better ones out there if you care about making money |
 | Hope Is Not a Strategy: The 6 Keys to Winning the Complex Sale by Rick Page Buy new: $12.24 / Used from: $0.01 2002 very clear and well written book. liked his sales strategies section. preemptive frontal flanking fractional timing good stuff on buyers perspective |
 | Selling Microsoft: Sales Secrets from Inside the World's Most Successful Company by Doug Dayton Buy used from: $0.01 1997 aims to be a comprehensive book on everything this person ever learned on selling -- and ends up not really being great at anything. A unique insight offered is verifying communication (marraige therapy stuff) what you intended to say what you actually said what your listener heard what your listener thought they heard |
 | How to Become a Rainmaker: The Rules for Getting and Keeping Customers and Clients by Jeffrey J. Fox Buy new: $10.90 / Used from: $0.01 2000 deceptively simple book with powerful insights. If you just bought this one book and just did what is said, you'd be successful in most companies |
 | Persuasive Business Proposals: Writing to Win More Customers, Clients, and Contracts by Tom Sant Buy new: $11.55 / Used from: $2.14 2004 was recommended as the BIBLE of proposals. It's very comprehensive--almost too much so, just like the bible I suppose. I think most business people these days, especially executives are looking for brevity -- rather than 1992ish 50 page RFP's. Its like business plans and VC's -- they rarely look at them, but you better be ready with one if they want to look through it |
 | Selling To VITO (The Very Important Top Officer) by Anthony Parinello Buy used from: $0.01 1994 Kind of a corny title if you ask me - but you don't forget it I guess. good stuff on how to adaptive sell/write letters/communicate with Executives (aka VITO's) and with managers ( aka Seymours) I think with Email, internet.. a lot of his tactics are OLD SCHOOL -- but Star Wars taught us never to forget the old school techniques. |
 | One Minute Sales Person, The: The Quickest Way to Sell People on Yourself, Your Services, Products, or Ideas--at Work and in Life by Spencer Johnson Buy new: $12.50 / Used from: $1.79 1984 very slim book -- heavy on feelings and affirmations and visualizations "I help people get the feelings they want-SOON." reminds you sales doesn't have to be extremely complicated Know your product Know your customer Connect the two. |
 | How to Read a Person Like a Book by Gerard Nierenberg Buy new: $7.50 / Used from: $0.01 1993 a fun book to help explain body language. love to discover a more indepth book |
 | Bag the Elephant!: How to Win and Keep Big Customers by Steve Kaplan Buy new: $14.96 / Used from: $0.01 2005 selling to small business is different than selling to big business. provides ideas on how-to. not bad, not incredibly great either. take the good and leave the rest, but it will take you some time to sift through it all |
 | The DNA Selling Method: Strategies For Modern-Day Sales People in the <i>From Great Moments in History</i> Series by Patrick Henry Hansen Buy new: $14.95 / Used from: $5.90 2006 another sales consultant firm selling a book as a gateway to their services. Pretty good book too. tons of information. similar to spin selling, conceptual selling, except with a lot more current info. If you had to read just 1 book, this would be a good one |
 | Birth of a Salesman: The Transformation of Selling in America by Walter A. Friedman Buy new: $22.00 / Used from: $5.05 2004 Great book written by a Harvard historian-- provides a history of 'selling' from 1916 onward. Jeff Thull, picks up where this books leaves off, in 'mastering the complex sale' and provides a great synopsis of selling with 3 Eras of selling as well. |
 | Love Is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends by Tim Sanders Buy new: $10.40 / Used from: $0.71 advocates sharing ideas/books with prospects.. and while I have yet to do it, I think its a good tactic if applied well. probably good for longer sales situations and situations in which you need to work with a champion. |
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