Some titles for your consideration…
Over my 25+ year career I have read a lot of books, ranging from business focussed, self help, pop psychology, sales specific…and some which you wouldn’t expect to see in a reading list for professional sales people!
Below I have shared some of my favourite and most influential books from throughout my career. Quite often these books form the basis of some of my coaching and training sessions, and have influenced some of the methodologies and approaches I have developed. Over time I will include a brief summary of the books to help you determine if it is right for you, but if it is in this section of the website I have found some, if not all of the book to be helpful to my career.
I have a few of pieces of advice to those of you who are considering reading any of the books below.
The first is that I would always suggest buying a physical business book rather than listening to an audiobook. If you want to do both then that is fine, but there is a very good reason for this. Business books provide ideas, advice and guidance which you will quite often want to refer to during your career. You may wish to make notes on particular parts, or you may want to re use some of the content yourself. All of that is practically impossible with an audiobook! Audiobooks are great for getting an overview of the content while travelling or working out, but nothing beats having a physical book, full of adhesive tabs, with notes in the margins and folded over corners from years of use!
The second is that it is extremely rare to find a book in this list that you want to or indeed can adhere to entirely. You will also find over time that you begin to think about ideas in an entirely different book whilst reading a new book, and you will formulate your own thoughts by combining the two.
This is fine – there is no rule that says you have to be completely follow any one person’s thought process or methodology completely. I find that books are like training – you take the parts that work for you or your organisation and you make them work.
The rest you (respectfully) cast aside.
The pareto principle absolutely applies here – you will derive 80% of the benefit from 20% of the content of the book – a lot of the rest has been included to hit a certain page or word count to keep the publisher happy!
My final piece of advice is that you shouldn’t worry if you find some of the books in this list hard going.
This isn’t fiction writing, so it’s not going to pull you in to a story line. Some of the principles require reading an re reading several times before they sink in, and some of the books need reviewing a number of times before they become second nature. Unless you’re a robot you will naturally find your attention wandering as you read the books. Something which is mentioned will get you thinking about a particular challenge or situation you are facing right now.
That’s great!
If that is the case – stop reading! Analyse your thought process. Make notes about what your are thinking, how this new knowledge can be applied to the situation. Once you have emptied your mind of that thought, start reading again. You might find that the rest of the book solidifies or maybe alters your initial thinking.
Again, that’s great! The book is already helping you.
Disclosure
The books highlighted below are some of INTO THE WIND‘s favourite and most influential books, and are provided to benefit you on your Sales and Sales Leadership journey.
INTO THE WIND exists to provide Sales and Sales Leadership consultancy, coaching and training. As a commercial organisation we also take advantage of any opportunities to supplement our core business. A brief disclosure of an opportunity we have taken advantage of is below.
Into-the-wind.co.uk participates in various Amazon Associates Programs. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
Throughout the site, but predominantly on this page, you will find clickable links for the books mentioned which will take you directly to an Amazon website, and upon purchasing the item in the session generated by that click we will earn a commission. This does not increase the cost of the item to you, but does provide INTO THE WIND with a very modest income.
A full disclosure statement can be found here which also includes additional promotion links for Amazon which are not directly related to content within this site but from which INTO THE WIND can benefit financially.
This is my bible for sales fundamentals!
I have never read a more easily digestible guide on how to set yourself up for success than this book, and despite the fact this was written by somebody who was using these techniques 100 years ago, the wisdom within can still be seen being deployed in “cutting edge” sales methodologies.
A fantastic read with some very clever and relevant tools contained within.
I use one of the tools discussed in this book to provide a framework for priority management, and many of my team members have transformed the way they work by using the same tool.
This book is an extension to the consultative selling techniques which I have grown up with during my career.
It not only allows you to understand your own selling style and the strengths and weaknesses related to that, but provides a detailed approach to adopt the practices which the most successful sales professionals use during their customer engagements.
Leveraged correctly this book can help transform a sales organisation
