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Books To Read

Close the Deal: 120 Checklists for Sales Success Sam Deep and Lyle Sussman Perseus, 1999 Not just about closing but also covers the whole sales cycle. Useful in particular for its lists of things to remember. The books is associated with the Sandler Sales Jump Start training.
How to Close Every Sale Joe Girard, Robert L. Shook, Robert Casemore Warner books, 2002 Traditional selling methods from one of the traditional authors plus a couple of his friends. Straightforward and solid.
Sales Closing for Dummies Tom Hopkins For Dummies, 1998 It might be easy to dismiss this book until you see the author. In fact it is a nice balance of the 'Dummies' easy-to-read style and Hopkins expertise. Lots of excellent stuff with a real focus on closing.
Negotiate to close: How to make more successful deals Gary Karass Fireside, 1987 A sales book that uses negotiation methods in the closing process. Useful crossover text. Easy style.
Getting the Second Appointment : How to CLOSE Any Sale in Two Calls! Anthony Parinello Wiley, 2004 An excellent book that focuses on that difficult step of going from call one to call two, and in particular moving to a close in this step.
Stop Telling, Start Selling: How to Use Customer-Focused Dialogue to Close Sales Linda Richardson McGraw Hill, 1997 Comprehensive and straightforward toolkit for sales people from this big-company sales trainer. Particularly useful for people new to relationship selling.
Closing Techniques: (That Really Work!) Stephan Schiffman Adams Media, 1999 A concise book on intelligent closing of sales from this prolific author and trainer. Straightforward in style. Includes variations such as cold calling.
Getting to 'Closed': A Proven Program to Accelerate the Sales Cycle and Increase Commissions Stephan Schiffman Dearborn Trade Publishing, 2002 Prolific author Schiffman describes his 'Prospect Management' system for managing sales and sales information. It uses a structured approach to persuade all of the different types of decision-makers that sales people meet. This is good one.
Zig Ziglar's Secrets of Closing the Sale Zig Ziglar Berkley Publishing, 1985 One of the original greats, with many different approaches to selling and closing. Although Ziglar's style may seem dated these days, there's much gold in these hills.
Objections! Objections! Objections! Gavin Ingham Gavin Ingham , 2004 A helpful and highly practical little book focused on objection-handling, stuffed full of practical ways of handling sales objections..
Relationship Selling: The Key to Getting and Keeping Customers Jim Cathcart Perigree, 1990 A simple and readable book on getting close to customers. Not new but still solid and straightforward stuff..
The Science of Sales Success: A Proven System for High Profit, Repeatable Results Josh Costell Amacom, 2003 A surprisingly good book, different in its approach to many others with its focus on measuring the real value that you are getting from your sales activities, as opposed to a people-based focus. Particularly relevant for complex B2B relationship selling situations.
High Trust Selling : Make More Money-In Less Time-With Less Stress Todd Duncan Nelson, 2003 Duncan focuses in on the core area that is needed in relationship selling in particular (though it is useful in all sales). A solid practitioner book that includes a number of 'laws' for high-trust selling.
Customer Centered Selling Robert L. Jolles New York: Free Press, 1998 A marvelous book for business-to-business sales people giving full details of the selling system used by Xerox. It challenges many of the more traditional sales techniques and even goes beyond modern approaches such as Neil Rackham’s SPIN Selling (which Jolles acknowledges as a significant influence). See also the review of this book.
The New Strategic Selling : The Unique Sales System Proven Successful by the World's Best Companies, Revised and Updated for the 21st Century Stephen Heiman and Diane Sanchez Warner Books, 1998 Although not so 'new' now, this is an excellent and detailed book on relationship selling. Useful for large-company selling and particularly so as a sales book for non-sales people who find them in selling situations.
Power Base Selling: Secrets of an Ivy League Street Fighter Jim Holden Wiley, 1999 Solid book on selling in tough sales environments, with a focus on the interpersonal and selling skills needed to develop strong relationships and 'power bases' within customer companies.
Selling With Integrity: Reinventing Sales Through Collaboration, Respect, and Serving Sharon Drew Morgen Berkley Publishing, 1999 A good practice in one-off sales and a necessity in relationship sales, working with integrity is an increasing necessity. Discusses the 'Morgen Buying Facilitation Method' whereby the goal and approach of the salesperson is to help people get what they want, rather than sell them what the salesperson wants to sell.
Hope Is Not a Strategy : The 6 Keys to Winning the Complex Sale Rick Page McGraw-Hill, 2003 Good sense on big sales for B2B salespeople from established sales trainer, including discussions on account management, organizational politics, etc.
SPIN Selling Neil Rackham McGraw Hill, 1996 An absolute classic (originally published in 1987 as 'Making Major Sales' which shows through massive research how classic sales techniques fail miserably in big-business, and that you can get greater success by asking a sequence Situation, Problem, Implication and Need-Payoff questions. See also the review of this book.
The SPIN Selling Fieldbook Neil Rackham Gower, Aldershot, UK, 1996 Leveraging the popularity of SPIN Selling, this helps you use the approach in practice with exercises and deeper tools and techniques around the famous four questions.
Value-Added Selling : How to Sell More Profitably, Confidently, and Professionally by Competing on Value, Not Price Tom Reilly McGraw Hill, 2002 This is a confident book from this sales trainer on selling through focusing on the value for customers, which of course is a basic for most, if not all, relationship selling situations.
Soft Selling in a Hard World: Plain Talk on the Art of Persuasion Jerry Vass Running Press, 1998 A straightforward, easy book on friendlier approaches to selling in various situations, with some interesting explanations of buying psychology.
Discover Your Sales Strengths: How the World's Greatest Salespeople Develop Winning Careers Benson Smith and Tony Rutigliano Warner books, 2003 Based on the long-running Gallup 'strengths' study, this is a research-based book rather than the more usual ones written by experienced sales people. The result is perhaps less 'motivational' but still extremely credible and adds valuable new insights even for hardened sales people and sales manager. Includes access to 'strengthsfinder' questionnaire on the web.
How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling Frank Bettger Simon and Schuster, 1992 One man tells his story about transitioning from struggling beginner to successful salesperson. Fundamental nuggets that a new salesperson would benefit from learning. First published in 1947.
Metaphorically Selling Anne Miller Chiron Associates, 2004 A novel cut on sales, adding something new to the literature. Sales consultant Anne Miller has written a highly practical and readable book that will be of interest to sales people everywhere.
Solution Selling: Creating Buyers in Difficult Selling Markets Michael Bosworth McGraw Hill, 1994 A solid book on selling in high-value situations, where the rewards are great but the buyers are very discerning.
Socratic Selling: How to Ask the Questions That Get the Sale Kevin Daley McGraw-Hill, 1995 Not the whole sales show, but a very useful addendum on the use of questioning methods that will lead your customer in the right direction. A handy addition for those of you who are looking for something new.
How to Sell Anything to Anybody Joe Girard, Stanley Brown and Robert Casemore Warner Books, 1986 Sound advice from rags-to-riches practitioner famed for his Guiness Book of Records entry for car sales. One of the original classics.
The Sales Bible: The Ultimate Sales Resource Jeffrey Gitomer Wiley, 2003 A comprehensive encyclopedia of selling, full of tips, tricks and sage lessons. Useful as a learning book or to dip into for ideas and inspiration.
How to Master the Art of Selling Tom Hopkins Warner Books, 1988 The classic on selling from the master sales trainer. Lots of fundamental stuff. As with most classics, the style is a little dated, but the basic message is sound.
Unlimited Selling Power: How to Master Hypnotic Selling Skills Donald Moine NYIF, 1990 Describes the use of Eriksonian hypnotic language (popular in NLP circles) in selling situations. It raises an ethical question, of course, but so also do many other methods used. In the end, it's up to you.
The Ultimate Sales Letter: Boost Your Sales With Powerful Sales Letters, Based on Madison Avenue Techniques Dan Kennedy and Daniel Kennedy Adams Media, 2000 Sales letters can be door openers or closers, so it is important to get this remote persuasion right. The Kennedys offer a 28-step (!) methodology for writing effective sales text.
There's a Fine Line Between a Groove and a Rut G. D,. Kittredge III WME Books, 2005 A straightforward and delightful book from sales educator George Kittredge III. Fundamental stuff for new people, a stern warning for experienced people and useful ideas for sales managers and trainers.
The 25 Sales Habits of Highly Successful Salespeople Stephen Schiffman Adams Media, 1994 A handy little book of tips from this prolific author (only 130 pages). Particularly good for people new to selling and for those who are not keen on longer reads.
Selling to the Affluent Thomas Stanley McGraw-Hill, 1997 A niche sales market, but potentially very lucrative (yet watch out for the misers who got rich by driving a hard bargain). The author of other books on how rich people think now turns his attention to how they buy. Very long but also very dippable and unique in its intelligent focus.
Why People Don't Buy Things: Five Proven Steps to Connect with Your Customers and Dramatically Improve Your Sales Harry Washburn and Kim Wallace Perseus, 2000 An alternative study that looks first at why people don't buy and thence how to sell to them. Includes a derivation of three buyer types and how to respond to them.
Baseline Selling Dave Kurlan Authorhouse, 2006 A solid and readable book about selling, based in the metaphor of playing baseball. Even if you're not a baseball fan, this offers very helpful information. If you love baseball and you sell, then this book is a must!
Advanced Selling Strategies: The Proven System of Sales Ideas, Methods and Techniques Used by Top Salespeople Everywhere Brian Tracy Simon and Schuster, 1996 A 400+ page classic from the master, covering all parts of the selling process in detail, including the mental state of the sales person (which is a remarkably important part of the story).

FSTA Tip #19