Thread: Best book for selling?

I was wondering what is the best book you read on selling.

I haven't read it cover to cover, yet I have seen it mentioned in various places (among them, the "Referrals audio book" I am listening to today):
How to Master the Art of Selling
- Tom Hopkins

Selling is better than sex ~ Alen Majer

Salesmanship and Business Efficiency - Knox

I collect old business books and this is one of the best. Don't let the fact that it is old bother you, it is still well worth reading.

Originally Posted by Flatlander

Salesmanship and Business Efficiency - Knox

I collect old business books and this is one of the best. Don't let the fact that it is old bother you, it is still well worth reading.

I just started to read this book....
there are nuggets of wisdom in every paragraph...

thanks for the recommendation.

Cashvertising by Whitman ... it is focused on sales by print / web advertising (not in personal sales).

I just read Jeffrey Gitomer's book. The title is "Little Red Book of Selling". It's a bible of selling.

The book answer the question "Why do people buy?". I recommend it.

The best one by far is by the now deceased libertarian author Harry Browne: "The Secret of Selling - Anything"

Don't let the low price dissuade you - it is a bombshell.

A distant second is: Question based selling by Thomas Freese

Others? I don't recommend any. They are full of doo doo and want to make you into something you are not and never will be. Use your strengths, not improve your weaknesses.

Also for copywriting aka 'salesmanship in print' I would recommend John Caples "Tested Advertising Methods", David Ogilvy "Ogilvy on Advertising" and the granddaddy of them all, Claude Hopkins "My Life in Advertising" / "Scientific Advertising".

Bumping this, as I am trying and failing with sales right now. Not giving up though, but I decided to start reading stuff now to get better at it and find out where I am going wrong. Thanks all for the recommendations

Advanced Selling Strategies by Brian Tracy

Originally Posted by roark

Others? I don't recommend any. They are full of doo doo and want to make you into something you are not and never will be.

I have read plenty of sales books and roark is right, 9.5/10 are a waste of time and full of crap. Im not sure where the sales book industry went wrong. If you'll notice just about all the authors are just trying to pump up their sales training companies with their "new" system of selling. How many systems do we need? Every one is just trying to make their mark in this industry. If you find some good books that aren't mentioned let me know. Hell, if you dig into the authors background many of them never sold anything in their life except their book. I'm on the fence about Gittomer, I don't know what he ever sold except his training programs, perhaps I missed something. But that's what I usually look for before I buy a sales book, have they actually sold anything before they wrote it.

Sales bible by gitomer

How to sell anything by Harry Browne.

The Definitive Book on Body Language by Allan Pease

One of a things I noticed that tends to get overlooked is body language.

I strongly recommend this book because it heightens the awareness on any signals the other person (or yourself) may be sending out to each other on a verbal level and focuses on maximizing that.

Cheers,
Victor

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