Wading through the abundance of reading material about sales strategies and discerning between real experts and “experts” is time-consuming and fruitless if you pick the wrong book to share with your team. Our growing community of over 7,500 sales professionals suggested a number of quality reads for sales teams to help you pick the right one for your organization.
Teams are unique and are going to use different strategies to sell different products and services. We’ve compiled this list of great reads for Business Development Representatives. These authors showcase different tactics and offer quality reads for your reps. Applying some of the strategies can help you align your team for greater success.
Recommended by Derek Draper: ProActive Selling by Skip Miller
Miller’s book offers actionable advice for sales reps that can be integrated into sales strategies and practices immediately. It’s accessible, clear, and effective. This book helps your reps understand sales from the buyer’s perspective and allows them to remain customer-centered throughout the sales process.
Recommended by Tom Blue: The Sales Development Playbook by Trish Bertuzzi
Bertuzzi’s book is a great read for those looking to adapt their sales strategies to the latest tactics. Managers and executives keep it on their shelves as a reference for strategy and practice. Sales reps get a detailed look into high-level strategy and how they fit into their company’s successful conversion of sales leads.
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Recommended by Jack Flynn: Cracking the Sales Management Code by Jason Jordan and Michelle Vazzana
Jordan and Vazzana offer one of the best books about sales performance improvement. It’s ideal for teams full of veteran sales reps. It offers them a refresher on best practices or a kick-start toward their next position.
For managers, it’s a great read to complete with your reps. It provides context for strategy beyond the sales call and toward scalability and sustainability. Read as a group to connect practice to outcome and keep focus on the end goals of growth and profitability.
Recommended by Kenny Madden and Gerard Pinto: Mastering the Complex Sale by Jeff Thull
Closing the deal is more difficult when your customers operate under different business, lingual, or cultural norms. Bringing in all of the pieces to evaluate a strategy and ultimately close the deal takes a nuanced approach due to so many moving parts. Thull breaks down tactics about how to address each of these challenges. He explains how to close the sale when stakes and, at times, tensions are high.
Recommended by Brandon Redlinger: Fanatical Prospecting by Jeb Blount
While empty pipelines can cripple businesses and challenge the most experienced salespeople, Blount provides clear and actionable advice on how to contact leads, fill pipelines, and cultivate sales. The advice is actionable, and the narrative style is crisp. This book rises above the trends and fads to deliver solid, reliable insight on different ways to improve your pipelines and conversions.
Getting these books in the hands of your SDRs is only useful if you’re willing to put in the time to evaluating their utility and putting actionable tips into practice. Of course, these books are not for every team. Nonetheless, they can keep you and your reps thinking about the essentials of practice and growth.
Join the Sales Hacker Community on LinkedIn to participate in the conversation and connect with other sales professionals. Comment below to offer reviews of any of these books or suggest other great reads!
