In sales, it is important to become a student of the game. Sales, by definition, is a transaction between two or more parties where the buyer receives tangible or intangible goods, services, and/or assets in exchange for money. Sales is more than that and you can discover this from reading some of the best sales books.

“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”

Pablo Picasso

If you truly want to be a better salesperson, a better leader, a better speaker, a better writer, or a better person, it starts by studying the craft. What better way that read some of the best sales books around?

“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them yourself.”

Eleanor Roosevelt

If you look hard enough, you’ll find there is already a sales book. This book has the instructions about how to succeed at sales.

If you are just starting out in sales or you have been in the profession, it’s important to keep learning. By picking up some of the best sales books and reading from a selling expert, you will be able to learn how to improve your selling without negatively affecting your quota or efficacy. Picking a sales book can be tough since there are thousands to choose from.

10 of the best sales books to read this year

Here’s a curated list of the 10 best sales books you should ready today:

1. Way of the Wolf: Straight Line Selling: Master the Art of Persuasion, Influence, and Success

Author: Jordan Belfort

Why should you read this book? In this book, you’ll learn the person behind the hit move, The Wolf of Wall Street, who was immortalized by Leonardo DiCaprio.

His name is Jordan Belfort. In this book, he reveals the step-by-step sales and persuasion system proven to turn anyone into a sales-closing, money-earning rock star.

For the first time ever, he opens his own playbook. He provides you with access to his exclusive step-by-step system he used to create massive wealth for himself, his clients, and his sales teams.

This book provides tips you could only find in his paid online training so it is a bargain. You’ll his techniques, his strategies, and his tips that have been tested and proven to work in real-life sales situations. He’ll show you how to persuade and influence anyone. You’ll learn how to become a better sales person, a better negotiator, a better closer, and a better speaker.

2. Sell It Like Serhant: How to Sell More, Earn More, and Become the Ultimate Sales Machine

Author: Ryan Serhant

Why should you read this book? In this book, you’ll learn how to sell more, earn more, and become a sales machine.

The book has become a national bestseller. It provides a practical guide on how to achieve long-term success in business. The author, Ryan Serhant, was a shy person when he entered the real estate business and a decade later he has emerged to become of the top realtors in the world.

This book is an essential sales playbook to help you build your confidence, generate better results, learn the stages of selling, how to find your hook and be a “time manager, not a time stealer.” This book provides lessons, stories, and examples on how to use Serhant’s principles to increase profits, not depend on one deal or one client, and become a better salesperson.

3. The Psychology of Selling: Increase Your Sales Faster and Easier Than You Ever Thought Possible

Author: Brian Tracy

Why should you read this book? In this book, you’ll learn how to double and triple your sales. The book provides you idea, methods, strategies, and techniques to help you make more sales, faster, and most importantly, easier.

A popular author of books such as Earn What You’re Really Worth, Eat That Frog!, and Maximum Achievement, Brian Tracy has helped tons of sales people become millionaires who have used his ideas.

The book shows you how to us psychological principles in the sales process and the fundamentals of professional salesmanship. The book has become a must-ready road map to help you build, grow, and maintain a successful sales career.

4. The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation

Author: Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson

Why should you read this book? In this book, you’ll learn the secret to sales success. Hint: it’s not about relationships. The best sales people don’t just build relationships, they challenge them.

The authors, Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson, and their colleagues at Corporate Executive Board (now part by Gartner) examined the skills, behaviors, knowledge, and attitudes of top sales performers. In their research, they discovered something that sent shock waves across conventional sales wisdom.

The Challenger Sale book argues the relationship-building approach doesn’t work anymore, especially when selling a complex, large, and business-to-business services and solutions. The authors find that every sales rep falls into a distinct profiles and only a challenger profile delivers high performance consistently. This book provides interesting insights and useful information for salespeople who are looking for ways to break out of the pack and take control of the customer conversation.

5. The Challenger Customer: Selling to the Hidden Influencer Who Can Multiply Your Results

Authors: Brent Adamson, Matthew Dixon, Pat Spenner, and Nick Toman

Why should you read this book? From the bestselling authors of The Challenger Sale book that described a new and bold approach to sales. Their new research suggests that being a “challenger seller” is not enough.

Now, it depends on who you challenge. Challenger sellers do best when they target Challenger customers. These Challenger customers have the credibility, persuasive skill, and will to effectively challenge his or her colleagues to pursue anything more ambitious than the status quo.

Based on data from thousands of B2B marketers, sellers, and buyers around the world, this book helps organizations find and engage the Challenger Customer.

6. The Ultimate Sales Machine: Turbocharge Your Business with Relentless Focus on 12 Key Strategies

Author: Chet Holmes

Why should you read this book? The author has been called “one of the top 20 change experts in the country.”

Too many leaders jump on every new trend, but don’t stick with any of them. The book shows you how to tune up virtually every part of your business by spending just an hour per week on each impact area you want to improve (aka social selling).

The author’s advice starts with one simple concept: focus. Instead of trying to master thousand of strategies to improve your business, hone in on essential skill areas that make the big difference.

The Ultimate Sales Machine shows you that you should teach your people how to work smarter, not harder; get more bang from your website, advertising, trade shows, and public relations; and perfect every sales interaction by working on sales, not just in sales.

7. Social Selling Mastery: Scaling Up Your Sales and Marketing Machine for the Digital Buyer

Author: Jamie Shanks

Why should you read this book? This book teaches the art of developing and nurturing relationships with your potential customers. It also shows how to reach customers online, where they are doing their research.

The book will teach you how to engage customers online and develop the relationships that lead to sales. Jamie Shanks is the chief executive officer for Sales for Life, a company who has helped brands such as Microsoft, Intel, Xerox, Sprint, and Oracle.

This book is a key resource for sales and marketing professionals who are seeking a better way to connect with today’s digital customer. This book provides a solid social selling curriculum that teaches you everything you should know to grow your sales and marketing machine.

8. Selling 101: What Every Successful Sales Professional Needs to Know

Author: Zig Ziglar

Why should you read this book? In this book, you’ll learn the basics for selling. The author draws from his fundamental selling experiences to show you the fundamentals of selling don’t change.

The author explains that salespeople must continue learning, living, and looking. The book explains sales in a short, compact, and concise way and explains how to persuade more people more effectively, more ethically, and more often.

You’ll learn tips on how to keep your customers happy, how to add more income, and you’ll learn the principles that every successful sales professional knows.

9. The Introvert’s Edge: How the Quiet and Shy Can Outsell Anyone

Author: Matthew Owen Pollard

Why should you read this book? In this book, you’ll learn that an introverted salesperson is not an oxymoron. Learn that sales is a skill you can learn just like any other skill. This book shows you that is about utilizing your natural born strengths.

Learn what makes The Introvert’s Edge so powerful and practical. The author shows you how the introvert can feel equally comfortable and sincere in the sales world without changing who they are.

This book shows you how to find natural confidence, prepare for every situation, overcome objections, ask for the sale (without asking). You’ll learn how to sell without relying on your personality. Find out that the introverted salesperson is a recipe for success.

10. Sales Differentiation: 19 Powerful Strategies to Win More Deals at the Prices You Want

Author: Lee Salz

Why should you read this book? In this book, you’ll learn the power of differentiation. Most people think marketing is one of the key sources of differentiation but the sales function can help with differentiation as well.

This book teaches you how to develop sales differentiation from a sales management strategist. The author provides 19 concepts on how to help salespeople provide their margins and win more deals at the prices you want.

Sales is about “how” you sell not just “what” you sell and this has become what differentiates you as a salesperson. The book provides stories on how to understand what your true differentiators are and how to effectively position them with buyers. Learn how to turn a commoditized Request for Proposal (RFP) process into a differentiation opportunity and how to use a buyer request for references as a way to stand out from the competition. Whether you’ve been selling for years or are new to sales, this book provides you with tools to learn sales differentiation and beat the competition.

What are the best sales books would you add to this list?

Is your favorite sales book missing from this list? What are the best sales books that are a must read? What did you learn about sales from books?