women picking out book

Ask any accomplished business leader today and they will agree that a passion for continued self-development is crucial to personal and professional success. And for those in the sales profession, sales books are one easily accessible way to engage in continual learning, even when you’re on the road.

Whether you’re looking for selling tips and sales prospecting strategies or want to address some of the inner obstacles that might be holding you back from reaching your full potential, there are plenty of sales books out there that will open your eyes to new perspectives and give you the tools to raise your game. The big question is, where do you begin?

To help you narrow it down, we have compiled a selection of some of the best sales books (in our opinion) to read this summer, starting with two from Integrity Solutions. (Spoiler alert: Stay tuned for news about our latest book, coming in February 2024!)

No matter how many of these sales books pique your interest, we hope that you will be inspired to make an investment in your ongoing self-development.

Our List Of Best Sales Books

Integrity Selling by Ron WIllingham book cover

Integrity Selling for the 21st Century

If you’ve tried manipulative, self-focused selling techniques that demean you and your customer, if you’ve ever wondered if selling could be more than just talking people into buying, then Integrity Selling for the 21st Century is the book for you. Written by our late founder, Ron Willingham, its concept is simple: Only by getting to know your customers and their needs — and truly believing that you can meet those needs — will you enjoy relationships with customers built on trust. And only then, when you bring more value to your customers than you receive in payment, will you begin to reap the rewards of high sales.


The Inner Game of Selling by Ron WIllingham

The Inner Game of Selling

Discovering why you sell is more important than what you know about how to sell. By diving into the internal factors that motivate people, The Inner Game of Selling shows how you can become more successful in sales.

Also written by Ron Willingham, these factors include your values, belief boundaries, goal achievement, social skills, and inner purpose.


Selling With Noble Purpose

A recent guest on our Mental Selling podcast, Lisa Earle-McLeod is out with an expanded edition of her acclaimed sales book, Selling with Noble Purpose, featuring more examples of how sales teams with “noble purpose” — those whose primary driver is to improve customers’ lives — outsell traditional sales teams focused on internal targets and quotas.

McLeod upends some of the long-held beliefs about sales and provides easy-to-apply frameworks for elevating sales conversations.


A Mind for Sales

With salespeople facing more pressures, change and uncertainty than ever before, Mark Hunter’s A Mind for Sales: Daily Habits and Practical Strategies for Sales Success is particularly timely and valuable. Much like “The Inner Game of Selling,” this sales book offers tips and tools for developing the mindset and momentum habits that will help you tap into your purpose, release your achievement drive and realize the rewards of a successful career in sales.


The Power of Habit

Speaking of habit, in his bestselling book The Power of Habit, Pulitzer Prize-winning business reporter Charles Duhigg dissects the very nature of habits: how to overcome them or create better ones. Duhigg explains how certain companies have harnessed an understanding of people’s habits to achieve successful business results. Whether you’re trying to kick a personal habit, or build a better one, this book is a worthy investment.


The Art of Quiet Influence book

The Art of Quiet Influence

As a guest on our podcast, Jocelyn Davis discussed some of the factors that hold people back from being as influential as they could be, as well as the three core practices that increase influence.

Her book, The Art of Quiet Influence: Timeless Wisdom for Leading Without Authority, goes deeper into each of those core practices and explores the critical role of mindset, beliefs and attitude in increasing influence.


Social Selling Mastery

No salesperson today can succeed at connecting with their customers and buyers without understanding and navigating the world of social selling. In Social Selling Mastery, Jamie Shanks lays out a concrete framework for developing the personal, one-to-one relationships that build revenue in an environment where prospects are engaging sales professionals much later in the buying process.


From Bud to Boss

Sales managers are often promoted to the role based on their strong performance as a salesperson. But it takes more than selling skills to be an effective leader and coach of a sales team. From Bud to Boss, by Kevin Eikenberry, another excellent guest on our Mental Selling podcast, is a great resource for helping new managers build on their strengths as an individual contributor while developing the confidence and mindset to become great sales leaders and coaches.


Stop Killing Deals

In his book Stop Killing Deals, Membrain founder and CEO George Brontén unmasks three “deadly assumptions” about people, selling and buying that are not only killing deals but harming sales organizations. Brontén touched on these false assumptions and beliefs in our podcast interview with him. The book takes a deeper dive into how to defeat them and turn how you sell into a competitive advantage.


Eat Their Lunch

In Eat Their Lunch, Anthony Iannarino, author of such top sales books as “The Only Sales Guide You’ll Ever Need” and “The Lost Art of Closing,” acknowledges upfront that sales is often a zero-sum game. But, as he explains, winning customers away from the competition doesn’t call for a bloodthirsty “whatever it takes” attitude. A step-by-step playbook for B2B salespeople, this book shows you how to become a trusted, long-term partner to your customers — and how to seal your competitive advantage in the process.


The Speed of Trust

In his powerful and paradigm-shifting book The Speed of Trust, Stephen M. R. Covey demonstrates how trust is “the one thing that changes everything.” Introducing what he calls the “trust dividend,” this book explains how trust is measurable in all facets of our daily lives; when trust goes up, speed and cost go down. This book is bound to change the way you live your life personally, publicly and professionally.


To Sell is Human

In his bestseller To Sell Is Human, Daniel Pink reinvents the way we understand and interpret the art and science of persuasion and selling. It may be one of the top-rated sales books out there, but it’s not just for salespeople. In his own words: “Whether we’re employees proposing colleagues on a new idea, entrepreneurs enticing funders to invest, or parents and teachers cajoling children to study, we spend our days trying to move others. Like it or not, we’re all in sales now.”


She Sells: Attract, Promote and Retain Great Women in B2B Sales

We’ll follow up that classic book with one that is hot off the press. Lori Richardson, CEO of Score More Sales and and Founder of of Women Sales Pros, is focused on helping companies find, recruit, onboard, retain and promote great women in sales.

In her new book, She Sells, Richardson takes a candid look at what it’s like to be a woman in sales right now and provides actionable strategies for creating a strong, diverse sales culture and team that reflects who you buyers are. Richardson will preview the research and concepts behind the book in an upcoming episode of our Mental Selling podcast. 


No More Cold Calling

New sales books fill the shelves, but sometimes there’s no beating the classics. Joanne Black’s No More Cold Calling: The Breakthrough System That Will Leave Your Competition in the Dust, continues to resonate and apply to today’s world of selling, offering a practical methodology for increasing salesforce productivity while eliminating the need for cold calling, “one of the most awkward — and unsuccessful—ways to obtain clients in business.”


This is just a sampling of the great thinking that’s in our industry today. What are some of the best sales books you’ve read in recent years? Drop us a note and let us know!

About the Author
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Mike Esterday

Partner and CEO

Mike Esterday first discovered his talent for sales when he ranked number one out of 6,000 sales professionals in his...
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