Reading Is Fundamental

When was the last time you read a book about sales?  12 months ago?  5 years ago? Okay, here's a more relevant question.  When was the last time you read a book about sales that your corporate office didn't make it mandatory for you to read?  I'll bet most of you will answer - NEVER!

Why?   Because most sales books are "preachy", boring, and written by people who have sold and want to tell everyone all about how great they are, or by a college professor who has a theory on how to sell.  Where do you think the term SPIN Selling came from?  It was a nerdy professor from England who never sold a thing is his life who developed SPIN Selling and then sold it to the corporate world..  And is it good?  Hell yeah!  It's a great theory.  Is it interesting.  Hell no!  It is very relevant and very boring.  So why do we all know about SPIN Selling?  Because someone forced us to read it.  Our boss or CEO bought us a copy and said read this or else, because we're going to use it as our corporate sales training guideline.

 "All sales reps will be required to attend a 3 days seminar and if you fail the final test you're fired."

What's sad is that may be true for a lot of sales reps.  What's even worse is that we can't pick up a book to read because we fall asleep in 5 minutes.  Sales reps are social animals.  We want to be outside talking to people, socializing,  interacting, and above all, making commissions. We don't want to be sitting at a desk reading anything except a magazine or hopefully this blog.  We don't have time. Or at least that's what we tell ourselves.  But in sales, reading is fundamental.

If you're not reading anything pertaining to our profession than you're really stagnating.  Sales and the process has changed over the years, but it is still fundamentally the same.  The only thing different now is the way we communicate.  There is much more selling via email, web conferencing, and media than ever before so reps need to keep up with how we sell and the way in which certain commodities are sold.  If you're not reading then you're not progressing in your personal development.  While other reps who are, may have an advantage in the sales arena.  Reading is definitely fundamental.

Here are a few books which I've read that are not only informative, but entertaining as well.  Check them out if you'd like, and you don't have to buy them because most public libraries have them in stock  Here's five books I have not only tolerated but enjoyed reading, and they are in no particular order:

1.) "How To Win Friends and Influence People" : Dale Carnegie - This is still a great read, even though it was written a long time ago.  It covers the fundamentals of not only sales, but really relationships and I think it's a great tool for reps to use in their daily life.  A classic, and a great book.

2.) "The Little Red Book of Selling": Jeffrey Gitomer - Gitomer claims to be a sales "guru" but I think he's kind of a New York City loud mouth. After hearing him speak, I wish I had never gone to his seminar.  But like him or not, the book is good. I've worked with companies that advocate his techniques and his writing style is brief, succinct, and amusing at times.  It makes it easy to read his books and take away tidbits of information to help you in the field.  A lot of people enjoy his other books like "The Sales Bible", but this is the best one by Gitomer in my opinion.

3.) "Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman" :Jamie Reidy - This book is a very entertaining look at the world of pharmaceutical sales and I thought it was very funny.  It is an auto biographical tale of Jamie Reidy's life as a salesman for Pfizer and focuses more on how he escaped working rather than how he became successful.  It was made into a movie, "Love and Other Drugs", which had nothing at all in common with the book, except the name of the title character.  A very entertaining read with lots of ideas on how to beat the "system" in pharmaceutical sales and still become a success in spite of yourself.

4.) "How To Become A Rainmaker: The Rules For Getting and Keeping Customers and Clients": Jeffrey J. Fox  - This is a very easy to read and simple book, which I thought have a multitude of good stories and quotes.  It's all about making rain in the traditional Native American manner, and not a reference to strip club fodder.  Fox outlines ways to bring "rain" to yourself and your company through a series of brief stories and quotes from famous people.  It's is a very quick read which for me was wonderful since I can't sit still for more than 5 minutes at a time.  Good read for reps with Attention Deficit Disorder.

5.) "Why She Buys: The New Strategy for Reaching the World's Most Powerful Consumers": Bridget Brennan - I thought this book was fascinating.  It is an in depth look behind the mind of the world's most powerful group of consumers-WOMEN!  It is filled with interesting facts and data behind why women buy certain products and is a very engaging look at how women perceive their purchases.  I found it a fairly quick read just because I had never delineated between how a women buys from how a man buys, but after reading this book, I changed my selling strategies.  It might be a bit long for some, but I read it in spurts and was able to absorb a lot of the information.  Great read.

So this will get many of you started, and I'm sure the old standard books still apply to your sales environment.  Books by Neil Rackham, Brian Tracy, Tom Hopkins, and of course Zig Ziglar are all good fundamental books to read regarding sales techniques and selling.  They aren't all that enjoyable but they are pertinent.  If you can find a book you like, and it helps you sell, then read it.  After all, we'll all be students of sales.

Have a great day selling!

-M