6 Inspiring Sales Books ... Period.

New to sales, want to get into sales or in sales for many years and have not read these books, then I strongly recommend it. These were transformative at best for me. This time I am giving paras as well as inspiring snippets. Let’s go. 

1 - Last month we discussed ‘what is sales?’. I wish to refresh it for you with an example. In my sense, sales should be about career, brand and company building and not just closing something for the sake of closing. 

Speaking of closings, did you hear the word closed won? It means you closed a deal and won a client; simple right. I did not know that. Find it on page 289. Here is a para to further elaborate ‘what is sales’ from Sell like Crazy … 💡 

“Selling is about taking your prospects from a less desirable ‘before’ state to a more desirable ‘after’ state, and if what you are selling doesn’t deliver your prospect to their ultimate desired outcome, then to put it simply - don’t sell to them. 

Imagine you walked into a doctor’s appointment and they prescribed you medication before even asking what brought you in.”

2 - Now to the second one. As a seller you are leading your prospects. The author emphasises that the real distinction between amateur and pro leaders is that amateurs motivate through logic and the great ones motivate through emotion. Logic is great for planning, but weak for motivation. The pro knows that the magic is in the right mix for the right time. 

After reading this I thought, is that all about leading? This para is an icing on cake from a book naming- 177 mental toughness secrets of the world class … 🙋 

“The process great leaders and coaches use is tedious, time consuming, and simple: ask questions, and don't stop until you have landed on the emotional hot buttons. When they hit the vein of gold, they continue to probe until the performer reaches an emotional high point, known in performance circles as white moment. The white moment is the strongest emotional driver of a performer”.

3 - Ready for some statistics? I never expected statistics as a prerequisite to read a sales book; but this one challenged me for sure. Some of the schools make sure that degrees are not granted unless the hypothesis in the thesis is statistically proven. Yes, you read that right. The point is scaling sales is actually about understanding and applying statistics in a methodical way. 

Imagine moving your customers out of their comfort zone by showing them their world in a different light and executing this with control, diplomacy and empathy. Example - not Blackberry with buttons but full touch screen. Another recent example - Not Google search but Chat gpt.  ‘Control’ is key here. Do you know that 53 percent of customer loyalty is driven by sales experience and not the product itself? Hope now you can connect the customer journey and sales process to controlling the execution for the greater good. This one shaped my execution, it came from The Challenger Sale book … 👍 

“In the Army, there’s an old saying that applies equally well to Sales: “No plan survives engagement with the enemy.” No matter how carefully one plans for battle, running through every possible scenario of what might happen and what might go wrong, the reality on the field will be inevitably different. As a result, Army leaders have adopted a style of leadership known as Commander’s Intent.”

4 - Stay with me. I understand what you go through. Quarter over quarter, prospect over prospect, tools, contracts, notifications, heated meetings and so on. Breathe; these nuggets from the Leapfrog book will help. Some of these are still my vitamins … 🌟 

• “Build a T-shaped profile; explore liberal education and act as a deliberate amateur”. 

• “Wisdom is your ability to apply knowledge to how you live your life”. 

• “When the future is uncertain and difficult to predict, you need to do what is doable by leveraging the bird in hand”. In a previous post, I mentioned 3Fs - focus is one of them. 

• Last but not the least, “intellectual humility is the fine line between knowing what you know and knowing what you don’t know”. My Father always said to me that I did not know anything until I became 40. You are correct, Pappa. Chetan Bhagat also mentioned something similar in one of his books - on the first page. Then I understood that this is a great Indian tradition and my Father is expecting me to follow. 

5 - Feeling refreshed right? I will skip Ai for now but can not avoid management. Sales Management = leadership + culture leading to execution with desired outcomes. This is OPE (e = experience) at its best. Here are some of the secrets in the trade from the Author. 

• “A sales team with zero turnover typically values longevity over results”. Ok, noted. I became emotional with this one. 

• “In my 25 years of sales career, I have never won an RFP which I did not know was coming”. Same here - maybe except for the government; which I do not know, do I?

• “Your competitor’s hunters may kill your farmers and you may not even know it” … hmm. 

And here is the ultimate truth behind sales management. 

Thank you for writing this, Mike … 🏆 

“One of the most common and dangerous problems with sales compensation plans is that they are too flat. By flat I mean there is nowhere near enough of a difference between what the very top and the very bottom performer earn. When the spread between what the best and the worst salespeople in an organisation earn is too small, there are serious consequences that actually accomplish the exact opposite of what a smart comp plan should do”. 

6 - No looking further for the last one. Zig Ziglar’s book is a classic + legend. It was first written close to 4 decades back when the internet, mobile, and social media were not even born; but everything is still very valid. 

Here are my top pointers - 

• Research says that “the prospect will be more comfortable making a decision when he is seated”. I always wondered why you are offered a seat in comfy chairs/ sofas with water bottles and biscuits. 

• “If you do not believe the customers are the losers when they don’t buy, you are selling the wrong product”. 

• “There is a price and there is a cost”. As an engineer of whatever, for me this is still ard to digest. 

• “Reduction to the ridiculous” - a thousand dollar iPhone is less than a dollar/ day for 3 years; and zero percent emi on top of it; nailed. I have an iPhone X and Droid. Why? Because, all eggs and data should not be in one basket, phone, cloud, etc.

• “People forget the price but they will never forget poor quality or a poor choice”. This is why writing reviews on e-commerce sites/ apps exists as a business … 🤔 

As I write these I have learned more about it. Hope you feel the same. 

What's next month? 

• India Public markets are on autopilot with a growing retail base and IPOs (Nov 2025). Minor here and there while scaling are ok; there is plenty on YT about this topic. Yes, yes - it's different this time. I hope so. 

• Cannot talk about the private market yet. The distribution cycle is 8-10 years so maybe after 3-4 years from now. 

• Should I stick with curd-rice SaaS? I mean Software as a Service and not “Saas and Bahu” (hindi); that is already dominated by sitcoms for decades … 🔥 

About the picture - 

Viva: I think we are lost. We walked for hours. It is getting dark. 

Me: We will be there soon. Just follow the path.

Viva: I just see trees and rocks. 

Me: We need to go to the twin falls; you can see those right. 

2 Hours later - 

Viva: Are we there yet? 

Me: We are getting there. 

Viva: It is getting dark.

Me: You are doing good, continue. 

Viva: We need to reach before 7. 

Me: We will reach there for dinner. 

Viva: No. Let's run then. You are very slow; because the resort will close chocolate milk at 7. 

Lesson - you can get lost as long as you are aware of the time and there is fulfillment at the end of the journey. Viva, one secret; even today, I am lost in at least 40% of the life situations. I remain cautious and move forward and that is the fun part. I also wait for my chocolate milk at the end of every journey …  🏍️

Blast from the past - 

I worked as a consultant for a retail giant on pricing, etc; still could not think in this perspective. So you are suggesting to create the market and then dominate the market - brilliant price punch … 🙋

"You have to educate the consumer. E-commerce sites are not selling it cheap, the local stores are selling it at a higher price" Jack Ma.

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Swagat Irsale is a Growth and Scale Advocate. He works with start ups and scale ups and helps them grow revenue and build enterprise products which users use.

You can connect with him on Linked in if you wish to.

https://www.groadv.com/post/grow-revenue-the-journey-zero-to-one-billion-swagat-irsale

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