Our Favorite Sales Books, Apps and Courses

Introduction

The Sales department plays an important role in every organization. Their work helps the business grow and pave the way for a brighter future for the company. Interacting with customers and clients is an important but daunting task for some. The sales department handles this duty efficiently and skillfully represents their company.

Making sure that the sales team is up to date with the latest trends in the industry and knows how the business and sales world is working these days is of utmost importance. There are various ways to increase your knowledge of the sales field. Ensuring that your sales team can also use the benefit of some such books, apps, and courses will prove to be beneficial for the company.

Sales Books

It is impossible to meet every person on the planet in one lifetime, but there are some people with great knowledge. Some of them decide to spread their wisdom and mentor young minds through their books. Reading books, the right books can amount to a successful career. Knowledge obtained from books will stay with you always, no matter what career path you choose. Reading a book is never a bad idea!

Books might offer certain teachings that no one else can or will. Apart from that, books will also increase your vocabulary and hence enhance your interaction with customers making you a people person. Here are some of the best sales books you can read for your career growth:

Secrets of Closing a Sale by Zig Ziglar

Establishing dynamic relationships with customers is not an easy task. This book will teach you ways in which you can present your ideas and services in a persuasive yet professional manner. The principles he talks about are easy to understand. Reading this book will increase your chances of getting a positive response from the other end.

The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino

We all need a mentor, a guiding force in our lives, and this book has the power to be that for you. A book that captures the true essence of a salesman, a book that talks about morals and principles that, if you follow, won’t let you fail. Think of it as the combination of all the things you want to know about and learn about the salesman universe, all captured in one book. It is not a book for merely a few days; you can turn to this book for support and comfort anytime you need it.

Selling to Big Companies by Jill Konrath

Every salesperson wants to go out and pitch the schemes to big companies and successfully build a professional network with them. Jill Konrath talks about what kind of audience you need to target and how you need to go about it. You won’t get meetings with big companies every day, so make sure that you don’t let that one chance go to waste. Take inspiration from the ideas of this book and apply them to your life.

Sales Apps

With an app for basically everything you can think of, our world also has some brilliant sales apps to offer. These apps will help you track your sales, manage your business contacts, have insights on your sales leads, analyze employee performance, clients, etc. It is important to know the pattern of your work and how impactful and effective your ways are. The schemes you pitch and the ideas you convey may be excellent, but if presented in the wrong way, they can amount to nothing.

Sales apps help you track your business meetings, among many other things. With that data, you can sit and analyze what went wrong and work on it for your next project to be successful. Some of the best sales apps out there are:

Best Sales Tracking/CRM Apps

The importance of CRM (customer relationship management) is not a secret to any company. Working is one thing, but it also becomes essential to track the growth of your hard work and analyze the stats so that you can improve certain areas of your business and get better results. Some apps help you with the same.

  • Salesforce: This readily customizable app will serve all your needs; getting access to your company’s CRM from anywhere, customizing your app according to what your sales needs are, tracking your leads, everything you need to know!
  • Hubspot Sales Hub: An app that will provide you with an easier and efficient way to connect with your clients, Hubspot Sales Hub helps the sales team in every step of the process. It also provides you with the features that salesforce has to offer.

Best Apps for Closing Sales

All your efforts, hard work, research, pitch presentation—everything will amount to absolutely nothing if you are not able to close a sale. The sale is considered to be completed only when the customer agrees to buy the product/service and the salesperson closes the deal. You can use various apps that will help you with this.

  • Proposify: Being organized is key. With so many things to offer, some evident steps of the process might get skipped. This app helps you throughout the process. From keeping your proposal on the table, interacting with the customers, presenting them your ideas, answering questions they have, and then finally closing the sale. This app helps you stay organized and work efficiently.
  • DocuSign: No need to wait for days or weeks to close the deal. With this app, you will have the luxury of getting those papers signed from the comfort of your home/office. The app, with some extra payment, also has to offer some Advanced Solutions that can come in handy.

Best Productivity Apps for the Sales team

Sales teams always have a lot on their plate. Sometimes, with so many tasks lined up, productivity can take a hit. Staying on track and achieving the required results can become easier with the help of some apps available to us.

  • Asana: This app will help you distribute the work, keep track of those assignments, and efficiently finish complex tasks. Designing pipelines and assigning work to the team becomes easier and efficient with Asana. Calendar, lists, boards, it has all the features that will help your team stay organized and productive.
  • Basecamp: Setting goals, hitting deadlines, achieving targets, allocating resources, solving problems, with so many tasks it can get a little hectic to stick to one particular task and achieve maximum results. Basecamp will help your team become more productive and hit the goals that will benefit them and the company.

Sales Courses

Learning has no age. Any and every person on the planet can learn and gain knowledge about the Sales field. The world of the Internet has a lot of positive offerings for us. Educational courses are one of them. Sales courses will help you understand sales in-depth and learn new strategies and ideas that you can apply in your daily life. Some of the courses offered by Udemy that will help you include:

Sales Training: Practical Sales Techniques

There are some essential sales skills, techniques, that one should know. This course will help you with the same and increase your knowledge with the learning it has to offer.

Customer Service Mastery: Delight every customer

Being a salesperson requires you to interact with a lot of customers daily. Learning and improving your skills that will help you interact with customers in a better way and give better results can be achieved with the help of this course.

Learn to sell anything by Grant Cardone

Learn the basics of selling. Learn how to use the skills you have more effectively. New tactics, new techniques, new strategies, and new outcomes, this app will guide you through it all.

Conclusion

You can always up your game by learning new things. Books, apps, and courses, with so many ways to learn there, can be no excuse. Bring your level A-game to the market because that is the only way you will survive in this competitive world.

About Author

Sumeet Shah

Chief Growth Officer @Incentivate, has over 15 years of experience in management consulting, product engineering, and analytics, working with clients across multiple countries, functions, and domains.