bwagy, the blog of Ben Young

I’ve had a few founders ask recently on my best sales books.

When I asked the founders what they had found, I realized that they were missing some of the best ones ha. The best books in this space are often hidden behind cheesy titles and cliches. But hey, think about the authors and the intended audience .

Sales is a skill you always want to develop, practice and learn more on. I think, developing those skills whilst in sales conversations is entirely achievable for anyone. Those epic sales people you love, they just had some strengths in some of the skills that got them started, then developed more over time.

Here’s my top ones:

• Discovered via Seth Godin, but anything Zig Ziglar, including his old sales tapes, secrets of closing the sale. He was a door to door salesman back in the day, selling crockery and in later life became a bit of an inspirational speaker & author.
• Jack Daly, in a similar vein, very much on the craft of a diligent salesperson, and the skills.
• Challenger Sale is a good more recent book, and it’s not rocket science but it was the first book that summed a bunch of trends in sales.
• Win without Pitching is also excellent, on shaping the business pitch, elements of the challenger sale in there.

I would recommend getting a mix of formats (audio, paperback) do check Ebay for second hand copies, just as good and way cheaper. But I’ve read and listened multiple times, and prepare yourself to reread over time. Take to them with a highlighter, or take photos, create notes on takeaways for yourself.

You’ve probably come across this story at one point or another, the story goes..

A young girl was walking along a beach upon which thousands of starfish had been washed up during a terrible storm. When she came to each starfish, she would pick it up, and throw it back into the ocean. People watched her with amusement.

She had been doing this for some time when a man approached her and said, “Little girl, why are you doing this? Look at this beach! You can’t save all these starfish. You can’t begin to make a difference!”

The girl seemed crushed, suddenly deflated. But after a few moments, she bent down, picked up another starfish, and hurled it as far as she could into the ocean. Then she looked up at the man and replied,

“Well, I made a difference for that one!”

From The Tale of the Starfish.

What a great mantra. No you can’t change everything but you can have an impact for that one person right there, or with that one client, or with that one friend. And for that person, it makes a world of difference.

You can’t help everyone but you can help this person right here right now. It’s refreshing.

I really like this as a mode of thinking, when I meet new people, I try to do what I can to help. No I can’t do everything but maybe 1-2 things will help make all the difference.