Editor’s note: This article was first published in September 2015; its remark that “things have changed a lot in the last 15 years” is relative to 2015.
Sales techniques aren’t everything. In fact, they are nothing if a salesperson doesn’t learn many other things about human behavior, persuasion and certain biases that make people “buy” crap without knowing why they are buying it.
If you are new to sales, you will clearly need some initial training (as long as you want to be a good salesperson) and to learn the most common sales strategies, as well as the most common objections you will have to face.
Most sales courses have come from two authors: Brian Tracy and Zig Ziglar. So for the salesperson who wants to learn the basics (and not so basic), it would clearly be a good idea to start with these three books first:
Zig Ziglar’s Ziglar on Selling is a good start, as it is a complete handbook for the professional salesperson. The Psychology of Selling, by Brian Tracy, is a real classic, although in my view The Art of Closing the Sale is even more interesting, since it focuses on overcoming all kinds of objections. But I have to say that many of those ways of handling objections no longer work and need to be adapted or dropped.
Even so, in many companies, sales trainers still recommend the closing techniques used by book and vacuum cleaner salespeople. Some of those techniques, which used to throw prospects off balance and get them to sign the purchase contract quickly, would today make a large share of prospects laugh out loud and invite you to leave their homes in a hurry.
Things have changed a lot in the last 15 years, and today a salesperson needs to be a better psychologist than salesperson. Rather than using certain sales techniques, they need to practice a subtler art that turns them not so much into a salesperson as into something I personally started calling a “commercial strategist”, and for that you will need a different set of weapons.
But for a salesperson who has been in the market for years, for a business owner who wants to increase sales, and for anyone who needs to negotiate (and in life everything is a constant negotiation), there are the three books I’m going to name below. I personally recommend them to everyone, but especially to sales and negotiation professionals.
1. Influence, by Robert Cialdini
Personally, I think this book is a masterpiece that adapts the psychology of human behavior for any reader in very simple, practical language.
Cialdini splits the world in two: the people who know how to influence others, and the people who are influenced by them. That said, we are all victims of influence, so Cialdini will simply teach you to persuade and influence anyone with all kinds of techniques.
Highly recommended for anyone who works with, lives with or is surrounded by people, and even more so for those who need other people to act the way we want them to.
2. The Art of Seduction, by Robert Greene
This book, which seems aimed at teaching you to pick people up and score, whether you are a woman or a man, will give you key ideas that adapt perfectly to the world of sales and business. Greene, author of The 48 Laws of Power, explains how, in a world dominated by force and violence, some people managed to destroy great historical figures through subtlety and seduction.
Every seducer is a good salesperson, and every good salesperson should be a great seducer. So the content is completely adaptable. Thanks to Greene, you will learn to influence people through seduction, so you will learn not only to pick people up, but also to sell and to influence the behavior of the people around you.
As an old boss of mine used to say: “If you can make a female customer want to take you to bed, you can also get her to buy what you’re selling.” It shouldn’t be taken literally, but I understood the message over time.
3. To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others, by Daniel H. Pink
We are all salespeople. It doesn’t matter what you do for a living. You sell, and so we all need to learn some basics about this world so that we are not swayed by those who do have these skills.
Drawing on psychological studies and the researchers’ point of view, Daniel Pink gives you some effective keys to help you close sales and convince others. Some of those keys go against established beliefs about human behavior. Without a doubt, a book worth reading for any sales professional.
Featured image: Viktorbuehler, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
