Will Aitken’s Post

Transcript

What's up folks? My name is Will, and in 2022, when I first started working at sales speed, I set myself the goal to read one sales book every week for a whole year. I'm gonna read one sales book every single week in 2022, and just like many salespeople, I missed that goal quite considerably, by about 50%. However, since then, I've continued to pick up, read and listen to yes, audiobooks, count a bunch more books. So at this point, I've read over 50 different sales books, and I've got them all ranked by how much I enjoyed them. How actionable. They are how regional They are in a secret Google sheet which I will never share with anyone because I don't want to offend a bunch of sales authors whose books I thought were garbage. So let's start with my top three. In the top spot is Gap Selling by Keenan. This book is an absolute masterpiece. It's engaging to read, it uses storytelling, and it basically shares the idea that if a customer doesn't have a problem or a challenge that you could help solve, then you shouldn't try selling to them. Keenan pours a load of passion to his book and basically lays out a master class for B to BE discovery uncovering. Pain points. Discovering their impact. Identifying what the root cause of those pain points is so that you can show that your solution will actually help solve challenges that have a meaningful impact. The gap after which the book is named is about the distance between their current state and their desired future state, and selling to that gap is basically selling to the problem or lack of gain the customer could be having. Incredible book for anyone who worked in sales, especially those who are account executives trying to update Discovery Game and one of my favorites, the Transparency Sale. Todd Capone In this book, Todd shares how using transparency and being forthcoming with information that customers don't typically get given by salespeople helps build massive trust and differentiate you against your competitors. Again, what makes this book so fun to read is the storytelling elements. Todd pools so much passion and emotion and analogies into this book. A game changing chapter in this was the chapter on transparent negotiations. Basically, Todd shares that instead of trying to make negotiations this kind of Texas Holdem game of poker. Hey, just tell him the price and then tell them the 4-5 potential things that you can change that have an impact on that price. So if your product costs $10,000, you can be up front about your price and say, hey, if you are looking to lower that price, here are the four things that we can change, length of contract, volume of the order, upfront payment terms that we can use to either lower or raise that total price. Incredible book. Great. Read another one. This one I've only got an audio book version of is exactly what to say by Phil M Jones. The audiobook only takes an hour to listen to. In the book itself is only like 100 pages, but it is super tactical stuff. It gives you 26 magical phrases and words that you can use in sales, regardless of what type of sales you're in, to influence your customers without being a manipulative, sneaky *******. I listen to this once and then I listen to it again and I took notes and then it reverted back to it countless time since Delivery of this book, especially the audio book, is just exceptional. It's short, it's sweet, you can get done in afternoon, and you're pretty much guaranteed to walk away with at least one thing that you can use in your sales role. But let's talk about. Books for some specific use cases. Starting off with prospecting. Now pretty much everyone under the sun is going to tell you to read Fanatical Prospecting, and it is a good book. However, I have found that a lot of the templates, the frameworks, and the script shared in this book are a little bit out of date and don't work very well in 2024. That said, the mindset that Jeb shares in this book around prospecting is really good. So it's a good book to start with if you're new to prospecting, but also a good book to come back to if you want to get your mindset in the right place to go out there and do outbound sales. But the book I'll recommend for a little bit. Over Contemporary Approach to Sales is Problem Prospecting by Mark Acres, Richard Smith and Stuart Taylor. This book is pretty much a playbook on how to do modern B2B sales prospecting. Writing short, concise emails that are personalized, how to research prospects, how to open a cold call, The questions you want to ask on that cold call. It's a really tactical book and one that I wish I had access to far earlier in my career. If you're an SDR or BDR and you haven't read this book yet, pick it up. And now for a book that's all I'd say more advanced sellers, those who are closing deals, account executives. Because he wanted to discovery. Well, the Secrets of Question Based Selling by Thomas A Freeze. This book is a tactical master class on how to do discovery, a topic that's quite hard to approach in such a tactical way. Even if you just went through this book and read the secrets alone, you'd come out of there. Better seller for example. Secret #81 asking How do you mean? We'll give you great insight into what other people are thinking and feeling. That's what we wanna do with salespeople if you're looking for ways to step up your discovery and ask better questions if your customers get this book. And now a book for those of you who are in. Sales Leadership Roles. A book that I wish my old managers and VP's have read themselves. The Transparency Sales Leader by Todd Caponi. Again, he's on it twice. Once again, Todd smashed out the park with an original, fresh perspective on sales leadership. Even though I'm not a sales leader and have no desire to be a sales leader, this book had me turning every single page in anticipation. It's written so damn well, basically tells you how to build trust with those above you, those below you. It's just. And then finally my favorite book for sales mindset, the 5 second rule by Mel Robbins. It's an anti procrastination weapon. The short version of the 5 second rule is that anytime you feel like procrastinating on something that you know you should do or you start to overthink something that's going to make your life better, just start counting down from 54321 and do the thing. I've found this applies to asking the hard questions in sales, doing the extra work rather than slacking off making cold calls. It's helped me get over phone fear many many times. Just count down. 54321 Rocket Ship Let's go. Here are a few honourable mentions. Snap Selling by Jill Konrath Sell the Way You Buy by David Primer, one that you've probably heard of Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss another super famous one, How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Most of the sales books that are out there and a lot of the ones I've even mentioned in this video are written by men and that's what makes Heals the Deal such great book. It's a collaboration of over 33 women in sales and each of the chapters focus on something different in sales from one of the co-authors. This one's great if you're feeling a little burned out or stressing a lot. Or just not happy. Stress Less and Sell More by Jeff Riseley And then finally I'll give a shout the Challenger sale and the challenge of customer. They're very data focused books, but they're very interesting nonetheless. To better understand B2B buying behaviour and the dishonourable mention the visual sale by Tile Assad Pink. Really Tyler, comment below. What's your favorite sales book that you've read? Also consider hitting the like button helps the video and the channel out a ton and allows us to keep making helpful and fun sales content. See you next time.