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Ask HN: Books on Sales?

4 points by GroupRefer ↗ HN
Whenever I have to tackle a new field, my approach is to look for books of a certain kind pertaining to that subject. The 'certain kind' is important as I feel those are that kind of books I absorb and apply. It is hard to define what the 'certain' element is, but I'll give some examples of authors such as Malcolm Gladwell, Steven Blank, Jason Fried & DHH, Michael Lewis, Joel Greenblatt, Paul Graham and Philip Fisher.

I have until now, been unable to best figure out what authors or books I should be reading for Sales. Please do let me know if you know of any such books or authors on the topic of Sales.

4 comments

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threepipeproblm
I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but what many of those authors seem to have in common is, in my opinion, that they embrace the narrative fallacy. They tell a story that is plausible, seems to fit trends in real data, and satisfies a reader's need to understand... and I think can all be worth reading. But as someone who has been quite successful in sales, I wonder if that is the sort of material you need to be seeking. Read Nassim Taleb to understand the narrative fallacy. And here is the best piece of sales advice I can offer. Don't try to persuade anyone of much of anything. Find people who already want what you're selling. Or, at least, sell them something they already want. Shocking, I know, but you'd be surprised how many people beat their head against the wall on this... counter-intuitively, realizing that "convincing people" is dumb can make you more persuasive, albeit in a way that you may only appreciate when you have embraced this. Also, find out what call avoidance is and figure out how to avoid that.
polyfractal
I don't know if these are the "Masters" of the field, but they come highly recommended as useful books. Several are on my to-do list:

-Crossing the Chasm

-Web Copy That Sells

-Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive

-Three Steps to Yes: The Gentle Art of Getting Your Way

-Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In

-Solution Selling: Creating Buyers in Difficult Selling Markets

-Copy Hackers (I've read these and they are very good)

GroupRefer
In terms of Sales, I don't only mean cold calling, or b2b selling. My startup, Grosper.com is an ecommerce company, and for us sales is those customers who come to our website. But sometimes a subject ignored, is getting them to the website itself on a small budget, and no obvious viral component.