Survey Results: 15 Most Recommended Sales Books of All Time

Survey Results: 15 Most Recommended Sales Books of All Time

At Scaling Sales community, we surveyed 234 salespeople about which sales books they most recommended. Here are the rankings:

 

RANK #1 SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham.

With an entertaining tone, Rackham explains why traditional sales models don't work. He explains the successful SPIN strategy and uses real-world examples and case studies. 

 

RANK #2 How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

Carnegie highlights the use of other's ego against your charm, appreciation and personality.

 

RANK #3 Challenger Sale by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson

Based on survey, it says that every sales rep falls into one of five distinct profiles, of which 'the Challenger' always delivers high performance.

 

RANK #4 Predictable Revenue by Aaron Ross and Marylou Tyler

Learn the outbound sales process that helped add $100 million in recurring revenue to Salesforce, almost doubling their growth, with zero cold calls.

 

RANK #5 To Sell is Human by Daniel H. Pink

Book has a way to be a best salesperson, the six ways to pitch, the three rules for understanding others, the five frames that can make your message clearer, and more.

 

RANK #6 The Little Red Book of Selling by Jeffrey Gitomer

It's short, sweet, and to the point. It's packed with answers that people are searching for in order to help them make sales for the moment.

 

RANK #7 Pitch Anything by Oren Klaff

Applying the findings in the field of neuroeconomics, while sharing stories of his method in action, Klaff describes how the brain makes decisions and responds to pitches. 

 

RANK #8 Go-Givers Sell More by Bob Burg, John David Mann

Cultivate a trusting relationship and focus exclusively on creating value for the other person, say the authors, and great results will follow by itself.

 

RANK #9 Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini

The classic book on persuasion, explains the psychology of why people say ""yes""€”and how to apply these understandings. 

 

RANK #10 Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes

The Ultimate Sales Machine shows you how to tune up virtually every part of your business by spending just an hour per week on each impact area you want to improve

 

RANK #11 How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling by Frank Bettger

Bettger shares instructive anecdotes and guidelines on how to develop the style, spirit, and presence of a winning salesperson.

 

RANK #12 How to master the art of selling by Tom Hopkins

Tom educates on how to succeed in sales, including new information on using the latest research techniques and using e-mail and online resources.

 

RANK #13 Selling 101 by Zig Ziglar

Here in a short, compact and concise format is the basics of how to persuade more people more effectively, more ethically, and more often.

 

RANK #14 Mastery by Robert Greene

By analyzing the lives of masters such as Charles Darwin, Einstein, and Leonard da Vinci, Greene debunks many myths and distils the wisdom to reveal the secret to greatness.

 

RANK #15 Cold Calling Techniques by Stephan Schiffman

Cold Calling Techniques (That Really Work!), provides you with all of the right tools for turning prospects into meetings, and meetings into big sales. 

 

 

Tell us in the comment below if your favorite book is missing out, or you think you agree/don't agree with few of the rankings.


    • Sticky Posts

    • As Sales Person, Here are my New Year Resolutions. What are Yours?

      Being a salesperson, I keep learning from my mistakes and have noted a few changes that I need to make in my approach. I take these resolutions going into 2021, hoping to keep it going for as long as possible :) 1. I will not say "Yes, our product has
    • Once Upon a Sales Meeting!

      It was an awkward silence in the meeting room "Uproar." John Kowalski, the new sales manager, was not happy with the team's performance. After scribbling something in the notepad, he decided to break the silence, John: I cannot believe you guys have been working like this. No reports, delusional forecasting, random targets, and no eye on the ball. Kevin: We followed Richard's orders. John: Well, Richard is not here anymore, is he? John walked up to the whiteboard, and wrote in big bold letters: "TARGET
    • Recent Topics

    • Partial refunds

      I am trying to process refund for a one item invoice, however the refund is partial: i am getting this error while creating credit note, can anyone share some wisdom about this
    • Best practice importing items and matching assemblies

      Hi, I was wondering what would be the best practice to import items and composite items (assemblies) From my backup, what should I import first? The items or the composite items? I am on Zoho one, using inventory and books. Kind regards, Sabine
    • Bulk Fill In & Edit PO/Bill/SO/Invoice

      Hello, I am adding stock in bulk on a PO, the system is automatically populating the Rate (price) and Tax from the item data. Problem is that the bill rate is different from the rate on the item data, so I have to manually erase each and enter the price.
    • Separate Items & Services

      Hi, please separate items and services into different categories. Thank you
    • Items Below Reorder Point Report?

      Is there a way to run a report of Items that are below the Reorder Point? I don't see this as a specific report, nor can I figure out how to customize any of the other stock reports to give me this information. Please tell me I'm missing something s
    • Allocating inventory to specific SO's

      Is there a way that allocate inventory to a specific sales order? For example, let's say we have 90 items in stock. Customer 1 orders 100 items. This allocates all 90 items to their order, and they have a back order for the remaining 10 items which could
    • Cancelled Transfer order problem

      Hello, We've canceled a transfer order, and we can't add the related items to a new Transfer Order. The system tells us that the bin doesn't have the required quantity, but when we check the item, it indicates that there are 2 units in the bin. It also
    • Creating a Chart from a Report

      In Zoho Analytics, is it possible to create a chart from a Pivot View report? We are looking to use Zoho Analytics to replace Excel for Sales reports and would like to be able to show both the table and the chart together.
    • Client Portal ZOHO ONE

      Dear Zoho one is fantastic option for companies but it seems to me that it is still an aggregation of aps let me explain I have zoho books with client portal so client access their invoice then I have zoho project with client portal so they can access their project but not their invoice without another URL another LOGIN Are you planning in creating a beautiful UI portal for client so we can control access to client in one location to multiple aps at least unify project and invoice aps that would
    • Email Insights included in Bigin emals are marked as SPAM everywhere

      Today I noticed that email recipients who use Office 365 never receive emails sent from Bigin. Further examination showed that all Email Insights links in email headers are marked as spam/phishing by Office 365. Example screen included. The problem is
    • Data Import | Zoho Analytics Custom Query Window Size

      Please increase the window size for the Custom Query Data Import. It's impossible to work with such a small query window.
    • Name changed in settings for mailbox but still not changed when typed in To field

      In the email account secretary@ i have updaetd the new staff members details but the old members name still appears when I type secretary@ in the To field. I cant work out where Zoho is finding the old name from. I have deleted the browser cache. If I
    • Cannot add my name to my domain name

      I want to have My name@mydomain.com and it says my name is linked to another account already. Please fix it since I do not have another account.
    • Invoice status on write-off is "Paid" - how do I change this to "Written off"

      HI guys, I want to write off a couple of outstanding invoices, but when I do this, the status of the invoices shows as "Paid". Clearly this is not the case and I need to be able to see that they are written off in the customer's history. Is there a way
    • Establishing new Zoho email account on laptop

      Good Morning: I am very long time Outlook business user and decided to try your email service last night and had established an account. I am trying to verify my account; how do I establish my Zoho email account on my laptop? I opened the account with
    • unable to send message reason 550 5.4.6 unusual sending activity

      My email account can't send message. It shows unable to send message reason 550 5.4.6 unusual sending activity detected
    • how to add email to existing organization i w

      I am already registered my organization and i have an email id. I need one more email id but i can't find anywhere .i want the cheapest email id . how to add ?
    • e-mail bloqueado

      Estou com meu e-mail lucas@peplus.me bloqueado, preciso desbloquear para retorno de usos em minhas atividades.
    • zoho labels api not working

      We're using n8n to automte email reply using zoho api. I'm facing issue with label api. I added the required scopes but its not working. i followed zoho api documentation but didn't work. also, where do i find/how do i create zoho oauth token mentioneeed
    • Desk DMARC forwarding failure for some senders

      I am not receiving important emails into Desk, because of DMARC errors. Here's what's happening: 1. email is sent from customer e.g. john@doe.com, to my email address, e.g info@acme.com 2. email is delivered successfully to info@acme.com (a shared inbox
    • Streams/Shared email doesn't show up in windows trident app. It works fine on MAC. Is there any difference between 2 install ?

      I can see streams/share email boxs on my MAC version of trident app but i can't see them in windows version of trident app. Is there any difference between 2 install? I try to find setting but not able to see any setting to add stream/share email boxes.
    • add zoho account

      How to add a zoho mail to previous zoho account? I have two
    • Zoho Desk Mobile App Year-End Roundup - 2025

      Dear Zoho Desk users, Greetings! As you gear up for the festive season, we are excited to share a quick journey into all that is released in 2025! Zia's generative AI capabilities Zia insights can be highly beneficial in helping agents manage daily support
    • Narrative 17: The role of Zia AI in customer support

      Behind the scenes of a successful ticketing system: BTS Series Narrative 17: The role of Zia AI in customer support Overview Zia in Zoho Desk is a layered AI assistant that combines generative AI, prediction, and automation to support agents, automate
    • Domain Transaction

      I have purchased a domain name called trainedworkforce.co.in I made the payment got the receipt but the domain is still not purchased after successful transaction .
    • Ability to Set a Unified Tab Order/View for All Users in Zoho Projects

      Hello Zoho Projects Team, We hope you are doing well. We would like to submit a feature request regarding tab/menu organization in Zoho Projects. Current Behavior: The tab (module) order in Zoho Projects is user-specific. Each user (internal or external)
    • Zohomail - The "All Messages" vs "In Box"

      Why do some new email message appear under the all messages view but not in my inbox? That's really annoying but to be fair I've experienced the same with gmail.
    • error while listing mails

      I can't access email in any of my folders: Oops, an error occurred - retry produces the second error response: error while listing mails (cannot parse null string). I've signed in and out of Zoho, restarted my iMac.
    • Introducing the Zoho Projects Learning Space

      Every product has its learning curve, and sometimes having a guided path makes the learning experience smoother. With that goal, we introduce a dedicated learning space for Zoho Projects, a platform where you can explore lessons, learn at your own pace,
    • Where to show Customization Field ?

      Dear Sir, I have made some New Field in Item Field Customisation. Now I don't require that field in Estimate, Sales Orders etc. I just wants that field in Sales Invoice to Show/Hide... Is that possible ?
    • Zoho Desk 2025 round-up: Key highlights on feature releases

      Hello everyone, As we gear up for 2026, here is a detailed round-up of all feature releases in Zoho Desk web throughout the year. For consolidated information on releases check out the What’s New page You can also watch these webinars. Zia in web Zia
    • Print Sales Orders, Purchase Orders or Invoices from API

      Hello, Is it possible to use the print option that is available in Sales Orders Purchase Orders and Invoices with the API?. I don't see any information in the docs about this. Thanks
    • How to show a hided report??

      in CRM Report , I clicked Hide incidently , how to show the floder again? Nowhere I can find the hided report floder...
    • Converting Customer Invoice to Purchase Bill

      Hi, In my service-based business, I sometimes create the customer invoice first, and later I receive the purchase bill from the vendor for the same job. Is there any option in Zoho Books to: Convert a customer invoice into a purchase bill, or Link/associate
    • Email tracking inquiry

      I am trying to track when my emails are opened and clicked like I previously did in HubSpot. HubSpot pretty much did the entire process automatically. After digging through, I finally found in settings --> emails --> BCC Dropbox there is an email I can
    • Mass Update of Lookup Fields not possible

      Hello List I've created a custom field for Leads and Contacts 'Current Campaign'. This is very Handy as I can filter leads and then related them to a campaign. Everything ready, but then I realized that mass update doesn't work for lookup fields... a
    • Collapsible Sections & Section Navigation Needed

      The flexibility of Zoho CRM has expanded greatly in the last few years, to the point that a leads module is now permissible to contain up to 350 fields. We don't use that many, but we are using 168 fields which are broken apart into 18 different sections.
    • Quick Create needs Client Script support

      As per the title. We need client scripts to apply at a Quick Create level. We enforce logic on the form to ensure data quality, automate field values, etc. However, all this is lost when a user attempts a "Quick Create". It is disappointing because, from
    • Download Attached Files

      Hi everyone, Brand new to Zoho Creator.  I have a form with a subform. The subform has a field for "File Upload"   I have this in a subform to allow multiple files to be uploaded to the parent form. Once the files are uploaded, how can i download or view them?   Is this a setting I am just not seeing? If there isn't a way to download them, could i create another form field that dynamically creates the file's URL?  That way a user can click the URL to get to the file? Any help with this would be greatly
    • Ticket layout based on field or contact

      Hi! I want to support the following use-case: we are delivering custom IT solutions to different accounts we have, thus our ticket layouts, fields and languages (priority, status field values should be Hungarian) will be different. How should I setup
    • Next Page