Top 3 Sales Management books for new a sales leader?

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November 25, 2021

by a searcher from University of Pennsylvania - The Wharton School in New York, NY, USA

As a new sales leader, managing a small team, before I hire a VP of Sales, I'm looking to learn how to do it myself. What are the 3 sales management book "classics" that are fundamental and must reads?

Thank you!

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Reply by a searcher
from University of Pennsylvania in Portland, OR, USA
Anything by Andris Zoltners is valuable. I recommend starting with "Building a Winning Sales Force." For several decades he has simultaneously served as a professor at Northwestern and led his sales consulting firm, ZS Associates. His work helped me greatly when I reached a point in my career where I began managing sales teams and had never worked as a sales professional in the field myself.

One caveat... I made the mistake years ago of sharing his books with some of my sales leaders who were less than receptive to the MBA/academic style. Their resistance derailed a sales team sizing exercise which was sorely needed in the US. Simultaneously, a colleague of mine in the company rolled out the same exercise using Zoltner's material in Germany with success with a sales leadership team who were far more open to book learning and "engineering" a sales team structure. From that point I've continued to apply Zoltners' principles, though with better organizational change technique than "hey guys, check out this book from a really smart professor."
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Reply by an investor
from Harvard University in Toronto, ON, Canada
Jeremy, great question. In my experience:

(1) The Challenger Sale, by Matthew Dixon

(2) Predictable Revenue, by Aaron Ross

(3) Solution Selling, by Michael Bosworth
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