No matter the reasons you have for taking up a sales management role, there is only one guarantee: things are about to change. Making that step into management comes with its own challenges, which are unique and something you need to know. By reading the best sales management books, you will obtain knowledge on ways that you can use to handle these challenges when they come.

There could be a chance that you made a kill in your previous sales role, and now your company feels that you need to take on something much bigger. Achieving your own sales goals might have been an easy thing as a rep, but as you venture into management, things will change and maybe this time a bit different and difficult. 

Why Read Management Books as a Marketer?

As a sales manager, you will have to struggle with so many roles that range from learning very fast to juggling sales targets and motivating your sales reps to get the very best out of them.

Given these roles that you are likely to take on, you need to look for the best ideas on how you can take on these processes and make the most out of your position. One of the most reliable ways that you can use to obtain knowledge on how to take on this role once you assume it is by reading top sales books.

There are so many sales management books that you can read that will offer you full knowledge on what you need to do to make sure that you run your sales management process well and succeed in the long run.

In this article, we have chosen to major in the top sales management books. We feel what you need to make your sales management role a success. 

1. Sales Management Simplified The Straight Truth About Getting Exceptional Results From Your Sales Team

This is the first book on this list, and it is one of the best books for sales managers we have around for you as a sales manager written by Mike Weinberg, a founder of a consultancy firm. Apart from that, Mike Weinberg is also a new sales coach who specializes in sales management.

Mike Weinberg, the author of this book, has made his living out of helping companies with issues and are struggling to manage their sales teams. The read does not focus on the sales team but focuses on how this team is being led. 

As a sales team manager, you need to know that your attitude and emotions can undermine your sales team performance. This is exactly why you need to look for this book; it will help you understand how to manage your emotions as you run your sales team. 

This book is written and built around the sales leadership framework, which you can utilize to furnace a healthy culture of sales in your organization, which will push for high sales performance. The book will offer you some guidance by teaching you how to do some of the niggly parts of sales management.  

Other than that, the book will also offer you properly or the right compensation plans and also have productive sales meetings during which you will give your sales reps achievable sales targets. If you are looking for a way that you can use to manage a sales team from the ground and achieve the best results through a well-laid-out framework, then this is the book you need to read.

2. Nuts and Bolts of Sales Management: How to Build a High-Velocity Sales Organization 

This yet another one of the top sales management books you need to read written by John Treace. John has worked in the sales and marketing space for 3o years and now owns a sales and marketing consulting firm known as JR Treace & Associates.

As a sales manager, a time will always come when you as a sales manager feel like you have been thrown into some battle trenches. Well, in case you have, or you are likely to, then we have a book here for you that you can help you with ways that you can use to fight and find your way out. 

Trace has himself battled some trenches in the past, which makes this book an excellent read. This book basically focuses on the chaotic and unpredictable nature, which sometimes mirrors the sales world and ways that you can use to navigate them. 

This book focuses purely on using it to find some stability in this kind of circumstance. In this book, you will learn or know much about ways that you can use to ensure that you have predictable sales performance, morale, and balance. 

3. The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of The Customer Conversation 

This is another great book about sales that you need to grab if you are a sales manager. Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson, the book majors on customer relationships, an integral component of any sales process. If you are a sales manager, you need to work on doing more than just building customer relationships; you need to be challenging them. 

The good and unique thing about this book on sales management is that it is study-based. The book is written based on data from the thousands of sales reps worldwide hailing from various industries and geographical locations.

During the study process, Dixon & Adamson found out that every person in sales falls into five distinct profiles. However, only one of them consistently outperformed the rest hence the “challenger” profile.

This profile, just in case you do not know what it is, where the sales professional approached the prospect with the sole unique insight into how they could save or make money. 

4. To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others

Daniel H. Pink is the author of this top book that falls in the best sales management books category is a sales and marketing author. Due to his writing nature and the kind of influence and impact his books have heard, he has seen his books reaching New York Times bestseller status.

According to pink, one in nine Americans work in sales, and so do the other eight in some ways. According to pink, everyone works in sales because employees are always pitching colleagues on the available new ideas. 

The to sell is a human book that focuses on art and the science of selling that one can use in every aspect of their sales management job. Pink, in his book, breaks down all these into very digestible pieces, which include improving your elevator pitch, understanding your prospect’s perspective, and lastly, making your sales message much more persuasive. 

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5. Coaching Salespeople to Sales Champions: Tactical Playbook For Managers & Executive

Keith Rosen is the author of this book and is also the founder of the sales training and coaching academy. The book talks much about getting the best out of your sales team. The book says that to get the best out of your sales team; you do not need more training; you need better or the best coaching. 

In his book, Rosen talks of when managers offer effective training to their sales teams around competencies in their roles alongside best practices. This way, the training sticks in the salespeople instead of doing it in ways that they prefer. 

This book is basically based on the Rosen L.E. A. D. S. This is a coaching framework that promises to get your sales team performing in a much better way and, most importantly, faster. Coaching salespeople cover so many bases, including boosting sales, ways that you can use to attain a long-run ROI from coaching, and how you can retain your top performers as envisaged in the sales leadership books.

6. Cracking The Sales Management Code: The Secrets To Measuring and Managing The Sales Performance

Jason Jordan is the author of this book and is also a partner of sales management training firm Vantage point performance, a company led by Michelle Vazzana as the CEO. For a manager looking for great control over his team performance, you need to crack the sales management code.

Cracking a sales management code is basically based on new research on how the top-performing sales supervisors control their reps. This book offers a clear guide on ways that you can mold your own sales reps into top performers. The book basically focuses on ways that you can use to train your reps to get the big wins in the end. 

Unlike the others in this book, the author does not just focus on leadership and coaching but instead focuses on ways that you can use to manage a sales force effectively. To get more on this issue, you need to read the sales coaching books for yourself and find out.

7. The Accidental Sales Manager: How to Take Control and Lead Your Sales Team to Record Profits

Chris Lytle, who is the author of this book, has trained fortune 500 companies and startups in the technical and financial area. Well, if you found yourself in the sales management position by any surprise, then again, this is the right book for you to read. 

Though it might be scary, acquiring the right sales skills can help you thrive as a sales manager. You will not just acquire this knowledge, but you will also be able to pass it out to other people in your reps as well. The best managers always come from a background of celebrated sales records.

The good thing about being a sales manager using this means is that you have been in this position, and as such, you know what to expect from your reps. 

The bad thing, however, in this case, is that you are going to get stuck carrying on with your old sales job duties while at the same time juggling your new manager role. This sales manager book offers you exact ways that you can use to beat this trap and excel as a sales manager.

8. Sales Manager Survival Guide: Lessons from Sales Front Lines

David Brock, who is a consultant at media watchdog group media matters for America. This book is all about sales management, a juggling role that will call on you to constantly coach, train, and build your sales team. However, even with these roles, you also need to take time to control pipelines, procedures, and revenue. 

In this top best sales management book, Brock has only one goal for you, and that is helping you survive in your role as a sales manager. Whether you are trying to juggle metrics performance, working out shifts in the marketplace, or even leveraging sales systems, Brocks affirms that we have a way that you can use to overcome any challenge that you come up against in your sales job.

9. 52 Sales Management Tips: The Sales Managers Success Guide

This is a book written by Steven Rosen, a top sales management consultant and runs a sales website known as StarResults. If you are not so keen on overhauling your entire sales management strategy, but you need a few tips, then this is the book you need. The top and one of the best sales management books are written and target those who thrive within a corporate environment.

If you are a sales manager, then we have a chance that you are dealing with increased demands from your higher-ups. Your superiors expect you to do so much more with less but still expect you to drive the company’s sales performance and add a boost to the company’s bottom line. 

Rosen has more than 20 years of sales management experience and condenses all that experience into a simple reference guide. Well, if you like, you can think of this as your sales management bible. 

10. Race to Amazing: Your Fast Track to Sales Leadership

Krista S. Moore is the writer of this book and is the founder of a sales leadership coaching firm where his clients include startups and fortune 500 companies. Most of the time, those reps promoted into management roles are done in such a premature manner. 

By reading these best books on sales management, you will get the speed you need in your role. Instead of offering you so many tactics, Race to amazing offers experiences and stories from other sales managers who have battled this condition in the past.

The book gives some advice on ways that you can use to gain more clarity in your talents and ways or how you can apply them to be a much better manager of sales. The book also offers ways to build sales strategy from the ground all the way up. 

11. The Sales Leaders Playbook

This is also another top sales management book that is written by Nathan Jamail. From the title of this book alone, you can get insights into what the book talks about. In the book, Jamail has compiled a series of techniques and best practices, ranging from high-level strategies to downwards in the trenches techniques, aiming to drive a sales leader to develop ways to execute her successful sales vision better.

This book is an efficient manual that is very easy to read and understand as well. Even though you can read this book within just a short period of time, you can keep the lessons from it for many years to come. 

12. Building a Winning Sales Force

This is also another interesting book written by Andris A. Zoltners and Sally E. Lorimer. The book blends a scientifically researched textbook approach with efficient advice. The authors combine strategic insight with pragmatic advice on how sales leaders can hire and retain the very best salespeople and motivate them. 

Conclusion

If you are a sales manager or you just got promoted recently and you are looking for the best ways that you can use to enhance your game in this area, then the books listed above are what you need. The best sales books above contain everything you need ranging from skills to tactics and all required to make one a successful sales manager.

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