20 Best Sales Management Books Every Sales Manager Should Read

The sales team is one of the most important teams in an organization, possibly the powerhouse of an organization that is critical to the survival of the business. Beyond bringing in sales, the sales team helps to bridge the gap between an enterprise, brand, product, or service and its clients or customers.

An average sales rep is responsible for generating revenue when they sell a product or service. Every revenue they bring in allows the company to pay its numerous expenses to keep growing, reach new markets, attract more talent and generate even more revenue.

Every sales team needs a leader, someone who the sales team can rely on to keep them focused and dedicated to deals that matter. More than just taking the responsibility of monitoring the sales team’s performance and keeping them in check, a sales manager also takes on the critical role of coaching the team.

Being a sales rep is one thing, but being a sales manager is a different ball game entirely. You need the right skills, knowledge, and training to lead the sales team, and empower and motivate them to make sales and profit for the business. Every success-driven sales manager requires a new set of skills including coaching, leadership, mentoring, and recruiting.

If you are struggling to manage your sales team a sales manager, don’t stress about it. There are lots of helpful sales management books available to guide you in the right direction and help you. thrive in your role. To help you work your way up seamlessly, we have put together a comprehensive list of the 20 best sales management books for you to read right now.

Let’s get started!

Table of Contents

• Sales Management Books: What are they?
• Why Do You Need a Sales Management Book?
• 20 Best Sales Management Books For Sales Managers

Sales Management Books: What are they?

Sales management is the process of hiring, training, empowering, and motivating the sales team, coordinating the entire operations of the sales department, and developing and implementing a cohesive and winning sales strategy that drives business revenue growth and success.

Sales are the lifeline of any organization and managing the sales process and performance are part of the most important functions of any business. For many organizations, the key to building a winning sales team is effective sales management.

Considering that sales management or being a sales manager can be new to everyone at some point or stage in their career, sales management books are written or printed works by experienced sales leaders to help sales managers thrive and drive results in their management role.

Over the years, we have come to see many sales books teach sales managers and leaders generally improve their sales management skills, teach them how to manage their sales teams to greatness, and provide them with industry insights and guidelines on how to increase sales success of their sales teams and the organization as a whole.

We have identified and compiled some of the best sales management books that every first-time sales manager should read to grow in the role. Scroll down to find your new reading list

Why Do You Need a Sales Management Book?

A sales manager needs sales management books for the following reasons;

1. To increase their job-related knowledge

One of the biggest benefits of reading a sales management book is to gain new knowledge and insights about the job to enhance their expertise and performance in sales management. Management or leadership roles in general can be very tasking, and for people who are new to the role, it can be hard to find your way around it and get your desired results.

This is why you must read sales management books to increase your knowledge and manage the sales team to success.

2. To learn directly from Industry experts

Owing to the popular saying that “Experience is the best teacher,” no one learns better than being in a position and experiencing things in real time. However, reading books provides sales managers with another form of learning which is gaining industry knowledge and experience directly from industry experts.

Beyond just teaching sales managers about leading the sales team and managing sales performance, they can also learn from the experiences and advice of industry experts who have been there and done it before.

3. To learn about different sales strategies and methods

Sales management books generally educate the readers about all techniques, strategies, methods, and parameters that exist in sales. They explain extensively foolproof strategies and techniques that a sales manager or sales leader can implement and learn from to accelerate sales and enhance the performance of the team.

Sales managers can learn about the different sales approaches and tactics and get familiarized with them to improve their profit margins.

4. To improve their sales management skills

Sales management is an intensive role that requires so much training and skills to thrive in it. It involves managing the day-to-day operations and performance of the sales team and helping them achieve success. Sales management books help sales managers polish their management and leadership skills, coaching skills, and mentorship/team motivation.

Managing a team goes beyond just being responsible for yourself, it is a challenging role that involves being responsible for every member of the sales team and the sales success of the organization.

Reading books on sales management can help you get acquainted with effective sales methods, sales training, and other important things you should know about a sales management system.

5. To increase sales teams’ success

The last benefit of reading sales management books is understanding the best ways to increase the overall success of the sales team.

One of the improtant roles of sales management is managing sales and implementing relevant strategies to get paying customers, convert leads, and ensure that sales targets are met without a miss.

Reading sales management books provides you with all the relevant information necessary to help you increase sales and help the organization continuously make money.

20 Best Sales Management Books For Sales Managers

Below are some of the best books on sales and sales management that you should read.

1. Sales Management For Dummies by Butch Bellah

“Sales management for Dummies” was written by Butch Bellah, a sales trainer with over 30 years in the field. It provides sales managers with proven sales management and execution strategies and processes to boost the sales team members and the organization’s sales performance.

Beyond sharing actionable tips on sales management, it also teaches sales managers about the basics of sales to learn more about the ways to anticipate client’s needs, develop psychologist-like insight, build the salesforce to success, reach their objectives and so much more. Check out some top sales outreach tools.

The book covers five (5) main topics which include;

1. Transitioning from an individual sales rep to a sales leader
2. Building the sales team
3. Training and developing your team
4. Running sales meetings and measuring your team’s performance
5. Managing top performers, inspiring middle ones, and letting mediocre team members go

If you’ve been newly promoted to the role of a sales manager or have been a sales manager for some time, “Sales Management for Dummies” is a great book to start with.

2. Sales Management Simplified: The Straight Truth About Getting Exceptional Results From Your Sales Team by Mike Weinberg

“Sales Management Simplified” by Mike Weinberg, a seasoned sales consultant, trainer, and speaker is dedicated to helping sales leaders and managers increase their sales management effectiveness, increase accountability, reduce demotivation and ensure the overall success of the sales team.

Weinberg in this book offers a proven formula for prospecting, developing, and closing deals in your own time, and terms. He tells it straight by identifying some of the real problems plaguing the sales forces and some of the mistakes made by sales managers.

This book teaches sales managers to

1. Implement a simple framework for sales leadership
2. Foster a healthy, high-performance sales culture
3. Conduct successful sales meetings
4. The art of putting the right people in the right roles
5. Retain top performers and improve the performance of underperformers.
6. Point salespeople at the right targets

“Sales Management Simplified” provides a clear and concise guide to managing sales teams and guiding them to success.

3. Cracking the Sales Management Code: The Secrets to Measuring and Managing Sales Performance by Jason Jordan and Michelle Vazzana

It is impossible to lead a team to success without first understanding what success means to you. This follows the key principles of the saying that “You can’t give what you don’t have.”

This book talks extensively on a very improtant topic “effectively managing a sales team” and makes it super easy for sales managers to understand and implement. Importantly, this book provides readers with key metrics that you should be measuring to track the sales team performance and sales processes to implement to achieve your desired results.

If you want to gain control over your sales team performance and manage your team to drive better business results, then this must is a must-have for you.

4. Nuts and Bolts of Sales Management: How to Build a High-Velocity Sales Organization by John Treace

John Treace, the owner of the firm JR Treace & Associates describes the intricacies of the world of sales in this book. It presents real-life insights and advice on getting your sales team to greatness and practical tips for managing the sales team.

In this book, Treace writes on things to do when salespeople fail to hit their expected sales target, ways to present to your manager and other important stakeholders, how to create an accurate sales forecast, design a compensation and motivation plan, and ways to manage the expense budget and so much more.

This book provides a practical guide on how to keep up team morale to let the operations go without hindrance. It is one of the best books you can turn to for guidance or ideas in sales management.

5. The Accidental Sales Manager: How to take control and lead your sales team to record profits by Chris Lytle

This book trains sales managers on ways to manage their team performance and lead them to increase the company’s profit. Lytle in this book shares key skills to make sales managers better developers of salespeople.

“The Accidental Sales Manager” shares practical insights and guides for helping sales managers develop the people who bring in profits for the company. If you feel like you’re spending the bulk of your time putting out fires, trying endlessly to get results from an unmotivated team, and currently struggling to thrive in the sales manager’s role? This book is a must-read for you.

It trains sales managers in ways to grow and transform underperformers into top performers, recruit and hire candidates with the most potential, run more efficient meetings and so much more.

6. Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions: A Tactical Playbook for Managers and Executives by Keith Rosen

“Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions” trains sales managers to create a thriving coaching culture and build a team of top performers.

It contains case studies, a 30-day turnaround strategy to boost performers of underperformers, hundreds of powerful coaching questions, and a massive library of coaching templates and scripts.

According to Rosen, the secret to developing a team of high-performing sales teams is not getting more training but better coaching. The belief is that when managers effectively coach their team around best practices, core competencies, and the intricacies of coaching to build the champion attitude.

This book provides a tactical step-by-step guide to

1. Boost sales, productivity, and personal accountability.
2. Conduct customer/pipeline reviews that improve forecast accuracy, and customer retention and uncover new selling opportunities.
3. Achieve a long-term ROI from coaching.
4. Design, launch and sustain a successful internal coaching program.

7. The Sales Acceleration Formula: Using Data, Technology, and Inbound Selling to go from $0 to $100 Million by Mark Roberge

“The Sales Acceleration Formula” provides sales managers with a scalable, predictable approach to growing revenue and building a winning and successful sales team. Roberge in this book shares unique, practical methodology for building a $100 million business.

As an MIT graduate with a background in engineering, Roberge questions the conventional methods of scaling business sales with the use of key metrics and process-oriented techniques.

He reveals his practical formulas for success and teaches readers ways of applying data, technology, and inbound selling to accelerate sales, hiring, training, managing, and generating demand.

This book does not only serve the needs of sales managers or executives but also business owners and investors looking to transform their brilliant ideas into the next $100 million revenue business. Check out the detailed guide about demand planning.

8. Sales Manager Survival Guide: Lessons From Sales’ Front Lines By David Brock

“The Sales Manager Survival Guide” provides a definitive guide to managing one of the world’s toughest, most challenging, and most rewarding jobs -sales.

Brock in this book draws upon his decades of experience in sales and sales management to provide invaluable insights, advice, and practical guidance to manage a wide array of challenges and responsibilities a sales manager faces in the role.

This book provides a practical guide on how to survive and thrive in the sales management role and become a great sales manager with secrets, tools, and best practices to help you climb to the top and beyond in the sales role. It trains sales managers on

• Coaching, training, and team building
• Recruiting, interviewing, hiring, and onboarding top talent
• Dealing with, turning around, or terminating problem employees
• Analyzing and acting upon metrics to correct performance
• Managing the business and executive expectations
• Leveraging sales systems, tools, and processes

9. Predictable Revenue: Turn Your Business Into a Sales Machine with the $100 Million Best Practices of Salesforce.com by Aaron Ross and Marylou Tyler

This book shares some of the best outbound sales processes that can help you add $100 million in recurring revenue in just a few years to salesforce.com and possibly multiply the enterprise growth with zero cold calls.

This book serves as a practical guide for CEOs, entrepreneurs, and sales executives to help them build a sales machine, generate many highly-qualified new leads, create predictable revenue and meet their financial goals without the constant focus and attention of the managers.

This book covers the following topics;

• How an outbound sales process can generate a 9% response rate and millions of dollars from cold prospects without cold calls or a marketing budget.
• The Seven Fatal Sales Mistakes CEOs and Sales VPs make all the time.
• How outbound sales and selling can be friendly, helpful, and enjoyable.
• How to develop self-managing sales teams, turn your employees into mini-CEOs and so much more.

10. The Sales Boss: The Real Secret to Hiring, Training and Managing a Sales Team by Jonathan Whistman

This book shares some of the biggest secrets to great sales management and provides direct examples of how you can become a sales manager. Whistman in this book shares great insights on how a winning sales team is made up of high performers, however many people fail to realize that high performance must be collective.

“The Sales Boss” shows you how to find the exact people you need in your team, how to bring them together, and empower them to achieve more than they could ever think of.

It also shares insights on what drives high performance, how to avoid disruptions in sales teams, and how to invest in your team to win.

11. Sales Growth: Five Proven Strategies from the World’s Sales Leaders by Thomas Baumgartner

“Sales Growth” is a book created by sales executives for sales executives to provide you with practical guidelines and useful insights to drive sales growth today and in the future.

It focuses on the valuable lessons that power growth, getting ahead of the competition by taking advantage of trends and transforming the complex analysis into simple guidelines that sales reps need to improve sales.

This book offers real-life examples of how successful sales leaders overcame the challenges encountered in the quest for growth and provides insights on finding growth before your competitors, optimizing sales operations and technology, developing sales talent and capabilities, and much more.

12. The Sales Development Playbook: Build Repeatable Pipeline and Accelerate Growth with Inside Sales by Trish Bertuzzi

This book shares invaluable insights and information about high growth and how the success of any business-to-business is directly linked to how effectively they acquire new pipelines.

According to Bertuzzi, sales development is the answer to skyrocket growth and in this book, she draws on her three decades of practical, hands-on experience to present six elements for building a new pipeline and accelerating revenue growth with inside sales.

This book specifically shares tips on leveraging strategy, specialization, recruiting, retention, execution, and leadership to increase sales success.

13. Inbound Selling: How to Change the Way You Sell to Match How People Buy by Brian Signorelli

Expert author and HubSpot Sales Director, Brian Signorelli in this book shares unique insights on practical steps that sales professionals must take to meet the need of the empowered customer.

In this book, readers will learn how inbound sales grew out of inbound marketing concepts and practices, the role executive leadership plays in affecting an inbound sales transformation, what it means to be a frontline sales manager who leads a team of inbound sellers and a step-by-step approach for sales professionals to become inbound sellers.

14. The Sales Leader’s Problem Solver: Practical Solutions to Conquer Management Mess-ups, Handle Difficult Sales Reps, and Make the Most of Every Opportunity by Suzanne Paling

This book draws upon the experiences of Suzanne Paling as a sales manager, sales management consultant, and coach by offering guidance on solving common but difficult issues with the salesperson.

“The Sales Leader’s Problem Solver” provides sales leaders with real-time information and techniques to deal with dilemmas in the sales role.

It provides sales leaders with practical tips for creating a plan, presenting a solution to executives, and clarifying sales-related issues and provides new and experienced sales managers with the right knowledge to lead their teams and develop their reputations as fair, effective, no-nonsense problem solvers.

15. Race to Amazing: Your Fast Track to Sales Leadership by Krista S. Moore

Krista S. Moore in this book combines her personal experiences and winning approaches from leading sales for multimillion-dollar startups and Fortune 500 companies, and coaching successful sales leaders throughout the world.

She shares real stories, shared experiences, and practical applications to gain clarity on your vision, your talents, and your why, create and lead a winning sales strategy, build an effective sales management system, create a motivating and inspiring leadership style and learn a “Coach Approach” to sales leadership.

16. The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever by Michael Bungay Stanier

In the book “The Coaching Habit,” Michael Bungay Stanier shares practical advice for managers on the importance of coaching and the need to make a regular, informal part of their day so managers and their teams can work less and get more results.

He reveals practical ways to unlock your people’s potential and develop coaching methods that produce great results. This book combines real-time experience and information with research based on neuroscience and behavioral economics, together with interactive training tools to turn practical advice into daily habits and practice.

17. The One Minute Manager by Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson

In this strategic book, Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson share secrets to success and easy-to-master techniques in one minute such as one-minute goal setting, one-minute praise, and even one-minute reprimands.

18. First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently by Marcus Buckingham, Curt Coffman, and Jim Harter

Buckingham, Coffman, and Harter in this book argue that good managers help people overcome their weaknesses, with the belief that not everyone can achieve everything they set their mind to — even with the right training.

This book draws 12 simple statements from the Gallup studies of great managers that set strong departments apart from the other departments.

19. The Science of Selling: Proven Strategies to Make Your Pitch, Influence Decisions, and Close the Deal by David Hoffeld

The Science of Selling blends cutting-edge research in social psychology, neuroscience, and behavioral economics to show readers how to align the way you sell with how the brain naturally makes buying decisions, greatly increasing your ability to make more sales.

20. To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others by Daniel H. Pink

Daniel H. Pink in this book shares the new ABCs of moving others, explains why extroverts don’t make the best salespeople, and make a case for why giving people the freedom to make certain decisions matters more than actually changing their minds.

Best Sales Management Books: The Conclusion

Every sales manager is looking to improve their management skills and overall sales performance of the sales team and the organization as a whole needs to get their hands on some of these best books on sales management to gain new knowledge and learn from the well of experience of sales experts.

Beyond just the sales executives and marketers, CEOs and business managers can learn a lot about sales, sales management, and some of the common sales management techniques. If you are struggling to cope in your managerial role and have a hard time bringing in sales, do yourself a favor by checking the books identified above.

As you begin your journey, always remember that slow and steady does the race, don’t rush it, and be sure to put all you learn from the books to good use.

Good luck in your role!