The Seven B2B Sales eBooks You Have to Read in 2015

If you’re like me, you view every new year as an opportunity to hone your skills and get better at what you do. Whether you are just starting out as a salesperson (I remember those days!) or if you’re a seasoned B2B sales executive, there is always room to learn more and there are always skills to be sharpened.

Virtually all great salespeople follow a process even if they’re not conscious of it. By understanding and refining your sales process, you can achieve new heights of sales success. Reading practical advice from some of the world’s top sales leaders is one of the best ways to evaluate our own sales processes where we can improve them.

Here are seven ebooks on B2B sales that you should check out in 2015. On this list is material for newbies and sales veterans alike. Our hope is that by combining the wisdom in these books with real-world experience, you can close more revenue in 2015 than ever before!

The LinkedIn Code

by Melonie Dodaro

If you’re in B2B sales, there is just no excuse not to be using LinkedIn to help you close deals. Melonie Dodaro’s The LinkedIn Code is one of the top books on how to use LinkedIn for social sales. Getting started with LinkedIn can be overwhelming, and if you don’t know what you’re doing you’re going to waste a lot of time. But with this book, you can begin using LinkedIn effectively right away to shorten B2B sales cycles and close more deals.

Heavy Hitter IT Sales Strategy

by Steve W Martin

If you want to learn how top salespeople sell software, this book is the place to start. Heavy Hitter IT Sales Strategy is one of the most well-researched books on sales we’ve ever come across. It covers a lot of ground including how technology decision makers evaluate deals and arrive at decisions, how to implement a winning sales process and how to use social media effectively in sales. Each chapter is packed with useful takeaways and, for good measure, the entire book is full of interesting quotes from over 1,000 top technology salespeople. If you’re selling software, whether it be on-premise solutions or SaaS, this book is a must-read.

Never Be Closing: How to Sell Better Without Screwing Your Clients, Your Colleagues, or Yourself

by Tim Hurson and Tim Dunne

I checked this book out after hearing co-author Tim Dunne speak on a webinar and very much agree with its premise: that rather than launching into a “sales pitch”, salespeople should focus on understanding clients better, building credibility and establishing long-lasting relationships. A quality shared by some of the best salespeople I’ve ever come across (and I’ve been lucky enough to talk to some of the world’s leading salespeople) is that they never seem like they’re “selling.” Instead, the most effective B2B salespeople are infinitely inquisitive and seem as though they are laser-focused on understanding my business drivers and how to best help me achieve the results I’m looking for. This book focuses on the relationship-building aspect of sales and is definitely worth checking out.

The New Rules of Sales and Service: How to Use Agile Selling, Real-Time Customer Engagement, Big Data, Content

by David Meerman Scott

David Meerman Scott follows up his bestselling book The New Rules of Marketing and PR with this excellent primer on Sales and Service. Technology is revolutionizing sales and service. This book is a great launching point for sales leaders that want to quickly get caught up with how to effectively leverage big data and content in order to tell more successful sales stories.

Agile Selling: Get Up to Speed Quickly in Today’s Ever-Changing Sales World

by Jill Konrath

This book is packed with practical sales advice. It also features a number of interesting anecdotes. The book’s premise is that salespeople should set goals for themselves outside of  just revenue-generation in order to continually improve at specific sales skills. The book’s goal is to help the reader keep an agile mindset, which is so vital in all aspects of business, not least of all sales.

Insight Selling: Surprising Research on What Sales Winners Do Differently

by Mike Schultz and John E. Doerr

Insight Selling seeks to answer an important question: what do sales winners do differently? The book’s co-authors recommend a three-level sales model in order to transform sales reps into a winners. The first step is connecting with buyers. Step two is convincing buyers that they can receive maximum ROI. And the third step is collaborating with buyers, working with them as a team by bringing new insights to the table. Packed with strategic and tactical recommendations, this is a fantastic read for B2B account executives and sales managers alike.

How to Boom B2B Sales

by Carmit Yadin

This eBook seems especially geared toward new B2B sales reps looking for the secret sauce to being successful. If you just got into B2B sales, or if you are considering a career in B2B sales this primer is a good launching point to get some practical tips and tactics that can help you sell more. Some of the topics covered in the eBook include lead qualification, social sales, networking and how to build long-lasting relationships with customers.