The sales landscape is constantly evolving, and yesterday’s tactics might not close tomorrow’s deals. This isn’t just about professional survival, it’s about thriving, innovating, and becoming an indispensable asset to your clients and your organization.
The journey of self-development shouldn’t be a chore; it’s the fuel that powers performance and maintains a competitive edge. If you’re looking to elevate your game, here’s a look at the resources and habits that can positively impact your sales career.
Essential Reads: Building Your Sales Library
Books offer a deep dive into proven methodologies and psychological insights that can redefine your approach. Here are a few that should land on your shelf.
Gap Selling by Keenan
This sales development book will radically shift your perspective on discovery. It argues that true selling isn’t about pitching features but about identifying and articulating the “gap” between a prospect’s current undesirable state and their desired future state. “Gap Selling” is a masterclass in consultative selling that teaches you to ask the right questions and truly understand underlying pain.
Gap Selling by Keenan is available on the author’s website.
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini
This sales book is a foundational text for anyone in a client-facing role. Cialdini breaks down the six universal principles of influence: reciprocity, commitment and consistency, social proof, liking, authority, and scarcity. Understanding these principles is invaluable for building rapport, communicating value ethically, and guiding prospects through the decision-making process.
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion is available on Amazon.
Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss
From the world of FBI hostage negotiation to the sales floor, Voss provides powerful techniques for active listening, empathetic understanding, and tactical empathy. This book doesn’t just teach you to negotiate; it teaches you to uncover hidden motivations and build trust even in high-stakes conversations. It’s will transform how you will approach objection handling and complex deal discussions.
You can get Never Split the Difference on Amazon.
$100M Leads: How to Get Strangers to Want to Buy Your Stuff by Alex Hormozi
This powerhouse guide focused entirely on the art and science of lead generation. Hormozi provides incredibly practical frameworks and strategies for attracting, nurturing, and converting prospects, offering a systematic approach to filling your pipeline and building a customer base. Essential for anyone looking to scale their outreach and master the front end of the sales process.
Get your copy of $100M Leads: How to Get Strangers to Want to Buy Your Stuff on Amazon.
Learning on the Go: Essential Podcasts
Podcasts are perfect for leveraging commute time, workouts or even chores into productive learning sessions. They offer bite-sized wisdom and fresh perspectives from industry leaders.
The Sales Evangelist podcast with Donald Kelly
Donald Kelly consistently delivers actionable advice, insightful interviews with top sales performers and covers a comprehensive range of sales topics from prospecting and discovery to closing and post-sale strategies. You will always walk away with a tangible idea to implement.
Listen to The Sales Evangelist podcast on Apple Podcasts.
Sales Gravy podcast with Jeb Blount
If you need a shot of adrenaline and practical, no-excuses strategies for mastering sales fundamentals, Jeb Blount is your go-to. His high-energy approach to cold calling, objection handling, and cultivating a winning mindset is incredibly motivating.
The Sales Gravy podcast is available on Spotify and Apple Podcast.
Conversations with Women in Sales podcast with Lori Richardson
Dedicated to empowering women in sales, this podcast features interviews with successful female leaders and experts, discussing strategies for career growth, overcoming challenges, and excelling in the sales profession. It offers unique perspectives and actionable advice tailored to women.
You can listen to Conversations with Women in Saleson Apple Podcast and Spotify.
The Advanced Selling Podcast with Bill Caskey & Bryan Neale
This is one of the longest-running sales podcasts, offering consistent, bite-sized episodes. They focus on advanced sales concepts, mental toughness, and strategic approaches to closing deals, often challenging conventional sales wisdom.
The Advanced Selling Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts.
The Salesman Podcast with Will Barron
This podcast is known for interviewing a wide range of experts, including psychologists, scientists, and even former FBI negotiators to uncover the underlying principles of human behaviour that drive sales success. It’s a great listen for those interested in the deeper “why” behind selling.
Tune in on Apple Podcast to listen to The Salesman Podcast.
Beyond Media: Cultivating Essential Habits for Growth
Learning isn’t just about consumption; it’s about application and introspection. These habits complement formal learning and are crucial for turning knowledge into actual skill.
Mastering Active Listening
This isn’t just a buzzword; it’s the bedrock of effective sales. A conscious effort is made to truly hear and understand what prospects are saying and not saying. This means taking detailed notes, asking probing follow-up questions and paraphrasing to ensure understanding of their challenges and goals. The MIT Human Resources blog has helpful tips on how to develop this essential sales skill.
Consistent Call Reviews & Role-Playing
Regularly reviewing sales call recordings might be uncomfortable, but it’s incredibly enlightening. It highlights areas for improvement in questioning, handling objections and messaging. Similarly, role-playing challenging scenarios with a colleague helps build muscle memory and confidence for real-world interactions. You can find some helpful tips on how to run role plays with Chat GPT in this blog.
Industry Deep Dives
Selling a solution effectively requires a detailed understanding of the world clients operate in. Time is dedicated each week to consuming industry news, following relevant thought leaders and researching market trends that directly impact prospects’ businesses. This helps you to mirror the language your prospect uses to show your experience and to offer relevant insights.
Proactive Feedback Seeking
Rather than waiting for a performance review, it’s helpful to ask for constructive criticism from your managers, peers and even trusted clients. Identifying blind spots is the fastest way to accelerate growth, and often, others can see things that might be missed.
Looking for More Development Resources?
Self-development is a core value at Lead Forensics and we are very proud to be ranked #30 on the U.K.’s Best Workplaces for Development™ 2025 list by Great Place to Work®. We value sharing our knowledge and regularly invite our own in-house experts and external speakers to impart their wisdom in our webinars. See what’s coming up or replay our webinars now.
