This is a great question to ask an eager applicant for a sales position.

I am constantly surprised to hear that the answer from even an experienced candidate is usually either – “can’t remember” or “you’ve got me there”.

To me this indicates a lack of interest in developing personal skills and a disappointing level of personal responsibility. If your new hire isn’t interested in self-improvement then why should you invest time and money?

Would you put your life in the hands of a surgeon who had not taken the time to keep updated on latest techniques? I guess not – so why do we set such low standards for our sales professionals?

 Anyway, here is a list of the sales books that I enjoyed reading in the past 12 months:

 SPIN Selling a book I first read 20 years ago and it still an excellent structure for guiding intelligent sales conversations.

 The Challenger Sale this one has an endorsement from the father of SPIN himself – Neil Rackham and offers a refreshingly new approach.

 The Sales Acceleration Formula a data-driven approach to identifying and hiring the star seller.

So, what is your tip for the best sales book?