Some of my favorite books, concepts, & people from sales, marketing, and psychology

These are used by individuals of all seniorities and companies of all sizes. They work especially well in competitive markets.

3 min readNov 16, 2020

Looking to get better at standing out and telling your story? These concepts, books, and leaders are a great place to start:

Understand the individual you are talking to, not just the company or their role.
Leverage a multi-touch, multi-channel approach to engaging with your prospects.
Understand how to fulfill their desire to get what they want, at the lowest risk, and with sound logic.

Selected Examples of Further Reading:

Sales:

Never Split The Difference (business negotiation taught by Ex-Head Hostage Negotiator for the FBI, a must-read for business and life)
The Challenger Sale (winning over your first point of contact)
The Challenger Customer (guiding your prospect through group decision making)
Sandler Selling (complex sales, SaaS, services)
SPIN Selling (consultative selling, a bit outdated but has some relevant elements)
The Psychology of Influence and Persuasion (by the world-renowned Dr. Robert Cialdini)
Start With No (your goal should be to get to a ‘no’, not a ‘yes’!)
How To Get A Meeting With Anyone (one of the more creative books on micro-focused campaigns)
The Sales Acceleration Formula (inbound, sales experiments, pioneered by HubSpot)
Predictable Revenue (scalable lead generation)
Principles of Email Outreach (quick do’s and don’t’s of launching email campaigns)

Storytelling & Emotional Intelligence:

Neil Strauss (author of The Game, dating expert, “pick up artist”, the concepts and stories are polarizing to some but take what you can and apply it to sales)
Motivational Interviewing (leading psychology book about helping people change, it’s long so here’s a summary and a cheat sheet for your reference)
The Transtheoretical Model (the 5 stages of change that every human goes through, very applicable to a prospect’s decision making process)
Eminem (yes the rapper; this synopsis by a leading VC brilliantly covers how he achieves in-group bias, objection handling, scarcity, herd behavior, and more)
Words That Work (why did pharma change its message from ‘treatment’ to ‘prevention’? how can I get out of a traffic ticket?)
Four People You Should Know (how to identify and communicate with different personality types)
Aaron Sorkin (MasterClass about storytelling, character development, captivating your audience)
Prof. Scott Galloway (NYU professor, serial entrepreneur, leading author and speaker)

Personal Development:

Atomic Habits (by James Clear, becoming better happens through habits, not tactics)
An Actor’s Companion (by Seth Barrish, Co-Founder of The Barrow Group)
Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter (by 50 cent; play chess, not checkers with your career)
The Art of War (popular ancient Chinese military text applicable to sales and life)
Think and Grow Rich (the foundation of almost every successful person’s mindset)
Rich Dad, Poor Dad (reframe the way you think about money and being “rich”)
Choose Yourself (create something when there is seemingly nothing there; by leading VC James Altucher)
Outliers (why are successful people so successful?)
Sapiens (better understand humans by learning about our history!)
Smart Cuts (how to work smarter and get to where you want to go faster; features the stories of Jimmy Fallon, Alexander The Great, Elon Musk and more)

Leaders to follow:

And many, many more inspirations which I’ll share as time goes on 🌟

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Get in touch or learn more about Haithem at HaithElem.com

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