Why The Psychology of Selling Is The Best Sales Book You Can Read

You'll find a good sales professional and a not-so-good sales professional in any organisation. You've probably noticed that some people can close high-ticket sales with little effort, while others can barely finish a sale.

Brian Tracy is a well-known sales trainer and speaker who has helped millions improve their selling skills. According to Tracy, salespeople must learn to control their ideas, feelings, and behaviours to be more effective.

Brian Tracy's The Psychology of Selling is one of the most well-known sales and marketing books of all time. The book contains several ideas, methods, strategies, and techniques that you may use to boost your sales more quickly and easily than you ever imagined.

Who is Brian Tracy?

Brian Tracy is the Chairman and CEO of Brian Tracy International, a corporation that specialises in individual and organisational training and development. 

The organisation's specialities are selling, leadership, self-esteem, strategy, goals, creativity, and success psychology. In his 40-years career, Brian has consulted for over 1,000 organisations and spoken to over 5,000,000 people in 5,000 presentations and seminars across the United States, Canada, and 70 other countries across the world.

He is the best-selling author of more than 70 novels, including the New York Times bestseller The Psychology of Selling. He has also written and produced over 500 audio and video learning programmes, including the international best-seller ‘Psychology of Achievement,’ translated into over 28 languages.

From humble origins—being raised in a poor household—to a worldwide leader, he has amassed much knowledge and insight over many years. Brian has traversed a path to learning that few others have dared to take, and in the process, he has attracted a legion of followers eager to learn and succeed.

His philosophy is that: "Through learning and the application of that learning, you can solve any problem, overcome any hurdle, and achieve any goal you wish to set yourself." 

Tracy’s numerous books and hundreds of audio/video trainers espouse the truth and can be found across the globe.

Why the Psychology of Selling is the Best Sales Book?

The Psychology of Selling explains how selling is more than just strategy and politics. You must also grasp human psychology and behaviour in business to be effective in sales. Tracy delves into the inner motives of customers and sellers, demonstrating how they interact to create sales chances.

Tracy explores a wide range of psychological concepts, methodologies, strategies, and procedures in this book to help you close more transactions faster than you've ever done before.

For business people, The Psychology of Selling is a valuable book. It's simple to understand and follow. You'll discover how to break a prospect's concentration with other concerns, attract and maintain their attention, present your offer in the best possible light, answer their questions and remove their buying barriers, and finally complete the sale when the prospect is ready to buy.

You'll also learn how to control your psychology while selling, maintain high confidence (and low desperation), avoid sales resistance, and consistently improve your skills until you're among the top 10% of your field's salespeople.

About the Book: Some Key Points

Every sales practitioner should read Tracy's classic guidebook, The Psychology of Selling. If your employer has already requested that you read it, you should comply. 

Here's a quick-read book summary with some of the most essential elements:

1. The inner game of selling

Tracy begins his book by emphasising the importance of salespeople and how they can break into the top 20% of any company's sales force. Tracy's early career experience with the 80/20 rule is eye-opening. 

He realised that if you wanted to break into the top 20% of salespeople, you would have to follow the "winning edge principle," which asserts that "slight changes in skill can lead to significant differences in results”.

2. Achieve your sales goal

According to Tracy, the quality of your goal orientation is linked to your level of success. For example, to focus on sales operations, a salesperson needs to know exactly how much they aim to earn in a year.

3. Why do people buy?

Tracy states that varying behaviours provide people with different units or degrees of satisfaction. Your prospect desires as many of these units as possible with each purchase. They seek to improve their physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being—the greater the motivation to buy your product, the more satisfied your prospect. Hence, determine the emotional significance of a prospect. 

Determine your prospect’s values and how to market that your product/service honours those values. Then, consider how it will affect others' perceptions. For instance, before making a purchase, a prospect considers how their manager, colleagues, and clients react. 

Predict this and make changes to your sales strategy as a result. Focus on price and quality while making a sale. These are not reasons to buy, so do not use them as such.

4. Creative selling

Tracy claims that your self-concept determines your level of creativity. So, all you have to do to improve your creativity is practice. For example, you'll need the same kind of creativity to navigate around traffic as you need to deal with surprises in prospect presentations and phone calls.

5. The power of suggestion

The symbolic elements in our surroundings have a significant impact on us all. A powerful salesperson is calm, confident, and relaxed. You can give the impression that you're one of the top persons in your industry by controlling your internal environment (your looks, voice, and attitude).

6. Make a sale

The initial words you say set the tone for the rest of your sales process, and ultimately, either a sale or rejection. "Generalised sales resistance" affects the majority of prospects. It's pretty standard and serves as a type of self-defence. Rather than fighting it, understand it and attempt to break down your prospect's barriers.

7. Keys to successful selling

Tracy discusses ten keys to selling success in his book. He asserts that your future is limitless if you follow these keys. Right now, you have the opportunity to be more, accomplish more, and have more than you ever have in your life. You can attain all your goals and fulfil all of your aspirations by becoming exceptional in your chosen selling career.

Final Thoughts

The Psychology of Selling by Brian Tracy is one of the most popular books for salespersonship. It's packed with easy-to-understand insights, techniques, and strategies that may help even the most inexperienced salesperson quickly become the top of the game.

Brian Tracy’s book will undoubtedly help you become a better salesperson. But if you are looking forward to beginning your sales career, we at Juno School of Business invite you to begin the journey with us. 

We teach all you need to know to begin a successful sales profession (and get hired) in an eight-week interactive online session. Start your application now!