Benjamin Franklin said “Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.” In other words, you can rely solely on first-hand experiences to gain sales knowledge but it might be painful. There are plenty of blogs and websites dedicated to SaaS out there, but sometimes nothing beats a good book.
An expertly written book offers a great way to learn in-depth strategies and tactics that you can explore in your day-to-day tasks and along your long-term career path. It’s always a good idea to explore new resources to continually grow your knowledge, so I present you some of the best sales and marketing books. Some are sales related, some offer a fresh perspective on content marketing and others cover great growth hacking techniques.
Most Recommended Sales and Marketing Books
Get one or more of the books listed below, read them cover to cover and enthusiastically apply the techniques these experts reveal to help your SaaS business enter new realms of growth.
Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth
– by Gabriel Weinberg, Justin Mares.
Traction
In Traction, serial entrepreneurs Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares give startups the tools for generating explosive customer growth. Most startups don’t fail because they can’t build a product. Most startups fail because they can’t get traction. Building a successful company is hard. Smart entrepreneurs know that the key to success isn’t the originality of your offering, the brilliance of your team, or how much money you raise. It’s how consistently you can grow and acquire new customers.
Traction will teach you the nineteen channels you can use to build a customer base, and offers a three-step framework to figure out which ones will work best for your business. No matter how you apply them, the lessons and examples in Traction will help you create and sustain the growth your business desperately needs.
This advanced handbook explains how to acquire customers for your site/app, and how to entice them to purchase. It is widely recommended within Silicon Valley because it actually teaches growth marketing to a professional level. It doesn’t waste time on self-evident, nonsense advice.
Julian says “If you’re skeptical of marketing advice, know that I am too. This handbook is unique in that I have years of diverse data: I’ve run thousands of experiments for clients like Microsoft, Imperfect Produce, Perfect Keto, Webflow, Tovala, Clearbit, and others.” This material applies to companies of every size and vertical. It covers both introductory and advanced B2B and B2C tactics. Marketers of every skill level will encounter new material.
SaaS Marketing Essentials
– by Ryan Battles
SaaS Marketing Essentials
SaaS Marketing Essentials by Ryan Battles is a great primer covering essential marketing strategies and tactics with concrete, actionable examples. Whether you’re kicking a SaaS idea around in your head or are looking to level-up your current recurring revenue, this book shows you how to attract & convert new users. This book gives so many great ways to find and convert customers, it’s a no-brainer for anyone that wants to grow a successful SaaS product.
Smarter, Faster, Cheaper
– by David Siteman Garland
Smarter, Faster, Cheaper
With huge recent shifts in the way enterprises are built, marketed, and monetized, these are “wild west” times for business. Smarter, Faster, Cheaper gives you an innovative, approachable new guide on how to market, promote and improve your business drawing on real world examples and offering practical advice as opposed to fluffy theory.
It presents a complete roadmap for marketing and promoting your business with the latest techniques. Strategies and ideas are easy to understand, digest, and immediately put to use. From learning when to skimp and when to splurge to mastering the art of online schmoozing, Smarter, Faster, Cheaper will save you time, money, and aggravation whether you’re building your tenth business or your first.
Launch
– by Jeff Walker
Launch
Launch will build your business—fast. Whether you’ve already got a business or you’re itching to start one, this is a recipe for getting more traction. Launch is the treasure map into that world—an almost secret world of digital entrepreneurs who create cash-on-demand paydays with their product launches and business launches. Once Jeff started teaching his formula to other entrepreneurs, the results were simply breathtaking.
Tiny, home-based businesses started doing launches that sold tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and even millions of dollars in sales with their launches. Whether you have an existing business, or you have a service-based business and want to develop your own products so you can leverage your time and your impact, or you’re still in the planning phase—this is how you start fast. This formula is how you engineer massive success.
With the help of this book, discover the outbound sales process that, in just a few years, helped add $100 million in recurring revenue to Salesforce.com, almost doubling their enterprise growth, without cold calling or a boiler room approach. This is NOT another book about how to cold call or close deals. This is an entirely new kind of sales bible for CEOs, entrepreneurs and sales VPs to help you build a sales machine, and a sales culture that people love.
This book answers the questions like what does it take for your sales team to generate as many highly-qualified new leads as you want, create predictable revenue, and meet your financial goals without your constant focus and attention? What does it take to attract top sales talent, people who exceed and want to stay and grow with your company?
From Impossible To Inevitable
– by Aaron Ross and Jason Lemkin
From Impossible to Inevitable
From Impossible to Inevitable details the hypergrowth playbook of record-breaking companies like Zenefits, Salesforce and EchoSign. Whether you’re a small business owner or have a $1 billion firm, you can use the insights from these notable companies to learn what it really takes to break your own revenue records. The authors show how you can grow your company by developing repeatable processes that will consistently drive revenue and increase your growth. This book is a seminal work in the field of SaaS sales and focuses in on a number of critical cogs in the growth process of a business.
They Ask, You Answer
– by Marcus Sheridan
They Ask, You Answer
They Ask You Answer is a straightforward guide to fixing your current marketing strategy. Regardless of your budget, you are almost certainly overspending on television, radio, and print ads, yet neglecting the number-one resource you have at your disposal: the Internet. Content marketing is no longer about keyword-stuffing and link-building; in fact, using those tactics today gets your page shuffled to the bottom of the heap.
Quality content is the key to success, and you already have the ingredients in-house. This book shows you how to structure an effective content strategy using the same proven principles that have revolutionized marketing for all types of businesses, across industries.
The Lean Startup approach fosters companies that are both more capital efficient and that leverage human creativity more effectively. Inspired by lessons from lean manufacturing, it relies on “validated learning,” rapid scientific experimentation, as well as a number of counter-intuitive practices that shorten product development cycles, measure actual progress without resorting to vanity metrics, and learn what customers really want. It enables a company to shift directions with agility, altering plans inch by inch, minute by minute.
Rather than wasting time creating elaborate business plans, The Lean Startup offers entrepreneurs—in companies of all sizes—a way to test their vision continuously, to adapt and adjust before it’s too late. The book provides a scientific approach to creating and managing successful startups in a age when companies need to innovate more than ever.
Start Small, Stay Small
– by Rob Walling
Start Small, Stay Small
Start Small, Stay Small is a step-by-step guide to launching a self-funded startup. This book intentionally avoids topics restricted to venture-backed startups such as: honing your investment pitch, securing funding, and figuring out how to use the piles of cash investors keep placing in your lap.
This book assumes:
You don’t have $6M of investor funds sitting in your bank account.
You’re not going to relocate to the handful of startup hubs in the world.
You’re not going to work 70 hour weeks for low pay with the hope of someday making millions from stock options.
There’s nothing wrong with pursuing venture funding and attempting to grow fast like Amazon, Google, Twitter, and Facebook. It just so happened that most people are not in a place to do this.
Start Small, Stay Small also focuses on the single most important element of a startup that most developers avoid: marketing. There are many great resources for learning how to write code, organize source control, or connect to a database. This book does not cover the technical aspects developers already know or can learn elsewhere. It focuses on finding your idea, testing it before you build, and getting it into the hands of your customers.
Conclusion
I hope that this list provides enough books to keep you busy for a while – and to help transform your business. Give them a try and understand how it changes your startup. Also, give us suggestions of books that you read and can benefit others in the comments section.
Books are distinct from visceral forms of entertainment for various reasons. They can be a game-changer, often for the greater good. Entrepreneurs must read books which are enriched with words of wisdom put forth by experienced entrepreneurs and market leaders who have years of experience good and bad in the industry.
We have compiled a list of 10 best books for entrepreneur, that you should read, no matter you’re an established entrepreneur or just starting out in that direction.
One of thee best books on startups is penned by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters, a self-made billionaire, Zero to One gives an insight into his journey from co-founding PayPal to selling it to eBay for a cool $1.5 billion along with investing in Facebook. Peter highlights important lessons and valuable techniques that entrepreneurs can incorporate in their ventures.
Think and Grow Rich
Think & Grow Rich-best books for entrepreneurs
Author : Napoleon Hill
Publication Year : 1937
Arguably one of the most motivational pieces of writing that the world has come across, and therefore a must read for every entrepreneur. This self-help book published by Napoleon Hill in 1939 is the amalgamation of powerful thoughts that were the driving factor behind prominent personalities of the 18th and 19th century. Andrew Carnegie was the wealthy philanthropist whose proposal compelled Napoleon to bring this 250-page book to fruition. It took him nearly 20 years before the perfected version to come up with the perfected version of ‘Think and Grow Rich’.
The Warren Buffett Way
The Warren Buffet Way
Author : Robert G. Hagstrom Publication Year : 1994
Not a fairy-tale by any means, the book talks of Buffett’s initial years, such as his first stock and important lessons he learned from legends such as Philip Fresher. The core of the writing is his four principles of investment methodology- Business, management, finance, and markets; there are nine case studies elucidating how he used these tenets to invest in some of his holdings. It has been written by Robert G. Hagstrom.
How We Make Stuff Now: Turn Ideas Into Products That Build Successful Businesses
How We Make Stuff Now
Author : Jules Pieri Publication Year : 2019
This book is a must read book for entrepreneurs who are working on a physical product. There are 16 chapters like Design and Documentation, Prototyping, Funding, Manufacturing, Packaging, Direct to Consumer, Logistics, and Inventory Management for hardware and product business. These chapters are filled with case study examples from companies that have had products in The Grommet.
When to Jump: If the Job You Have Isn’t the Life You Want
Author : Mike Lewis Publication Year : 2018
Mike Lewis gives the much-needed guidance for those planning to step into the entrepreneurial waters. With a foreword from Sheryl Sandberg, the book is a collection of short stories by numerous successful founders describing their journey in the first place. A must read, especially for those who are hesitant to ditch their 9 to 5 job for entrepreneurship.
“Habits make a man”, and taking a cue from individuals known for being effective and efficient won’t do any harm. After all, almost everyone tries to emulate the most intelligent kid in the class. Summarizing the seven points into one-liners would do injustice the book, for the explanation behind each habit is worth reading!
Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do
Author : Jennifer Eberhardt Publication Year : 2019
Jennifer Eberhardt writes about her decades of experience studying race and everyday interactions. She suggests that in order to overcome our own racial biases, we must acknowledge them. This book helps us to view how racial bias works in our own minds and throughout society. Her research shows critical information which can help leaders better understand how biases can impact our judgment and how we are perceived by the communities we are sworn to serve.
Start With Why
Author : Simon Sinek Publication Year : 2009
Simon Sinek’s Ted talk is amazing and I’d personally recommend you to watch it before reading ‘Start With Why’. In this book, Simon puts forward the idea that throughout history, renowned leaders have valued the why over how and what. His philosophy and real-life examples ought to inspire the reader to inspire those around him or her. Such is the ripple effect produced by this wonderful writing!
Networking Like a Pro: Turning Contacts Into Connections
Author : Ivan Misner, Brian Hilliard Publication Year : 2009
The cumulative work of three writers– Ivan R. Misner, David Alexander and Brian Hilliard, this guide teaches the art of networking and how businesses can leverage the power of connecting to turn successful. A useful technique known as ‘four streams of networking rivers’, outlining how to have a well-developed referral network, is just one among the various reasons as to why every entrepreneur must read this masterpiece.
Brave New Work: Are You Ready to Reinvent Your Organization?
Author : Aaron Dignan Publication Year : 2019
Aaron Dignan helps teams around the world completely reinvent their operating systems which is fundamental principles and practices that shape their culture—with extraordinary success. He helps them see that organizations aren’t machines to be predicted and controlled. Instead, Organization is a complex human system full of potential waiting to be released. In Brave New Work, you’ll learn exactly how to reinvent the way you work, not through top-down mandates, but through a groundswell of autonomy, trust, and transparency.
Tim Ferris introduces the concept of the ‘New Rich’, one that encourages the lifestyle of doing, having and being whatever the person wants. The technique known as DEAL: Definition, Elimination, Automation and finally Liberation, is what the author feels every man should follow in order to gain financial freedom and thus live life better.
The Founder’s Dilemmas: Anticipating and Avoiding Pitfalls That Can Sink a Startup
Author : Noam T. Wasserman Publication Year : 2012
Noam Wasserman’s efforts bring to notice a topic that is often downplayed in the process of launching a startup: Difficulties and adversities. Through research, Wasserman talks of the most common pitfalls that founders have to endure. To better prepare such future leaders, this book serves as an essential toolbox; this gem of a book transcends a self-improvement guide!
The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done
Author : Peter Drucker Publication Year : 1966
Peter F. Ducker is considered to be the most influential management thinker ever. In this book, Ducker highlights the constraints that executives and those in similar positions are subjected to. He then provides excellent suggestions for maintaining the business effectiveness that is imperative for being productive. A classic must read for entrepreneurs that was first published in 1966!
Author : Edwin Catmull, Amy Wallace Publication Year : 2014
In Creativity, Inc., Ed Catmull, President of Pixar Animation and Disney Animation, shares what happens behind-the-scenes in these two great companies. Creativity, Inc. is a book for managers who want to lead their employees to new heights. You can enter into the nerve center of Pixar Animation—into the meetings, postmortems, and “Braintrust” sessions where some of the most successful films in history are made. It is, at heart, a book about how to build a creative culture.
The book is centered around the concepts of validated learning and build-measure-learn feedback loop which means build a product, measure your customers’ reactions, and learn if your idea has been validated or if you need to adapt. Repeat this cycle until your customers send you a clear signal that your product fits a market need. It tries to bring in a systematic approach to measuring the progress at a startup. According to the author of book, one must begin with the customers in the form of interviews and research discovery. Ries also recommends using a process called the Five Whys which is a technique designed to reach the core of an issue.
The Hard Thing About Hard Things is written by Ben Horowitz who is a cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz and he is one of Silicon Valley’s most respected and experienced entrepreneurs. He writes his own story of founding, running, selling, buying, managing, and investing in technology companies to offer essential advice and practical wisdom for navigating the toughest problems business schools don’t cover.
Author : Nir Eyal, Ryan Hoover Publication Year : 2014
Why do we use certain products regularly though many such products are available in the market? – like Google- What makes us habituated with certain products? Is there a pattern underlying how technologies hook us?
Hooked is based on Eyal’s years of research, consulting, and practical experience. Hooked is written for product managers, designers, marketers, start-up founders, and anyone who seeks to understand how products influence our behavior.
Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries
Author : Safi Bahcall Publication Year : 2019
Safi Bahcall is a cofounder of the biotech company Synta Pharmaceuticals. This book explains about lessons learned in wartime as well as from Polaroid and space exploration, among other periods and events. Using examples that range from the spread of fires in forests to the hunt for terrorists online, and stories of thieves and geniuses and kings, Bahcall shows how this new kind of science helps us understand the behavior of companies and the fate of empires.
The $100 StartUp put out the possibility of starting and running a successful business with a ridiculously small team (1 to 5 members) with many real-life case studies. Chris Guillebeau writes a step-by-step framework you can use to find where your passion meets your skills and turn those into an income from your couch, based on his own case studies. Using nothing but a laptop and some wifi in most cases, you can build a thriving software, freelance or education business and scale it as far as you want.
Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World
Author : Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall Publication Year : 2019
The new book ‘Nine Lies About Work’ explains the inherent flaws of traditional attempts to define effective leadership. Authors Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall explains the disconnect between the ways you know you work best and the ways you are told to work. They examine the practices that organisations do to exert control and impose uniformity: practices that have become common wisdom but that have failed to result in improved productivity and employee motivation.
Author : Michael E. Gerber Publication Year : 1995
Michael E. Gerber originally published as “The E Myth” in 1986. Michael Gerber revised and updated the book in 1995. Michael E. Gerber explains how you can set up a company that depends much more on systems, than on people, and anyone can look after it with set of right instructions. He explains running a business and getting technical work done are two different things and shows you how you can set up a system dependent company rather than people dependent.
Steve Blank explains hands-on instructions on how to handle customers, sales, marketing and building your company at different stages of your business. He explains how Customer Development Model is more useful than Product Development Model for new startups. There are four steps to the Customer Development Model: Customer Discovery, Customer Validation, Customer Creation and Company Building.
Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
Author : David Epstein Publication Year : 2019
The book, Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World explains diverse experiences are helpful in business, science, music, parenting and even sports. This book says that you can be more successful in life if you learn different things and don’t try to be an expert. The book also says generalization is the key to parenting, especially when it comes to guiding your children towards areas where they can excel: “The best thing [parents] can do is to expose [children] to a lot of things, help them to reflect on those things, that’s called self-regulatory learning.“
Rockonomics: A Backstage Tour of What the Music Industry Can Teach Us About Economics and Life
Author : Alan B. Krueger Publication Year : 2019
Alan B. Krueger uses the music industry, from superstar artists to music executives, from managers to promoters, as a way in to explain key principles of economics, and the forces shaping our economic lives. Mr. Krueger surveys studies on the healing qualities of music — both its ability to “stir memories and emotions in people afflicted by neurological disorders,” and to make us happier.
Unlocking the Customer Value Chain: How Decoupling Drives Consumer Disruption
Author : Thales S. Teixeira Publication Year : 2019
The book, “Unlocking the Customer Value Chain: How Decoupling Drives Consumer Disruption” says how and why consumer industries are disrupted, and what established companies can do about it—while highlighting the specific strategies potential startups use to gain a competitive edge. Thales Teixeira is a Harvard Business School professor. Thales Teixeira explains the nature of competition has fundamentally changed. Using innovative new business models, startups are stealing customers by breaking the links in how consumers discover, buy and use products and services.
The Vagabonds: The Story of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison’s Ten-Year Road Trip
Author : Jeff Guinn Publication Year : 2019
The Vagabonds is the fascinating story of two American giants, Henry Ford and Thomas Edison. They were accompanied by Harvey Firestone, and naturalist John Burroughs too. The Vagabonds is an evenhanded look at four men who helped define their time. Author Jeff Guinn wrote the exciting parts of the vagabonds’ road trips and the impact they had on the populace without shying away from the profound character flaws of Ford and Edison. While not a detailed biography of these men, you get a good sense of who they were and what motivated them.
Everyday Chaos: Technology, Complexity, and How We’re Thriving in a New World of Possibility
Author : David Weinberger Publication Year : 2019
Everyday Chaos says how we’ve been busily, silently overturning our most basic ideas about change. That affects how we plan, measure success, make predictions, model and explain our world, and design strategies — and ultimately how we think the future emerges from the present. Through stories from history, business, and technology, philosopher and technologist David Weinberger finds the unifying truths lying below the surface of the tools we take for granted–and a future in which our best strategy often requires holding back from anticipating and instead creating as many possibilities as we can. The book’s imperative for business and beyond is simple: Make. More. Future.
What You Do Is Who You Are: How To Create Your Business Culture
Author : Ben Horowitz Publication Year : 2019
“What You Do Is Who You Are: How To Create Your Business Culture” takes readers through the process of designing a company culture and imbuing it with the values one wants to espouse as well as the level of performance one expects. The author combines lessons both from history and modern organisational practice with practical and often surprising advice to help us build cultures that can weather both good and bad times. This book is a journey through cultures ancient to modern, spotlighting models of leadership and culture-building from the samurai to prison gangs.
Author : F. Scott Fitzgerald Publication Year : 1925
An American business magnate, co-founder of Microsoft Corporation. He is a great lover of books. He has always books on the roll to read. One of his all-time recommended books is ‘TheGreat Gatsby’ written by F.Scott Fitzgerald, which is a tragic love story, a mystery, and a social commentary on American life.
This is the story of Jay Gatsby’s who has a desperate quest to win back his first love. It also shows the importance of honesty, the temptations of wealth, and the struggle to escape the past.
An Indian IT industrialist and the co-founder of Infosys is a good reader and writer. One of his recommended books is ‘Winners Never cheat even in DifficultTimes’ by Jon M Huntsman.
This book shows how the author himself built a $12 billion company from scratch, Huntsman tells how he struggled to get to the highest level and how you can too. This book is about remembering why you work and why you were chosen to lead. It’s about finding the courage to act on what you know is right. It’s all about winning in the right way.
Author : William Shakespeare Publication Year : 1606
An American inventor, designer, entrepreneur, who was the co-founder, chief executive, and chairman of Apple Computer. He has a different collection of books. One of his recommended books is ‘KingLear’ by William Shakespeare.
This story portrays how misguided judgments can lead to tragedies. King Lear is fooled by his two hypocritical daughters and makes a mistake by giving them his property. Fogged by illusion, he even missed to see the true love his third daughter had for him, the book gives a vivid depiction of what can go wrong if you lose your grip on your empire.
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Author : Thomas S.Kuhn Publication Year : 1962
This book presents a revolutionary approach to how science functions and progresses. Against the normal perception of science as a linear accumulation of knowledge. Kuhn attempts to view science as progressing in leaps from one “paradigm” to the next.
An American Internet and aerospace entrepreneur founder, chief executive officer of Amazon. He is very passionate about books and reading. One of his recommended books is ‘The Remains of the Day’ by Kazuo Ishiguro.
It tells of a man’s journey into the past during a motoring trip through the English countryside, Told. From a first-person perspective, the story is narrated in the form of a diary by an English butler named Stevens. It begins in July 1956 at Darlington Hall, where Stevens has worked for 34 years.
Entrepreneurs have to get along with creativity and management side by side, books are often a golden treasure to them.
Reading is one smart way of helping them to think in various ways to achieve success. Learning is a never-ending process, successful people learn something new every single day through their habit of reading.
The book includes stories about Wall Street with drama and adventure.
Conscious Capitalism
Author: John Mackey and Raj Sisodia
Publication Year: 2013
The book illustrates how business and capitalism can work most powerfully to create value for all stakeholders.
As a Man Thinketh
Author: James Allen
Publishing Year: 1903
As a Man Thinketh explores the central idea of self-empowerment writing.
Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World
Author: Rene Girard
Publishing Year: 1987
The book is an analysis of three core mechanisms that leads the widespread social interactions.
Do let us know if you have read any other book which should have been in the list. We would love to read it and feature it in this list of the books for entrepreneurs.
Rishabh Rathi
