The 12 Best Books about Business Growth for the Entrepreneur or Hustler on Your Christmas List
Note: The 12 Best Books about Business Growth has been republished on my new website, ejorgenson.com. Come visit and subscribe to read all my new blog posts.
As the curator and compiler of The Evergreen Library, I’ve spent many hundreds (thousands?) of hours reading through business resources and passing on the very best to readers.
In the past year, I’ve written 400+ pages (nearly 100,000 words) about the best business resources for founders, managers, hustlers, business owners, entrepreneurs and investors.
For the Holidays, it seemed helpful to compile a short list of the books that stood out. For the Business Nerd on your shopping list, here are the most important books on Growth, Sales, and Marketing that will build a business.
You can also check out: The 11 Best Books on Business Strategy
Best Books on Mastering Advertising
Advertising is Salesmanship at scale — if you can build compelling advertising and reach customers, you will be able to build a much stronger business more quickly. This is a keystone of business education.
My Life in Advertising
This short read (<2 hours) will be enough to create an extreme respect for the power of advertising, and get your wheels turning on some new ways to look at old ideas.
Ogilvy on Advertising
David Ogilvy is one of the biggest names ever in Advertising. He’s a huge deal, and we know this because he owns a castle. This Castle.
In this book, he writes everything he knows about advertising in concise, clear, and powerful language. It is an easy read full of timeless wisdom, sharp witticisms, and great stories.
Tested Advertising Methods
For those putting pen to paper and create some advertising, this classic is a must-read. It is a very practical guide to creating, testing, and refining successful advertising. This book is as close to a blueprint for making money as I’ve ever seen.
Best Books on Genius Marketing
Marketing is a part of all businesses, and creating a position in a crowded market is never an obvious task. Successful marketing takes research, creativity, and bravery.
The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing
This book is a very short read, and it consistently blows minds with the clarity of its simple, powerful laws. Word-for-word, the best book on marketing I’ve ever read.
The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk!
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Age of Propaganda
Amplifying your message is easier than it has ever been in all of human history — here is how craft your message effectively and get through to people in all that chaotic noise.
The Best Books on Getting The First Customers
Every business starts in the same place: Zero customers. Finding the first customers is a unique challenge, and a different game than finding the 100th-1000th. It is worth studying the very beginning stages of new businesses carefully — it is a whole different skillset.
Traction
This book is a gem, it takes you through all of the possible channels and tactics to build your initial customer list. Traction is short, easy-to-read, and packed full of great ideas for getting your first sales.
All In Startup
Written as a story about an entrepreneur building a business while competing in the world’s biggest poker tournament, this book is unique in this list. It is fiction, yet it lays out the way to interview early customers to get your first sales and lay the groundwork for successful business.
The Best Books on Sales and Selling
All successful businesses are built on sales skills by someone, somewhere along the line. To meet a stranger and convince them to exchange money for your product or service is a monumental challenge. Reading up and getting some knowledge and new ideas will help close those deals!
How to Win Friends and Influence People
This is a classic for a reason. Also, I’m pretty sure it was the original clickbait. Anyway, it is a great book — basically the handbook of conduct that other people respond well to. Full of good reminders on what should be common sense, that we all forget most of the time.
The Art of the Sale
This book, by Harvard Business School Graduate PD Broughton, is a brilliant exploration of Sales across cultures and companies. Learn how people sell all over the world. This is sure to give you new ideas, new perspective, and new energy!
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
This is my all-time most recommended book. Though it is about psychology, sales is mostly an exercise in understanding and working through psychology. There is no chance this book won’t get you excited to get out there and try out some new tactics.
Books to Build Word-of-Mouth Sales
The best marketing, sales, or advertising in the world is always through customers talking about your product. How do you make that happen? There are strategies behind all of it — tactics, tricks, and careful structure that can create those conversations.
Different
Creating a ‘remarkable’ brand means doing things very different. Something aggressively unique, positioning against everything others are doing.
Written by a Dean of Harvard Business School in Strategy, Different is an exploration of how to create and position a unique and powerful brand amongst competitors who crowd the market.
Contagious
Contagious is a great read — short, easy, and overflowing with inspiring stories that will give you tons of ideas to try on your own. It is all about how ideas ‘Catch on’ and get spread incredibly quickly through word-of-mouth.
There you are! The 11 best books out there for Strategy. Happy Holidays!
Thanks for reading! I’ve moved to ejorgenson.com — feel free to visit and catch up on my latest content.
Follow me on Twitter: @EricJorgensonCheck out Evergreen, a resource to build smarter business brains.Building and Managing a TeamHow to Find and Recruit the Team you Need
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