When asked, a lot of Sales Executives will recommend that new reps read books on things like negotiation or strategic positioning. They’ll point you to books like, “Never Split the Difference”. I lean an entirely different way here and say, read Shoe Dog. This is the story of Phil Knight sitting in his parent’s basement late at night, figuring out how to sell Nikes against a multi-million dollar competitor called Adidas. Phil tells the story of how he started brought Nikes to the world and it is absolutely amazing. The guy is a real life businessman, and a great one to learn from. If you are in sales, business, marketing or anything competitive, go get a copy today.