The best books for car salespeople are Joe Verde's How To Sell A Car Today, Joe Girard's How to Sell Anything to Anybody, David Lewis's Secrets of Inspirational Selling and Grant Cardone's Sell or Be Sold, followed by general sales classics such as Never Split the Difference, Influence and Fanatical Prospecting that apply directly to the showroom and the phones.
How We Chose
We train sales floors, desks and BDC agents, so we picked books by one test: does reading it change what a salesperson does with the next up or the next phone call? Every book here is a real, published title; we checked the title and author against the publisher's site, a major retailer or a library catalog in September 2026.
- Car business first. Books written by people who sold or trained in dealerships come first.
- Skills that transfer. The general books earn a spot because their ideas map onto greeting, discovery, the test drive, negotiating and follow-up.
- Readable by a busy salesperson. Chapters you can read between ups and try the same day.
At a Glance: The Shortlist
| Book | Author | Best for | Focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| How To Sell A Car Today | Joe Verde | New and mid-level salespeople | A step-by-step car sales process |
| How to Sell Anything to Anybody | Joe Girard with Stanley H. Brown | Anyone building a repeat and referral business | Prospecting and staying in touch |
| Secrets of Inspirational Selling | David Lewis | Salespeople who want a lower-pressure style | Non-pressure car selling |
| Sell or Be Sold | Grant Cardone | Salespeople who need more drive | Mindset and persistence |
| Never Split the Difference | Chris Voss with Tahl Raz | Closers, desk managers and F&I | Negotiation |
| Influence | Robert B. Cialdini | Managers and marketers | The psychology of persuasion |
| How to Win Friends and Influence People | Dale Carnegie | Brand-new salespeople | Rapport and listening |
| Fanatical Prospecting | Jeb Blount | BDC agents and salespeople who work the phones | Daily prospecting discipline |
| Objections | Jeb Blount | Anyone who freezes at "no" | Handling objections |
| Secrets of Closing the Sale | Zig Ziglar | Salespeople who struggle to ask for the sale | Closing |
| To Sell Is Human | Daniel H. Pink | Managers and service advisors | How persuasion works today |
1. How To Sell A Car Today by Joe Verde
Joe Verde founded Joe Verde Automotive Sales & Management Training, and this book puts his selling process on paper for car salespeople. His company describes that process as running from the greeting all the way to the delivery.
Best for: Newer salespeople who need a map of the whole sale, and managers who want the floor using the same steps.
What you get: A process you can turn into a checklist for every up, plus a shared vocabulary for coaching after each deal.
Worth knowing: It is a long book. Assign one step per week and role-play that step at the sales meeting. Verde has also written Earn Over $100,000 Selling Cars, Every Year, which focuses on goals and building a career. amazon.com
2. How to Sell Anything to Anybody by Joe Girard
Joe Girard sold cars at a Chevrolet dealership in Michigan and was recognized by Guinness as the seller of the most cars in a year. He wrote this book with Stanley H. Brown, drawing on his own years on the lot.
Best for: Salespeople who want a book of repeat and referral customers instead of living on fresh ups.
What you get: Girard's approach to treating every customer as a door to everyone they know, staying in touch with past buyers on a regular schedule and paying people who send referrals.
Worth knowing: The tools are from a pre-internet era, but the habits translate directly to texting, CRM tasks and social media. Pair it with our car sales follow-up scripts. openlibrary.org
3. Secrets of Inspirational Selling by David Lewis
David Lewis founded David Lewis & Associates, an automotive sales and service training company. His publisher's page describes this book as a guide to inspiring customers to insist on buying a car from you, built on a non-pressure selling environment.
Best for: Stores that want to move away from pressure tactics without losing gross.
What you get: Lewis's "Inspirational Selling" concept, applied to the car sale and to building customers for life.
Worth knowing: Lewis has written several other car-business titles, including Understanding Your Customer and a leadership book for dealership managers, listed on the same page. davidlewis.com
4. Sell or Be Sold by Grant Cardone
Grant Cardone runs a large sales training business that includes Cardone On Demand, an automotive training platform. Sell or Be Sold makes the case that selling is a life skill and that commitment, persistence and follow-up decide most outcomes.
Best for: Salespeople who know the steps but are not working hard enough or following up long enough.
What you get: A high-energy argument for owning your results, handling rejection and staying with a buyer until the deal is done.
Worth knowing: The tone is intense by design; some readers will prefer a quieter book on this list. openlibrary.org
5. Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss
Chris Voss, a former FBI hostage negotiator, wrote this book with Tahl Raz. It is a negotiation book, not a sales book, and that is why it is useful at the desk and in the F&I office.
Best for: Closers, desk managers, F&I managers and any salesperson who dreads the numbers conversation.
What you get: Practical techniques such as mirroring, labeling a customer's emotions and asking open "how" and "what" questions that let the buyer solve the problem with you.
Worth knowing: The ideas work best when practiced out loud. Role-play the payment objection and the trade objection using the book's techniques before trying them live. openlibrary.org
6. Influence by Robert B. Cialdini
Robert B. Cialdini is a psychologist, and Influence explains why people say yes. His principles, such as reciprocity, commitment and consistency, social proof, liking, authority and scarcity, show up in every showroom whether the team knows it or not.
Best for: Sales managers, BDC managers and anyone writing ads or scripts.
What you get: A clear framework for why a genuine reason, a real deadline or a trusted review moves a buyer, and why fake urgency backfires.
Worth knowing: An updated edition, Influence, New and Expanded, was published by Harper Business in 2021. Use it ethically: dealers are judged on trust, and the book is equally useful for spotting pressure tactics that hurt CSI. openlibrary.org
7. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
First published in 1936, Dale Carnegie's book is about getting along with people: remembering names, listening more than you talk and making the other person feel important.
Best for: Brand-new salespeople, especially career changers, and service advisors who meet dozens of customers a day.
What you get: Simple people skills that make the greeting, the walkaround and the write-up feel friendly instead of scripted.
Worth knowing: It is not about process or closing. Treat it as the foundation. openlibrary.org
8. Fanatical Prospecting by Jeb Blount
Jeb Blount's Fanatical Prospecting, published by Wiley, is about the daily discipline of starting sales conversations by phone, email, text and social media.
Best for: BDC agents, internet salespeople and floor salespeople who are expected to make outbound calls.
What you get: A case for blocking time every day to prospect, plus practical guidance for each channel, which maps directly onto working old leads, sold customers and service customers.
Worth knowing: Most examples come from B2B sales; translate them to your CRM tasks. openlibrary.org
9. Objections by Jeb Blount
Blount's follow-up book, also from Wiley, is about getting past "no": why buyers object, how to manage your own reaction and how to prepare responses in advance.
Best for: Salespeople and BDC agents who lose appointments and deals at the first objection.
What you get: A structured way to handle stalls and objections, which your team can turn into its own list of top objections and responses.
Worth knowing: It pairs well with Never Split the Difference: Blount on the mindset and structure, Voss on the words. openlibrary.org
10. Secrets of Closing the Sale by Zig Ziglar
Zig Ziglar was a sales trainer and motivational speaker, and this is his book on closing. It covers the attitude behind asking for the business and many ways to do it.
Best for: Salespeople who build good rapport but never actually ask for the sale.
What you get: Many closing approaches and the reasoning behind them, useful for building a team's shared library of closes.
Worth knowing: Some examples feel dated. Keep the principles, update the language, and practice them on the floor. openlibrary.org
11. To Sell Is Human by Daniel H. Pink
Daniel H. Pink argues that almost everyone now sells in some form, and that today's buyers, who can research everything, respond to a different style than the old high-pressure model.
Best for: Managers rethinking their process for informed buyers, and service advisors who do not see themselves as salespeople.
What you get: Research-based ideas on staying attuned to the buyer, bouncing back from rejection and helping customers see their problem clearly.
Worth knowing: It is more about why than how. Use it to open a team discussion, then turn the ideas into specific word tracks, such as the ones in our guide to selling on value instead of discounts. openlibrary.org
How to Turn Reading Into Sales
A book on a shelf does not sell cars. Make reading part of the job.
Run a sales meeting book club
- Pick one book per quarter and one chapter per week.
- Ask each salesperson to bring one idea they tried on a real customer that week.
- Role-play the best idea for ten minutes, then make it part of the process.
Match the book to the person
New hires: Verde or Carnegie. A veteran with a closing problem: Voss or Ziglar. BDC: Blount. Managers: Cialdini and Pink. Our sales floor resources have more ideas for coaching between books.
Pair books with live training
Books build knowledge; practice builds habits. Compare options in our list of the best dealership sales training companies, or look at our own dealership sales training.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best book for a new car salesperson?
Start with a book that teaches the whole sale in order, such as Joe Verde's How To Sell A Car Today, and add Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People for people skills. Together they cover what to do on every up and how to make customers comfortable while you do it.
Are general sales books useful for car sales?
Yes, when you translate them. Negotiation, objection handling, prospecting and persuasion work the same way on a car lot as anywhere else. Books like Never Split the Difference, Influence and Fanatical Prospecting are widely read by dealership managers for that reason.
Which book helps most with negotiating price?
Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss with Tahl Raz is the strongest pick for the numbers conversation because it teaches how to uncover what the customer really needs before you talk price.
Should managers read the same books as salespeople?
Managers should read what the team reads, so they can coach the same language on the desk and in one-on-ones. Add a book on persuasion, such as Influence, to help them write better scripts, ads and pay plans that reward the behavior they want.
Summary
For car-specific skills, start with Joe Verde, Joe Girard, David Lewis and Grant Cardone. For negotiation, persuasion and prospecting, add Chris Voss, Robert Cialdini and Jeb Blount, with Carnegie, Ziglar and Pink as foundations. Read one chapter a week, practice it on the floor and back it up with coaching. If you want help turning ideas into a process your team uses every day, Get In Touch.
