Whether you’re just starting out or are a decades-long professional, these seven sales and insurance books will help you and your business grow.

Professional development comes in all different shapes and sizes. For those in the insurance industry, it’s often reduced to attending conferences or seminars. But professional development doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. It can be as simple as listening to a podcast or reading sales and insurance books. Having a few sales and insurance books on your bookshelf is helpful since you can return to them over and over again for a refresher. They’re also great to share with new agents and other colleagues.

Sales and insurance books are not one-size-fits-all. Their focus and style vary from author to author and advice that works for some agents won’t work for the next. The key is to get curious about the insurance sales industry. Pick a topic that you want to learn more about. Here are seven sales and insurance books to check out and continue your professional development.

1.Persuasive Selling for Relationship Driven Insurance Agents by Brian Ahearn

Relationship-building is the bread-and-butter of growing an insurance business. This book explores the psychology behind getting clients to say yes to insurance products that you know they need. Author Brian Ahearn reveals how to communicate with different personality types and build relationships quicker without coming off as a pushy salesperson. This book uses real-life examples and case studies. This is one of the insurance books that is ideal for relationship-driven agents or agents looking to hone their client relationship skills.

2. So You Want to Be an Insurance Agent by Jeff Hastings

As the title suggests, this is one of the sales and insurance books that is better suited for a junior agent or someone thinking about getting into insurance sales. It offers a great primer on the insurance industry and insight into starting an insurance agency. Hastings uses his own personal career journey as a jumping-off point in demonstrating helpful strategies. He shares techniques in building a career as a successful insurance agent.

3. The 1-Page Marketing Plan: Get New Customers, Make More Money, And Stand out From The Crowd by Allan Dib

A major component of the insurance industry involves marketing. This book by Allan Dib details a simple and effective approach to developing successful marketing plans for your business. While it’s not insurance industry-specific, the techniques are easily transferred into an insurance agency setting. What sets this book apart from other marketing books is its simplicity and ease. The strategies shared in this book reveal how to market your business on a small budget and win business from your competitors.

4. The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 Months by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington

When looking at lists of top sales and insurance books, you’ll tend to find productivity books thrown into the mix. Improving one’s productivity is a key component to growing your business and coaching your team. This book takes the concept behind common annual goal practices and challenges the reader to reframe 12 months of goals into 12 weeks. Adding a sense of urgency and importance to professional goals can speed up progress and growth, all by a simple change in mindset.

5. The Perfect Insurance Agency: Simple Changes to Ensure Success! by Eddie Price

A shorter read, this book is one of the great all-around insurance books that covers a lot of ground in a compact space. Bonus points if you have Kindle Unlimited, you can read it for free! This book is ideal for team managers, those wanting to build an agency, and independent agents. This is one of those insurance books that you’ll pick up over and over again as a reference tool.

6. Virtual Selling: How to Build Relationships, Differentiate, and Win Sales Remotely by Mike Schultz, Dave Shaby, and Andy Springer (with a foreword by John Doerr)

Whether it’s the advancement of technology or the necessity of a global pandemic, virtual selling is the new normal. With so much of insurance sales moving to the virtual space over the last few years, it’s important to reexamine standard insurance sales practices. This book covers best practices for relationship building while pivoting to virtual communication and sales methods. It details challenges agents face by not being able to meet in person with clients. It also covers how to effectively build rapport online.

7. Fanatical Prospecting: The Ultimate Guide to Opening Sales Conversations and Filling the Pipeline by Leveraging Social Selling, Telephone, Email, Text, and Cold Calling by Jeb Blount (with foreword by Mike Weinberg)

This is one of the best sales and insurance books to read to get a handle on your sales pipeline. Blount outlines his approach to prospecting, keeping a sales pipeline full, and leveraging different methods across multiple channels. Blount also reveals the secret to sales productivity and fast growth. The key is starting more sales conversations, and this book is a roadmap for doing just that.

Lead generation can be a full-time job and doesn’t always allow you the time and energy needed for relationship building, lead nurturing, and professional development. Make more time by reaching out to HBW Leads and learning how their team of insurance and technology experts can help your business grow. They provide exclusive, double-verified leads just for you and your business.