Og Mandino's "The Greatest Salesman in the World" is a story about a poor camel boy who becomes the greatest salesman alive by living the principles in ten ancient scrolls. It's less a sales manual than a guide to mindset and character, and studying it has had one of the biggest positive impacts on my own mindset of any book I've read.
The Ten Scrolls, in Brief
Each scroll is a short philosophy: form good habits, greet each day with love, persist until you succeed, recognize your own rarity, live each day as if it's your last, master your emotions, keep your sense of humor and perspective, multiply your value, act now, and stay connected to something larger. The full themes are in the summary.
How to Use It
Mandino's instruction is what makes it special: you read one scroll, and only that scroll, for 30 days before moving on, reading it multiple times a day and aloud at least once. The repetition presses the principle into your subconscious. My own practice: read the scroll silently in the morning, again after lunch, and aloud before bed. I'll be honest, the lunch reading never stuck for me, so I averaged closer to once or twice a day, but I made sure to do it every single day, and the before-bed reading aloud (when I had the privacy) was the most powerful. A tip: note the calendar date you start, so each month you can look forward to "graduating" to the next scroll. When you move to scroll two, recite scroll one's main idea first, and keep stacking them as you go. And if you want this kind of sales discipline built into your team day to day, our fractional sales leaders can help: Talk to our Team.
There's also a sequel, "The Greatest Salesman in the World, Part II," which adds ten "vows of success" in the same format.
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Get the book: The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino, and Part II.