Mark Twain once said, "The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't."

I agree. So, I thought I would give you the titles of some great books that will, if you read them, give you a real advantage over those who won't.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey- The guy who turned me on to this book told me this as he handed me a copy, "Read this book and it will change your life." He was right. If you're just not that into self-improvement, define each of the seven habits based on how they apply to selling and this book becomes the greatest sales training book ever written.

The Wizard of Ads, Secret Formulas of the Wizard of Ads, and Magical Worlds of the Wizard of Ads all by Roy H. Williams- This trilogy tells you all you need to know in order to truly understand how and why advertising works. These books are timeless and brilliant and fun to read to boot.

Covert Persuasion by Kevin Hogan- Hogan is the modern master and teaching people how to communicate with the spoken language and body language in a way that makes persuasion almost effortless.

Subliminal Persuasion by Dave Lakhani- Along the same lines as Hogan's stuff and especially good for anyone who wants to learn how to write powerfully effective commercials.

Outsell Your Competition by Robin Fielder- The best nuts and bolts book on selling I have read in a very long time.

S.P.I.N. Selling by Neil Rackham- Rackham's researchers accompanied sales people on over 35,000 sales calls, collected and compiled the data, and arrived at some very interesting findings. For instance, one style of selling will work very well in some industries but lead to failure in others. A must for people who want to understand the science of selling.

The 33 Ruthless Rules of Local Advertising by Michael Corbett- This book explains the science of advertising in layman's terms. It will teach you how to talk about advertising with advertisers who don't know as much about advertising as they think they do.

Well, that's enough homework for now. I wouldn't wait too long to get started. Every sales call you make is a pop quiz and flunking can be very expensive.