25 Books to Read This Summer to Improve Your Business

Have you been too strapped for time to read any books lately? Want to brush up on your skills or need tips for your business from other pros? Summer’s the perfect time to make it happen.

Just take a book on that flight to Hawaii, whip out your Kindle while lying on the beach or by the pool, or plug into an audiobook on your long road trip to see family. 

Whichever you decide, we’ve got some recommendations for where to start. 

Here are some of the top-rated books in business:

Business books for real estate agents

1. Never Split the Difference, by Chris Voss

Written by a former FBI hostage negotiator, “Never Split the Difference” is your guide to getting the better end of the deal.

You’ll learn about Voss’ well-honed negotiating techniques, as well as actionable advice on implementing them in your business right away.

One reviewer said they saved $900 at a car dealership by using the book’s strategies.

2. People Buy You: The Real Secret to What Matters Most in Business, by Jeb Blount

Blount’s book helps you build yourself up as well as your business. As its description puts it, “If you want to know the real secret to what matters most in business, just look in the mirror.”

Its pages cover relationship-building, customer retention, and how to increase your profit, among other important topics.

You’ll also learn how to build your personal brand and stand out in your market.

3. Million-Dollar Negotiating Tactics from America’s Top-selling Real Estate Agent, by Josh Altman

Million-Dollar Negotiating Tactics from America’s Top-Selling Real Estate Agent is written by well-known agent Josh Altman (you might recognize him from the TV show Million Dollar Listing!) and covers Altman’s three-step process:

1. the opening
2. the work
3. and the close

He breaks down prospecting, marketing, sales, team-building, and, most importantly, deal-making. 

4. Your First Year in Real Estate: Making the Transition from Total Novice to Successful Professional

To start things off, we have a book that every beginner real estate agent needs to read. The author, Dirk Zeller, has been a real estate coach for years and this book is a way for him to share his wisdom with the masses.

The book is full of answers to your biggest questions and step-by-step solutions to some of the most common challenges that new agents encounter as they attempt to grow their businesses.

You’ll learn about everything from how to pick the right real estate company to the keys to developing valuable client relationships. This book has everything that a newbie needs to get their business off the ground.

5. The Miracle Morning for Real Estate Agents: It’s Time to Rise and Shine

For some real agents, getting the ball rolling in the morning is the hardest part of their day. The Miracle Morning for Real Estate Agents aims to help solve that issue by showing how to make a purposeful morning ritual part of your daily routine.

On the surface, the book shares the various ways in which high-achieving real estate professionals like to start their days. However, beyond simply providing examples for you to follow, the book also provides various strategies to help you overcome common productivity roadblocks.

Once you read this book, your morning is almost guaranteed to become your favorite part of your day. As one reviewer said, “Even night owls are giving this book the praise that it deserves.”

6. Hyper Local Hyper Fast Real Estate Agent

If you’re a fan of a great inspirational story, Hyper Local Hyper Fast Real Estate Agent is a great pick for your “To Read” list. It tells the story of Daniel Lesniak, a first-year real estate agent who sold 36 homes worth over $22 million in total.

In the book, Lesniak explains how he used a marketing tactic called the “STP Framework” to achieve such high levels of income. Though the tactic is usually used in more traditional sales settings, Lesniak shows how he was able to adapt the framework to real estate and how other agents can do the same in their own businesses.

Sales books for real estate agents

7. Exactly What to Say for Real Estate Agents, by Phil M. Jones

Want to better navigate conversations with clients, partners, and other pros? “Exactly What to Say for Real Estate Agents” can help.

This 242-page book helps you navigate some of real estate’s more challenging conversations — and in a way that keeps your clients happy and on your side.

It even has real-life examples and templates to make integrating Jones’ techniques into your business even easier.

8. The Conversion Code, by Chris Smith

In “The Conversion Code,” Chris Smith walks you through how to capture, convert, and capitalize on internet leads — and how to keep those leads coming.

Topics covered include engagement, social media apps, prospecting, and more. As SEO expert Neil Patel puts it, “If you need more traffic, leads, and sales, you need ‘The Conversion Code.’”

9. The Book of YES: The Ultimate Real Estate Conversion Guide

If you’re a big fan of using real estate scripts to facilitate conversations with your clients, The Book of YES should be your next read. Rather than just giving you the same tired sales scripts that you’d find in any real estate training manual, this book takes things one step further by teaching you how to take sample scripts and make them your own.

In particular, Part One focuses on practical tips for making any sales script work to your advantage. Then, in Part Two, you’ll learn how to leave the script behind and have natural conversations with your clients, all the while leading them further down your conversion funnel.

Armed with this knowledge, you should feel more than ready to take on your next client meeting.

10. The Millionaire Real Estate Agent

If you’ve been in the business for a while and are looking for a way to level up your business practices, look no further than The Millionaire Real Estate Agent. As the name suggests, it is full of practical advice on how to “Earn a Million, Net a Million, and Receive a Million” in annual income.

Specifically, the book touches upon the economic, organizational, and lead generation models used by high-earners in the real estate industry. It’s a must-read for those who are hoping to make the “Best of” lists in their local market.

11. The Book on Negotiating Real Estate

For those who want to level up their negotiation game, there’s no better resource than The Book on Negotiating Real Estate. Between them, the book’s three authors have been through more than 1,000 successful real estate deals and they’ve got negotiating down to a science.

The book not only covers the step-by-step process for how to artfully negotiate offers and counter-offers, but it also touches on scenarios such as re-negotiating after unexpected issues arise and how to use last-minute concessions to keep a deal together. Plus, there are also practical tips for how to overcome common objections that arise during the negotiation process.

Marketing books for real estate agents

12. This is Marketing, by Seth Godin

Seth Godin is one of the most revered marketers in today’s age, and “This is Marketing” is the perfect example of why.

Within its pages, you’ll discover how to position your business for success, the key to building trust with your target market, and foolproof branding and advertising strategies that really work. 

13. Influencer: Building Your Personal Brand in the Age of Social Media, by Brittany Hennessy

If you struggle to use social media to your advantage or just can’t figure out how to turn that Facebook or Instagram into leads, pick up this book, which boasts a whopping 4.5-star review on Amazon.

You’ll learn about building an audience, engagement, branding, monetizing your content, and more. 

Networking books for real estate agents

14. 7L: The Seven Levels of Communication — Go from Relations to Referrals, by Michael J. Maher

Referrals are at the heart of any successful real estate business, and with this book, you’ll learn how to cultivate those client relationships even more.

You’ll also gain insights on shifting from an “Ego Era” mindset to a “Generosity Generation” one — something author Michael Maher says helped him become the most-referred agent on the continent.

If you need more proof: Financial guru Dave Ramsey even said, “If you want to win in business, this book will show you how.”

15. How to Win Friends & Influence People, by Dale Carnegie

How to Win Friends & Influence People is an old standard in the networking world, and there’s a reason: Its methods work.

Within its pages, you’ll learn:

• Carnegie’s six ways to make people like you
• 12 ways to win people to your way of thinking
• nine ways to change people without resentment

The book claims a 4.5-star review across nearly 62,000 customers, and readers say things like “My eyes have been opened,” “essential to any working professional’s toolbox,” and “changed my life.” 

Self-Development books for real estate agents

16. Leadership Is Language: The Hidden Power of What You Say and What You Don’t by L. David Marquet

You know that words matter.

What you say can make or break a deal, but you may not be as cognizant of your word choice while you’re talking with prospects, peers, or your superiors as you’d like. Sure, you’ve been told to think before you speak, but that’s not always an option, is it? 

Leadership is Language lays out a clear distinction between “good” and “bad” language and may very well help you understand how to adjust the words you use to build better relationships (and close deals, too).

17. Joy at Work: Organizing Your Professional Life by Marie Kondo and Scott Sonenshein.

When was the last time you felt joy at work? Sure, you like your job, and you enjoy your successes, but you may also feel weighed down by meetings or like you’re swimming in paperwork. 

If you found yourself caught up in the Kondo home organizing craze, you’ll be thrilled to know there’s a new book on the scene that takes her organization principles and relates them to the professional sphere.

This book goes beyond the simple act of tidying. Here you’ll learn efficiency, focus, and taming your own mindset clutter.

18. Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything by BJ Fogg, PhD

Are you the type of person who needs to start small to create a big change? Do too many steps make you feel overwhelmed? Does a goal so huge seem unreachable? Well, we’ve got a perfect book for you. 

With the experience of coaching over 40,000 people, BJ Fogg sure knows how to set goals and create habits to make those goals achievable. In Tiny Habits, Fogg takes readers through his three-step behavior formula: make it easy, make it fit your life, and make it rewarding.

The premise is that change can be easy if you’re willing to take small — miniscule even — steps, and these actions will snowball into big results.

19. How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

To you, a client is a client. It doesn’t matter what their sex, race, religion, body type, and more, is. But to your clients, who are showing up as their whole selves, it’s important that you recognize who they are and what sets them apart as individuals.

If you’re servicing a diverse clientele — or more importantly, if your clients aren’t very diverse — this book can help you understand the role racism plays in our society so you can take steps to challenge any inner beliefs and step forward to create safe spaces and work toward an equitable society.

20. The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win by Maria Konnikova

There’s a lot that poker can teach you about business, but the most important one may be that skill is simply not enough. Instead, master poker players need to learn how to read people, how to control their emotions, which “card” to play, and many more lessons.

The same can be said for any profession. Your skill will only take you so far. You also need soft skills, like understanding human decision making and how to adjust your actions based on other’s behaviors.

In this book, writer Maria Konnikova convinces Poker Hall of Fame inductee Erik Seidel to mentor her. The lessons she learns along the way are more than simple poker skills.

It’s a read that will make you consider just how you play the game of business, and what tricks you can keep up your sleeve to achieve your goals and live up to your full potential.

21. Think Again by Adam Grant

When’s the last time you really challenged your thinking — what you think, why you think that way, and what made you think those thoughts in the first place? It’s not something people do on an everyday basis, but Think Again by Adam Grant suggests that maybe it’s something we should all be doing.

Being open-minded is a wonderful quality, and it’s something we’d all like to believe we are. This self development book shares a solid mix of scientific research and anecdotal evidence to help any reader understand the importance of unlearning previous thought patterns, rethinking things, and challenging their beliefs.

22. What Happened To You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing by Oprah Winfrey and Dr. Bruce D. Perry

Childhood. How was yours? Each and every human enters adulthood with a full life of experiences, and for some, those experiences can be triggering or traumatic. 

In What Happened to You? Winfrey and Perry alternate narrating chapters filled with personal and professional storytelling and scientific data. This self development book helps readers better understand how one’s upbringing influences their adulthood and how to break cycles and push past what’s happened in the past.

So why does this matter for you? Well, if you consider yourself one of the lucky ones to make it through your life relatively unscathed, know that your colleagues and friends may not have had the same experience. Learning about resilience through life will help you understand the people in your world better.

23. No Such Thing as Normal by Bryony Gordon

How many times in the past year have you wished that things would go back to normal? Have you ever felt like you weren’t normal? Most importantly, what is normal, anyway?

No Such Thing as Normal from Bryony Gordon is great for anyone struggling with mental health issues, but also for people who love and want to support the people in their lives who might be going through challenging times. It’s a self development book for people who want to learn more about mental health, and do so by reading about one woman’s journey to understand what mental health can teach you about mental wellness.

24. Professional Troublemaker: The Fear-Fighter Manual by Luvvie Ajayi Jones

Don’t let the title scare you away. According to Jones, professional troublemakers are “people who are committed to not letting fear talk themselves out of the things they need to do or say.” In writing Professional Troublemaker, Jones encourages readers to expect more from themselves.

Think about it. What’s holding you back professionally at this very moment?

Are you too nervous to ask for a raise because you know a colleague recently received a promotion, and you assume there’s no more in the budget left for you?

Are you worried about putting your name in for a new position because you’ve been doing your job for so long and you’re nervous about starting fresh?

It’s time we all challenge ourselves to do the best we can and live the best life we can. Professional Troublemaker is an amazing self development book because it will call you out while still supporting you to take the risks you need to.

25. How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be by Katy Milkman

Know you want things to change, but not exactly sure what you need to do to get from here to there? You’re not alone. So many people can identify what they’d like to change in their lives, but don’t know how to get started. Or, even if the starting place is clear, consistent effort toward the change may be hard to sustain. Enter How to Change, a self development book that explains how to get to where you want to be in life.

Wondering whether Milkman is the right person to share advice about changing?

Well, we think so!

According to her author bio, she’s “a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, host of Charles Schwab’s popular behavioral economics podcast Choiceology, and the former president of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making.” If that’s not enough professional experience, we don’t know what will be!

More real estate agent resources

Want more than books to improve your business this year?

Then check out our full library of real estate agent resources. We’ve even got podcast recommendations and YouTube channels you can put on your radar.