Learning to sell is just like learning to program. You learn by getting your hands dirty, not by reading a book.<p>The absolutely best way to learn sales is to get a job cold-calling people trying to sell them newspapers or something. You'll learn more from the people you work with than you'll ever learn in university or anywhere else. After a few weeks you'll pick up peoples intonation, mood and other subtle cues and you'll be able to tell within 30 seconds whether the guy at the other end of the phone will end up buying. When you've learnt to cold-call people and sell to them everything else is easy.