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The Unsold Mindset: Redefining What It Means to Sell
This Wall Street Journal bestseller is captivating readers of Adam Grant, Dan Pink, and James Clear and has been called "a lifechanging book as much about life as it is about selling."
What if the greatest salespeople on the planet are the opposite of who you think they are?
Everyone sells, every day. It's why the most successful people are so good at selling themselves, their ideas, or their products. Yet when people hear the word "sales" they think of some version of the overly confident, manipulative, "don't-take-no-for-an-answer" stereotype. Because of these misperceptions, when they find themselves in a situation where they need to sell, they feel compelled to put on the persona of a "good salesperson." But there's a disconnect between who we think good salespeople are and who they actually are. In any room, they're not the most self-confident, they're the most self-aware. They're not the most sociable, they're the most socially aware. And they don't succeed in spite of obstacles, they succeed because of obstacles.
Colin Coggins & Garrett Brown sought out some of the most successful people from all walks of life, including CEOs, entrepreneurs, doctors, trial lawyers, professional athletes, agents, military leaders, artists, engineers, and countless others in between in hopes of understanding why they're so extraordinary. They found that as different as all these incredible people were, they all had an eerily similar approach to selling. It didn't matter if they were perceived as optimists or pessimists, logical or emotional, introverted or extraverted, jovial or stoic - they were all unsold on what it meant to sell and unsold on who people expected them to be.
The Unsold Mindset reveals a counterintuitive approach to not just selling, but life. This book is not about "building rapport," "objection handling," or "trial closes." It's a journey toward an entirely new mindset — because the greatest sellers on the planet aren't successful because of what they do, they're successful because of what they think.
Being a good person and a good salesperson aren't mutually exclusive. The Unsold Mindset will change the way you think about selling and the way you think about yourself.
What if the greatest salespeople on the planet are the opposite of who you think they are?
Everyone sells, every day. It's why the most successful people are so good at selling themselves, their ideas, or their products. Yet when people hear the word "sales" they think of some version of the overly confident, manipulative, "don't-take-no-for-an-answer" stereotype. Because of these misperceptions, when they find themselves in a situation where they need to sell, they feel compelled to put on the persona of a "good salesperson." But there's a disconnect between who we think good salespeople are and who they actually are. In any room, they're not the most self-confident, they're the most self-aware. They're not the most sociable, they're the most socially aware. And they don't succeed in spite of obstacles, they succeed because of obstacles.
Colin Coggins & Garrett Brown sought out some of the most successful people from all walks of life, including CEOs, entrepreneurs, doctors, trial lawyers, professional athletes, agents, military leaders, artists, engineers, and countless others in between in hopes of understanding why they're so extraordinary. They found that as different as all these incredible people were, they all had an eerily similar approach to selling. It didn't matter if they were perceived as optimists or pessimists, logical or emotional, introverted or extraverted, jovial or stoic - they were all unsold on what it meant to sell and unsold on who people expected them to be.
The Unsold Mindset reveals a counterintuitive approach to not just selling, but life. This book is not about "building rapport," "objection handling," or "trial closes." It's a journey toward an entirely new mindset — because the greatest sellers on the planet aren't successful because of what they do, they're successful because of what they think.
Being a good person and a good salesperson aren't mutually exclusive. The Unsold Mindset will change the way you think about selling and the way you think about yourself.
288 pages, Hardcover
Published February 21, 2023
113 people are currently reading
2032 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
March 2, 2023
BEST SALES BOOK OF ALL TIME.
As someone who's always been skeptical of cheesy sales books, this book blew my mind.
This is an eye-opening book that challenges the stereotype of the pushy, extroverted salesperson. Instead, it shows that successful selling is about being self-aware, socially conscious, and able to adapt to obstacles.
This refreshing perspective provides a roadmap for anyone looking to improve their selling skills, whether in business or just trying to sell an idea or product to others. Personally, I've found that this mindset has helped me in my interactions with others, making me more aware of their needs and better able to communicate with them!
Highly recommend to everyone!
As someone who's always been skeptical of cheesy sales books, this book blew my mind.
This is an eye-opening book that challenges the stereotype of the pushy, extroverted salesperson. Instead, it shows that successful selling is about being self-aware, socially conscious, and able to adapt to obstacles.
This refreshing perspective provides a roadmap for anyone looking to improve their selling skills, whether in business or just trying to sell an idea or product to others. Personally, I've found that this mindset has helped me in my interactions with others, making me more aware of their needs and better able to communicate with them!
Highly recommend to everyone!
March 7, 2023
While this is technically labelled a sales book, it imparts deep wisdom regarding what makes “sales” possible in the first place: character and connection.
It takes strong character to be humble and authentic, intrinsically motivated, creative, and purposeful. Character pours into meaningful connections, “falling in love” with your colleagues and prospects, if you will.
I recommend this book for anyone who wants sound, timeless advice on integrating business and life, cutting out the manic insincerity of “traditional” methods. I hope to see more of Coggins and Brown in the coming decade!
“Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice.”
Proverbs 16:8
It takes strong character to be humble and authentic, intrinsically motivated, creative, and purposeful. Character pours into meaningful connections, “falling in love” with your colleagues and prospects, if you will.
I recommend this book for anyone who wants sound, timeless advice on integrating business and life, cutting out the manic insincerity of “traditional” methods. I hope to see more of Coggins and Brown in the coming decade!
“Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice.”
Proverbs 16:8
June 18, 2024
The best sales book I’ve ever read hands down. I agree with so much of what these authors say. Everyone is in sales, regardless of whether you do it for a career or not. Just as the authors say many people in sales already do some of these things and I found that to be my case, but this reinforced the why (backed in research) I do them and I’m not sure necessarily knew that before listening to this book. This book is so good. I will order the hardcopy too after listening to the audio book which is excellent! I’d love to have autographs on my hard copy from the authors. These guys are truly authentic and so likable themselves. I even enjoyed their thank-yous at the end of the book. I came away with so many tidbits to use too!
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I agree with this review too
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February 21, 2023
COULD I GIVE 10 STARS? This book is freaking amazing. It's not cringy like those other self help or sales books, I doubt the authors would even call it a sales book. Honestly, its a life book. I know how that sounds, but I'm definitely a better person after reading this book. One of those books that you'll read again and again and again. It's that good...
May 16, 2024
super conversational book abt a profession that can be perceived as gimmicky.
reminded me abt the importance of your “why” and remaining creative and genuine to establish connections w ppl. honestly found this to be more widely applicable than just sales (seems like just plain good career advice).
reminded me abt the importance of your “why” and remaining creative and genuine to establish connections w ppl. honestly found this to be more widely applicable than just sales (seems like just plain good career advice).
August 6, 2023
A bit disappointed to be honest. The core thesis of the book would fit into 10 pages or less, but as many self-help books do, it makes a point in a paragraph and proceeds to give examples of how that point helped a (celebrity) person for the next 20 pages. It gets boring quickly, I persevered two/thirds of the book, but then started flagging and skimming through those paragraphs.
There's no depth to the insights in the book either, but the authors are grinding hard to sound like there is. (For an example on how deep insights look like I recommend Rick Rubin's 'The Creative Act.' THAT ONE has insights.)
What triggers me the most in books like these are contradictory examples, doublespeak, and cherry picked examples. As long as you, as the reader, find things to relate to - you'll think this is very inspiring, but you'll omit the bits that don't match your worldview. This is exactly how off-the-mill fortune-tellers exploit selective memory.
Here are a couple of examples (spoiler alert):
* The whole point of one chapter grinds hard explaining that you don't have to be a know-it-all, and it's better to not know the details sometimes. Immediately, the chapter following that one, starts off with showing how a famous celebrity succeeded, in response to continuous rejection, by learning everything they could about their industry. Depending on your experience you'd pick one and ignore the other, and think it's super smart insight, but for me stuff that is not consistent borderlines on bullshit, because it's not repeatable. One person succeeded, the other person succeeded too - great. Where's the insight of why both ways work? None.
* In another chapter they write about the Oprah effect and how she's one of the best saleswomen alive, even if she doesn't sell. They attribute this to the fact she acts with a purpose and that's why she's so successful in bringing sales to every brand she mentions. Oprah has her purpose and goals, and is a great businesswoman, but the fact I find flabbergasting is this book completely lacks any mention of who actually brings in the money - 30M viewers per week audience, spanning 109 countries. She picks the businesses to advertise driven by her purpose, but the audience brings in the business. She could have zero purpose and advertise snowboards one week and rollerblades - next, and she would still get the effect.
There are some morsels of interesting ideas here and there, but they're not distilled and so are lost in the noise. Hence 2 stars.
There's no depth to the insights in the book either, but the authors are grinding hard to sound like there is. (For an example on how deep insights look like I recommend Rick Rubin's 'The Creative Act.' THAT ONE has insights.)
What triggers me the most in books like these are contradictory examples, doublespeak, and cherry picked examples. As long as you, as the reader, find things to relate to - you'll think this is very inspiring, but you'll omit the bits that don't match your worldview. This is exactly how off-the-mill fortune-tellers exploit selective memory.
Here are a couple of examples (spoiler alert):
* The whole point of one chapter grinds hard explaining that you don't have to be a know-it-all, and it's better to not know the details sometimes. Immediately, the chapter following that one, starts off with showing how a famous celebrity succeeded, in response to continuous rejection, by learning everything they could about their industry. Depending on your experience you'd pick one and ignore the other, and think it's super smart insight, but for me stuff that is not consistent borderlines on bullshit, because it's not repeatable. One person succeeded, the other person succeeded too - great. Where's the insight of why both ways work? None.
* In another chapter they write about the Oprah effect and how she's one of the best saleswomen alive, even if she doesn't sell. They attribute this to the fact she acts with a purpose and that's why she's so successful in bringing sales to every brand she mentions. Oprah has her purpose and goals, and is a great businesswoman, but the fact I find flabbergasting is this book completely lacks any mention of who actually brings in the money - 30M viewers per week audience, spanning 109 countries. She picks the businesses to advertise driven by her purpose, but the audience brings in the business. She could have zero purpose and advertise snowboards one week and rollerblades - next, and she would still get the effect.
There are some morsels of interesting ideas here and there, but they're not distilled and so are lost in the noise. Hence 2 stars.
February 25, 2024
كتاب The Unsold Mindset اقترحه لي احد الاعزاء. الكتاب يعد باعادة تعريف معنى "ان تبيع" واعطاء منظور جديد لعملية البيع. الاشارة الى البيع تشمل التسويق لمنتج او فكره او عرض وظيفي الخ. ولذلك جذبني الموضوع، لاننا جميعاً نحاول ان بيع شيء بشكل او اخر..
الافكار ليست ثورية او حتى جديدة، بل غالبيتها منقوله من كتب اخرى يشير لها الكتاب. لكن تطبيقها من منظور "البيع" يعطيها بعد جديد.
يمكن اهم ثلاثة افكار بالنسبة لي (مع اعادة صياغة تناسب احتياجاتي):
- في اي علاقة، المفروض تحاول ان تعطي اكثر مما تاخذ
- استقطع وقت للتأمل والتفكير في نشاطك وعملك وتعاملاتك
- ضع لنفسك خطة تشمل اهدافك العليا. هل تعامللتك تنسجم
الكتاب ممتع بسبب سرد تجارب الاخرين. ربما اطول من اللازم مع استخدام بهارات التفائل اكثر من اللازم.. شخصيا اعتقد يستحق القراءة..
الافكار ليست ثورية او حتى جديدة، بل غالبيتها منقوله من كتب اخرى يشير لها الكتاب. لكن تطبيقها من منظور "البيع" يعطيها بعد جديد.
يمكن اهم ثلاثة افكار بالنسبة لي (مع اعادة صياغة تناسب احتياجاتي):
- في اي علاقة، المفروض تحاول ان تعطي اكثر مما تاخذ
- استقطع وقت للتأمل والتفكير في نشاطك وعملك وتعاملاتك
- ضع لنفسك خطة تشمل اهدافك العليا. هل تعامللتك تنسجم
الكتاب ممتع بسبب سرد تجارب الاخرين. ربما اطول من اللازم مع استخدام بهارات التفائل اكثر من اللازم.. شخصيا اعتقد يستحق القراءة..
November 1, 2025
A refreshing take on "sales" that teaches you how to connect, influence, and negotiate in a way that benefits both sides. This book is for anyone who needs to sell ideas, which is most people.
January 10, 2025
a different approach
I enjoyed exploring a new approach to sales. I appreciate erasing old stereotypes of selling and tying many principles to positive psychology. Excellent read. I also listened to the book on Audible. The excitement in their voices is contagious.
I enjoyed exploring a new approach to sales. I appreciate erasing old stereotypes of selling and tying many principles to positive psychology. Excellent read. I also listened to the book on Audible. The excitement in their voices is contagious.
January 23, 2024
Just picked up this book without knowing anything about it. I loved it, it really spoke to the way we work. Think Grant Cardone… and then the exact opposite.
I’ll read any of their books or shows or whatever is next. Highly recommend this book.
I’ll read any of their books or shows or whatever is next. Highly recommend this book.
January 8, 2024
Not just for salespeople! Also a great book for recent graduates!
January 22, 2024
If you are in business you should read this book. If you are a fundraiser you should reach this book. If you are a leader you should read this book.
Basically, read this book.
Basically, read this book.
January 24, 2024
Everyone is in sales. Forget who you're "supposed" to be and be your most authentic self. Find purpose and connection in selling.
December 5, 2024
This book definitely had a lot of good tips on selling and wasn't a drag to read like some selling books are!
November 9, 2025
I’d definitely say this is a great foundational sales book for those who aren’t really the type to go for a ‘hard sell’ or who struggle with the many sales tactics that just feel manipulative and dishonest. I thoroughly enjoyed reading through the different case studies and how both authors break down what the unsold mindset really is. There was a point though towards the end I felt they were just saying the same things in different words. After the first half you get the gist that basically to have the ‘unsold mindset’ you need to honestly like the product you’re selling, and just be a genuine person when selling by forming genuine connections with people rather than feeling you need to put on a face.
March 10, 2023
Sales is broken. There may be a tendency to read this book and say they have taken several known concepts and simply applied them to sales. My answer would be 'Yes! And Sales practices need a refresh; they have failed to evolve.'
I would like to see this book become the basis for how sales teams operate. Instead of scripts, manipulation, and tickets to games. None of which truly show that the salesperson has the client's business needs top of mind.
An authentic and purpose-driven salesperson that is optimistic and empathetic is the type of salesperson that I will be more likely to want to do business with.
I would like to see this book become the basis for how sales teams operate. Instead of scripts, manipulation, and tickets to games. None of which truly show that the salesperson has the client's business needs top of mind.
An authentic and purpose-driven salesperson that is optimistic and empathetic is the type of salesperson that I will be more likely to want to do business with.
April 11, 2023
Amazing book for everyone, not just those in typical sales roles! I can’t tell you how uncomfortable typical sales people make me feel because they are being so disingenuous. This book is all about being authentic and giving to people instead of just seeing what’s in it for oneself. If everyone read and followed the principles in this book, the world would be a much better place. I love how this book draws upon facts, experts’ advice and the authors’ personal experiences. Garrett and Colin blended everything so seamlessly and made it so easy to understand and apply with practical steps. Great job, guys!
September 28, 2023
Intelligently written and very motivational. The authors intelligently brought together scientific research, their own experiences and wisdom from some of the top people who have succeeded to get to the heart of what a good salesperson wants to achieve.
There is a little bit of coarse language, especially one chapter that drops f-bombs sequentially, but if you're interested in reading this, those won't matter. This is geared towards adults, but could benefit even high school age readers.
There is a little bit of coarse language, especially one chapter that drops f-bombs sequentially, but if you're interested in reading this, those won't matter. This is geared towards adults, but could benefit even high school age readers.
April 20, 2023
I loved this book. In no way did I feel like I was reading a “sales” book. I felt like I was listening to the most interesting conversations about staying authentic and connecting and nailing down a purpose. Garrett and Colin are incredible writers and I loved the way they kept their voices and personalities alive in this book.
October 21, 2023
The Unsold Mindset” breaks free from worn-out sales clichés, offering a real, fresh spin. As a tech guy turned salesperson, I found bits of my daily sales routine in its pages. I loved the book’s push for ‘abundance thinking’ - being original and finding your unique sales drive. It’s a must-read for anyone even slightly interested in selling, packed with insights that are easy to grasp and apply.
October 24, 2023
Pulling from lots of sources, Coggins and Brown talk about the need to connect with customers and not just try to sell a product. The client will get what they need and the person doing the selling will find the process more fulfilling. The book is well thought out and put together in a format that makes it easy to understand the concepts.
July 25, 2024
A very well written, engaging, albeit typical Sales/Motivational book.
Some of the “wit” and humor was a bit over the top and redundant to me, but still many good takeaways for both the sales profession and life as a whole.
Any book that preaches the value of being authentic will have my support!
Some of the “wit” and humor was a bit over the top and redundant to me, but still many good takeaways for both the sales profession and life as a whole.
Any book that preaches the value of being authentic will have my support!
August 29, 2023
Excellent book. The two authors talk genuinely and passionately about how they have created meaningful relationships, learned to enrich people’s lives through their conversations and work, and live fulfilling lives with purpose. Highly recommended for anyone in any job in any field.
October 13, 2023
Nice clear instructions and mindset to use. Love the encouragement to not be cheesy and be "unsold" on what selling is. Nearly a 4 star for me but didn't feel the book included anything particularly groundbreaking. Perhaps it gets an upgrade to 4 (or even 5) stars when I put it in to practise.
March 2, 2023
Colin and Garrett changed my life with their course at USC and this book encapsulates that. I have been recommending this book to everyone.
October 19, 2023
I'm sad that all business books seem to be written for college sophomores. This would be pretty good if it's the first book you ever read about selling.
November 24, 2023
An untraditional approach to sales. Great insights, but mainly about being authentic and was repetitive.
February 20, 2024
Helpful insight on how to view sales. I especially enjoyed the advice about falling in love with your client and people you work with. A sweet writing team!
August 26, 2024
Pretty good read from a sales standpoint
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews