The Sales History Podcast
Bringing the incredible (and sometimes strange) brains from the profession of sales' past to the 2020's - from Todd Caponi, author of The Transparency Sale & The Transparent Sales Leader.
Episodes
I got "lit up" by a social media troll...and it turns out, the troll was right! I was complaining about my seat on a plane; a metal tube traveling 500 mph 35,000 feet above the earth. Me, sitting comfortably in a cushiony chair sipping a Diet Coke and enjoying a Stroopwafel.
Uncle Charlie Terry shared his travel stories from the 1800s...and (a) it made me realize what a wimp I was by complaining, but (b) ope...
Imagine: it's spring 1893. You're a salesperson for the National Cash Register Corporation (NCR). Your ultimate boss? Oh, it's just the founder of the modern sales profession...John H. Patterson.
The person responsible for almost everything about sales today, back in the 1890s, wrote a newsletter to his salespeople across the country on a regular basis. In this episode, we explore some of the thoughts, ...
Is AI coming for the sales profession? Will "everything change"? Turns out, history can help us predict the future of the sales profession in the face of the rise of AI.
Because, as I read all of the commentary, they mostly all say the same thing…
…the same thing as was said throughout history every time there was either (a) a significant shift in the world of business, or (b) a significant down...
What would it be like to be a salesperson during a World War? Well, it's happened twice, and in this episode, we explore the lens by which salespeople were asked to do their jobs during World War I.
It's an incredible example of selling with a higher purpose beyond just hitting a quota and receiving a commission check...
@saleshistorian on Instagram - daily quotes, pics & comics from the past
The Tran...
In the January 1918 edition of Business Philosopher Magazine, a story by William W. Woodbridge was printed. It's the story of a down-and-out salesperson, John Bradford, who essentially fired himself!
It’s a story of getting right with yourself. I fell in love with it, and wanted to share it with you.
"Bradford, you're fired!"
@saleshistorian on Instagram - daily quotes, ...
The beginnings of the modern sales profession (1890-1920) were associated with trust, respect, and even admiration. 100 years later, the sales profession sits at the bottom of Gallup's annual listings of ethical professions...along with politicians.
What happened? Where did it all go wrong?
I put my finger on it. In this episode, I diagnose the specific period where it all went bad, explore the...
Some individuals from sales history moved mountains - and nobody knows about them today! This time, I wanted to highlight one from the 1970s & 1980s - Barbara Pletcher. She noticed a void in the development of women for the boardroom, and it started with sales skills.
I found her story really compelling. The way she thought about raising the bar for all is brilliant. Here's her story...
@sa...
The way we live today wasn't defined just via the invention itself. Things like the steam engine, telegraph, reaper, highways, the telephone, the automobile...and just about every other revolutionary advancement was met with extreme skepticism. They all HAD TO BE SOLD. The incredible inventors had to be ingenious salespeople, too.
Here are their stories.
In this episode, which I really enjoye...
The early 1900s were made up of the foundation layers for our great profession. Incredible ideas. Great Writing. Things we all use still today.
However, there were a few odd ideas out there, too.
Here’s a collection of ten of those odd quotes on everything from bowel movements, your thyroid, and your ability to fight that made up these fine individuals’ thoughts around what led to success in sales....
This episode dissects prospecting from 50 to 120 years ago...discussing five key elements:
1) The origins of the word "prospecting" as it relates to sales
2) The mindset - quality prospecting over simply focusing on metrics and scale
3) Metrics and prospecting quotes - the counterpoint of above in terms of working backwards to determine how many prospects you have to reach out to to hit your numb...
We've heard it all before - the "death of" this, and the "demise of" that as it relates to the sales profession. Everything is dead, right? Well, like so many other sales-related things, this concept isn't new, either. Experts have been casting the profession and its elements to the grave since the early 1900s.
In today's episode, I share multiple times when the sales profe...
Let’s explore sales discounting…it’s history, commentary, and why we haven’t been able to break this terrible habit. It's a problem that's as prominent and as recognized today as it was in the early 1900s.
@saleshistorian on Instagram - daily quotes, pics & comics from the past
@saleshistorian on Twitter - daily quotes, pics & comics from the past
The Transparent Sales Leader - my n...
In 1937, Paul W. Ivey released a second edition of his book, Salesmanship Applied. Chapter 6 is one of my favorites from my collection of books from 75+ years ago. Want to be the best version of you? Instead of recreating the wheel on these ideas, let’s turn the clock back 87 years.
We spend so much time on sales methodologies and techniques to be better - but how about building up the value in ourselves? I...
Sales - the most brilliant minds in the profession view our responsibility as "selling ideas'. Those brilliant minds date back to the 1600s and Sir Francis Bacon, the late 1700s and Benjamin Franklin, and many more throughout the 1900s.
In today's episode, we'll explore the advice from Bacon, Franklin, and a couple of amazing thought leaders on selling from the 1950s - how logic polarizes...
Our version of sales recruiting, sales training, dedicated territories, quotas, salary + variable compensation plans, even sales kickoffs all began between 1890-1920. The process designs, compensation strategies, and almost all of the selling methodologies are based on this foundational approach - which, for the most part, I’d argue has been correct. Sure, people argued for change, but the core has been the core.
Salesman's "Creeds" - There was a concept that started popping up around 1905, spreading to individual companies, industries, and eventually to entire cities by the 1910s. Established to change the perception of the sales profession. these "creeds" defined a core set of beliefs every salesperson should have in taking goods to market.
In this episode, we'll talk through what these...
It's the story for so many - great at selling, promoted into leadership without training or a holistic understanding of what the role actually is.
In today's episode, I share a parable written by Worthington C. Holman in 1909 about a medieval military leader named Dunderblitzen Von Shoosh. I loved this story so much, I had to share it...along with lessons for today.
@saleshistorian on Inst...
I went digging...into the origins of email as a communication medium. Along the way, I found a ton of really interesting timeline milestones that are amazing, interesting, and in some cases pretty funny.
So, in this episode, we explore those milestones - from invention to the CAN-SPAM act, and how we really haven't fixed a whole lot along the way.
Here's the article I reference - with a ful...
Sales compensation plans - where did they come from? How did they evolve to where they are today? Are there lessons we can learn from their origins we can apply today to make our plans more of what they are meant to be?
In today's episode, I take you back as far as 1914 to learn about the types of quotas, the mistakes they acknowledged in 1918, and the lessons from the 1920s about compensation plan desig...
Can you imagine - a profession so deplorable that those in it were rounded up and murdered? As crazy as it sounds, I found that it actually happened during the Roman Empire B.C.
In an incredible find, I uncovered a sales history well over 2,000 years old where money was prioritized over virtue - in a way we still see today. In today's episode, I tell the story, with quotes from the great philosophers an...
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