Shows / The Sales History Podcast
The Sales History Podcast
Welcome to The Sales History Podcast, the show that uncovers the forgotten stories, ideas, pioneers, and moments that shaped the sales profession and what they can teach us about selling, leading, and earning trust today.
The show is hosted by three-time award-winning author of The Transparency Sale, The Transparent Sales Leader, and Four Levers Negotiating, who has earned the Certified Speaking Professional keynote speaker designation, is a go-to-market sales trainer, and a sales nerd, Todd…
Episodes
The Sales History PodcastTwo Underappreciated Eras That MASSIVELY Changed Sales
Send us Fan Mail We so often think about the telephone, or email, or the internet, or even AI as being periods of significant change for the sales profession…
The Sales History PodcastSelling - During the Great Depression
Send us Fan Mail What would it have been like to sell during a depression, and specifically, the Great Depression? In this episode of The Sales History…
The Sales History PodcastWorthington C. Holman - The Ginger Man
Send us Fan Mail In the category of foundation builders in the sales profession that you've got to know, there's Worthington C. Holman. He'd be my fourth on…
The Sales History PodcastThe 1926 Sales Dictionary: The Sales Terminology of 100 Years Ago
Send us Fan Mail In 1926, W.L. Barnhart began publishing something called the Salesman’s Dictionary in How to Sell magazine into 1927. Some of the terms are…
The Sales History PodcastTin Men: The Scams of the 1960s Aluminum Siding Salespeople
Send us Fan Mail In the 1950s and 1960s, aluminum siding salespeople, known as “Tin Men”, became infamous for some of the most creative and dishonest sales…
The Sales History PodcastWomen in Sales in the 1800s - Their Stories & Lessons
Send us Fan Mail A hundred years before many (including myself) thought women really entered sales offices in the 1980s, they were traveling America’s…
The Sales History PodcastThe Sales Genius of Benjamin Franklin
Send us Fan Mail Benjamin Franklin is known as an inventor, printer, scientist, and Founding Father. In this episode, we look at him through a lens he rarely…
The Sales History PodcastThe 1908 Broadway Play That Put Sales on Trial
Send us Fan Mail In 1908, Broadway audiences packed theaters to see The Traveling Salesman, a comedy built on something really familiar - the fact that nobody…
The Sales History PodcastThe Great Sales Irony of Prohibition
Send us Fan Mail The sales profession spent the early 1900s trying to shed the stereotype of the hard-drinking, back-slapping salesman. Then came…
The Sales History PodcastThe Salesman Who Lacked Courage - A Negotiating Story from 1907
Send us Fan Mail Anxiety in negotiating is timeless. In this episode, I tell a story written in 1907 about a salesperson who lacked courage as it relates to…
The Sales History PodcastThe Most Significant Sales Keynote In History
Send us Fan Mail Picture this. A sales conference featuring the then-sitting president of the United States as the keynote speaker. It happened in July of…
The Sales History PodcastHow Legislation Has Shaped the Sales Profession More Than Technology
Send us Fan Mail This may sound crazy, but I truly believe that government legislation has had a larger impact on changing the sales profession than has…
The Sales History Podcast225 Years of Evolving Sales Personas
Send us Fan Mail "The selling methods of any period grow out of the economic situation of the time." - H.K. Nixon, Principles of Selling, 1931 Looking back…
The Sales History PodcastThe 100-Year Sales Echo: Repeating History, and What Happens Next?
Send us Fan Mail In March of 2022, I released an episode of this podcast called "Using History To Predict - The Future of Sales", as we had been repeating the…
The Sales History PodcastThe First National Salesforce: How Cooke’s Sales Army Saved the Union
Send us Fan Mail You’ve heard about Abraham Lincoln. You’ve heard about Ulysses S. Grant. They’re credited with putting down the rebellion during the Civil…
The Sales History PodcastEarly 1900s Sales Hiring: Timeless, or Taboo?
Send us Fan Mail We believe we know today the traits it takes to be a successful salesperson, but do we? In the early 1900s, while many of the thoughts were…
The Sales History PodcastBeyond a Reasonable Doubt: Sales Hasn’t Changed
Send us Fan Mail In this, the 50th episode of The Sales History Podcast, I step into the role of prosecuting attorney to put one bold claim on trial: that the…
The Sales History PodcastThe Tales of an 1800s Traveling Salesman - “Uncle Charlie”
Send us Fan Mail 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…
The Sales History PodcastJohn Patterson's Notes To His Salespeople in 1893
Send us Fan Mail Imagine: it's spring 1893. You're a salesperson for the National Cash Register Corporation (NCR). Your ultimate boss? Oh, it's just the…
The Sales History PodcastWill AI Kill the Sales Profession - What History Tells Us
Send us Fan Mail 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 Sales History PodcastSelling During World War I: Selling With Purpose
Send us Fan Mail 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…
The Sales History Podcast"Bradford, you're fired!" A Salesperson's Story from 1918
Send us Fan Mail 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…
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From Trusted - to Derided. Where the Sales Profession Went Wrong
Send us Fan Mail The beginnings of the modern sales profession (1890-1920) were associated with trust, respect, and even admiration. 100 years later, the sales…
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Pioneering Women in Sales: Barbara Pletcher
Send us Fan Mail Some individuals from sales history moved mountains - and nobody knows about them today! This time, I wanted to highlight one from the 1970s &…
The Sales History PodcastHow Founder Led Sales Changed the World
Send us Fan Mail The way we live today wasn't defined just via the invention itself. Things like the steam engine, telegraph, reaper, highways, the telephone…
The Sales History Podcast10 Strange Quotes/Theories On Sales - From the Early 1900s
Send us Fan Mail The early 1900s were made up of the foundation layers for our great profession. Incredible ideas. Great Writing. Things we all use still…
The Sales History PodcastProspecting Fundamentals - From Sales History
Send us Fan Mail This episode dissects prospecting from 50 to 120 years ago...discussing five key elements: 1) The origins of the word "prospecting" as it…
The Sales History PodcastDeath of a Salesman?
Send us Fan Mail 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?…
The Sales History PodcastDiscounting & Price Cutting: History, Commentary, and Unbreakable Habit?
Send us Fan Mail 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…
The Sales History Podcast10 Mottos For Being Your Best - Circa 1937
Send us Fan Mail 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…
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We Are Selling Ideas, right? Here's 400 Years of "How To" Advice
Send us Fan Mail Sales - the most brilliant minds in the profession view our responsibility as "selling ideas'. Those brilliant minds date back to the 1600s…
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Why Does Sales Exist The Way It Does - And Should It?
Send us Fan Mail Our version of sales recruiting, sales training, dedicated territories, quotas, salary + variable compensation plans, even sales kickoffs all…
The Sales History PodcastSalesman's Creeds - The "In Thing" of the Early 1900s
Send us Fan Mail Salesman's "Creeds" - There was a concept that started popping up around 1905, spreading to individual companies, industries, and eventually…
The Sales History PodcastDon't Be A Dunderblitzen - a Sales Leadership Parable from 1909
Send us Fan Mail It's the story for so many - great at selling, promoted into leadership without training or a holistic understanding of what the role actually…
The Sales History PodcastThe History of Email - in Sales & Marketing
Send us Fan Mail I went digging...into the origins of email as a communication medium. Along the way, I found a ton of really interesting timeline milestones…
The Sales History PodcastSales Compensation Plans: Origins and Lessons from 100 Years Ago
Send us Fan Mail 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…
The Sales History PodcastThe Rise of the Roman Empire – and the Deplorable Salesperson
Send us Fan Mail 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…
The Sales History PodcastThe Nine Traits of a Successful 1913 (and current) Salesperson
Send us Fan Mail If sales has changed so much, why haven't the #salestips? Reading a collection of the top sales tips in 1913 - and I swear I was reading a…
The Sales History PodcastThe Origins of "Modern" Sales Management
Send us Fan Mail There's a direct correlation between the difficulty of the selling environment and the need for optimized sales management. There was a lag…
The Sales History PodcastWhat History Got Right: Setting Sales Quotas
Send us Fan Mail “It is far better that the quota be right than that it be simple.” – 1926 Something odd struck me as I was investigating the origins of quotas…
The Sales History PodcastThe Greatest Sales Books of All Time - The Snubs!
Send us Fan Mail Every "greatest sales book of all time" listing has its share of "snubs", or books that should be on it that aren't. Even worse...I have yet…
The Sales History PodcastThe First Sales Methodology
Send us Fan Mail In another case of a misguided Google result, it's time to set another record straight. What was the first "modern" sales methodology? What…
The Sales History PodcastLessons from the First Sales Kickoff
Send us Fan Mail It's sales kickoff season. Kickoffs, or what was called sales 'conventions", have been around for at least 130 years. Today, we dig into the…
The Sales History PodcastWhat History Got Right: Sales Forecasting
Send us Fan Mail While reading and studying books and magazines on sales leadership from the late 1800s through the 1940s: The problems of sales & leadership…
The Sales History PodcastThe Low Prestige of the Sales Profession
Send us Fan Mail A once admired profession, taught in colleges and high schools in the early 1900s, was detested by the 1960s. Why? And can we get our mojo…
The Sales History PodcastSales Objection Handling - Circa 1907 - 1920
Send us Fan Mail Sales objections - they've been around since the beginning of time. But the amazing thing is, they read almost EXACTLY as they do today…
The Sales History PodcastThe History of Honesty & Transparency In Sales
Send us Fan Mail "If the truth won't sell it, don't sell it." - the words of Arthur Dunn from 1919. In the early 20th century, the sales profession embraced a…
The Sales History PodcastAn "AMA" (Ask Me Anything) Circa 1906
Send us Fan Mail With Ask Me Anything's (AMAs) being all the rage today, there was a similar outlet for salespeople...in 1906! Via Salesmanship Magazine, every…
The Sales History PodcastThe Top 5 Sales Follows - From 1922
Send us Fan Mail Wondering what sales influencers would be the best follows for you on LinkedIn? Well, in today's episode, I give you that list - but from 100…
The Sales History PodcastStories from the 1910s - The First B2C & B2B Cold Calling Campaigns!
Send us Fan Mail An amendment to Season 1, Episode 10's episode on "When Did Cold Calling Begin?", this episode tells of two newly found stories - of the first…
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Using History to Predict - The Future of Sales
Send us Fan Mail If the saying "if we don't know history, are we doomed to repeat it" is true, then why can't we use history to also predict the future? In…
The Sales History PodcastThe OG's of Sales Leadership...were REMOTE Sales Leaders
Send us Fan Mail Isn't it ironic? Today, we fret over the challenge of building and leading teams that are all remote. However, the original sales leaders in…
The Sales History PodcastThe Great Salesperson Purge of the 1920s
Send us Fan Mail 100 years ago - 1922 - the sales world encountered a year with 85% salesperson turnover. You read that right! A year when "sales executives…
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An Interview With A Top Performer - From The Early 1900's
Send us Fan Mail The best podcasts give you access to top performers; salespeople, leaders & influencers, right? But, how about a top performer...from 100+…
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Sales Process: From Buyer-Centric (AIDA) to Seller-Centric (BANT) and Back Again?
Send us Fan Mail The question: Where did the qualification construct BANT come from? In looking for the answer, I realized something... Sales processes of the…
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The Origin of Sales Quotas & Variable Compensation
Send us Fan Mail Sales compensation - commission-only until the 1900's. And, for good reason. You wouldn't pay a rep you rarely see a salary, right? Sales are…
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When Did Cold Calling Begin?
Send us Fan Mail Cold calling - some love it, some hate it, but when did it start? Specifically, when did salespeople start cold canvassing (in-person), and…
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The Origin of "Drummers" & "Bagmen" - The 1800's
Send us Fan Mail Are you responsible for "drumming up business" in your role? Do you "carry a bag" as a salesperson? Do you know where those terms come from?…
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Why Sales History Matters - If We Don't Know It, Are We Doomed To Repeat It?
Send us Fan Mail Many view the past-10-plus-the-next-10-years as a period where technology is and will completely change the sales profession. But if we use…
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The Story of Arthur Sheldon - The G.O.A.T. of Sales Philosophers
Send us Fan Mail If there was a Hall of Fame of sales thought leaders & pioneers, who would you put in it? Zig Ziglar? Dale Carnegie? Brian Tracy? Who else?…