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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. In today's episode, I want to take you through two underappreciated eras that literally flipped the sales profession completely upside down...and we don't even think about them.

In the early 1900s, it was the automobile that flipped the sales profession. In the 1950s, the rise of automation and technologies suddenly started mechanizing the sales force.

At both times, like every other, it brought more effectiveness and efficiency, but also higher expectations, pressure, and damage to the sales profession's reputation. There are so many lessons for us today...the technology changes so much, but the human requirement never disappears; it shifts. Every. Single. Time.

For more, visit me at www.toddcaponi.com. Or, check out:

@saleshistorian on Instagram - quotes, pics & comics from the past (and can also be found @saleshistorian on X, too)

Four Levers Negotiating - Why do we change personalities at the goal-line of our deals - from building trust to lying - and from focusing on the customer's outcomes to focusing only on our own? It's no longer sustainable. The book lays out a simple way to build trust and add deal value, drawing on lessons from sales history.

The Transparent Sales Leader - This revenue leadership book includes several quotes and lessons from past sales.

The Transparency Sale - the first book, (ironically) named one of the top 100 sales books of all time.

or reach out to info@toddcaponi.com

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What would it have been like to sell during a depression, and specifically, the Great Depression? In this episode of The Sales History Podcast, I take you through it, starting with the boom and prosperity of 1926, then tracing the collapse into the darkest years of 1932–1933 and the uneven recovery that followed.

During the episode, I'll take you through what life actually was like, we'll go into some of the details around why (and how) salespeople were largely excluded from New Deal wage protections, and the advice Norval Hawkins gave businesses in 1931 that is a great way to thinking about selling in any economy.

For more, visit me at www.toddcaponi.com. Or, check out:

@saleshistorian on Instagram - quotes, pics & comics from the past (and can also be found @saleshistorian on X, too)

Four Levers Negotiating - Why do we change personalities at the goal-line of our deals - from building trust to lying - and from focusing on the customer's outcomes to focusing only on our own? It's no longer sustainable. The book lays out a simple way to build trust and add deal value, with many lessons from sales history throughout.

The Transparent Sales Leader - This revenue leadership book includes several quotes and lessons from past sales.

The Transparency Sale - the first book, (ironically) named one of the top 100 sales books of all time.

Support the show

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 Mount Rushmore of sales goats. Why? Holman taught an emerging sales profession how to write, and an emerging sales leadership profession how to inspire, through writing, many miles from their teams. He worked under John Patterson at NCR, was a prolific writer on sales and sales leadership, and created the "Ginger Talk".

But this isn't just a biography. His writing was next-level creative, hilarious, and I'm envious of his ability to use metaphors and analogies - spineless jellyfish, sidewalk toads, and salespeople needing a little yeast to rise. Learn about the man, his story, hear of many of my favorite analogies, and the story of how he disappeared in his prime...and what happened to him.

For more, visit me at www.toddcaponi.com. Or, check out:

@saleshistorian on Instagram - quotes, pics & comics from the past (and can also be found @saleshistorian on X, too)

Four Levers Negotiating - Why do we change personalities at the goal-line of our deals - from building trust to lying - and from focusing on the customer's outcomes to focusing only on our own? It's no longer sustainable. The book lays out a simple way to build trust and add deal value, with many lessons from sales history throughout.

The Transparent Sales Leader - This revenue leadership book includes several quotes and lessons from past sales.

The Transparency Sale - the first book, (ironically) named one of the top 100 sales books of all time.

Support the show