The Sales History Podcast
Episodes
The Salesman Who Lacked Courage - A Negotiating Story from 1907
18 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textAnxiety in negotiating is timeless. In this episode, I tell a story written in 1907 about a salesperson who lacked courage as it relates...
The Most Significant Sales Keynote In History
13 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textPicture this. A sales conference featuring the then-sitting president of the United States as the keynote speaker. It happened in July o...
How Legislation Has Shaped the Sales Profession More Than Technology
30 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textThis may sound crazy, but I truly believe that government legislation has had a larger impact on changing the sales profession than has ...
225 Years of Evolving Sales Personas
16 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a text"The selling methods of any period grow out of the economic situation of the time." - H.K. Nixon, Principles of Selling, 1931L...
The 100-Year Sales Echo: Repeating History, and What Happens Next?
02 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textIn March of 2022, I released an episode of this podcast called "Using History To Predict - The Future of Sales", as we had bee...
The First National Salesforce: How Cooke’s Sales Army Saved the Union
18 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textYou’ve heard about Abraham Lincoln. You’ve heard about Ulysses S. Grant. They’re credited with putting down the rebellion during t...
Early 1900s Sales Hiring: Timeless, or Taboo?
04 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWe 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 w...
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt: Sales Hasn’t Changed
21 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textIn this, the 50th episode of The Sales History Podcast, I step into the role of prosecuting attorney to put one bold claim on trial: tha...
The Tales of an 1800s Traveling Salesman - “Uncle Charlie”
07 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textI 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 ...
John Patterson's Notes To His Salespeople in 1893
24 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textImagine: it's spring 1893. You're a salesperson for the National Cash Register Corporation (NCR). Your ultimate boss? Oh, it&a...
Will AI Kill the Sales Profession - What History Tells Us
10 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textIs AI coming for the sales profession? Will "everything change"? Turns out, history can help us predict the future of the sale...
Selling During World War I: Selling With Purpose
26 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWhat 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 b...
"Bradford, you're fired!" A Salesperson's Story from 1918
08 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textIn the January 1918 edition of Business Philosopher Magazine, a story by William W. Woodbridge was printed. It's the story of a dow...
From Trusted - to Derided. Where the Sales Profession Went Wrong
25 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textThe beginnings of the modern sales profession (1890-1920) were associated with trust, respect, and even admiration. 100 years later, the...
Pioneering Women in Sales: Barbara Pletcher
11 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textSome individuals from sales history moved mountains - and nobody knows about them today! This time, I wanted to highlight one from the 1...
How Founder Led Sales Changed the World
27 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textThe way we live today wasn't defined just via the invention itself. Things like the steam engine, telegraph, reaper, highways, the ...
10 Strange Quotes/Theories On Sales - From the Early 1900s
13 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textThe early 1900s were made up of the foundation layers for our great profession. Incredible ideas. Great Writing. Things we all use still...
Prospecting Fundamentals - From Sales History
30 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textThis episode dissects prospecting from 50 to 120 years ago...discussing five key elements:1) The origins of the word "prospecting&q...
Death of a Salesman?
16 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWe've heard it all before - the "death of" this, and the "demise of" that as it relates to the sales profession...
Discounting & Price Cutting: History, Commentary, and Unbreakable Habit?
02 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textLet’s explore sales discounting…it’s history, commentary, and why we haven’t been able to break this terrible habit. It's a...
10 Mottos For Being Your Best - Circa 1937
18 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textIn 1937, Paul W. Ivey released a second edition of his book, Salesmanship Applied. Chapter 6 is one of my favorites from my collection o...
We Are Selling Ideas, right? Here's 400 Years of "How To" Advice
04 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textSales - the most brilliant minds in the profession view our responsibility as "selling ideas'. Those brilliant minds date back...
Why Does Sales Exist The Way It Does - And Should It?
21 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textOur version of sales recruiting, sales training, dedicated territories, quotas, salary + variable compensation plans, even sales kickoff...
Salesman's Creeds - The "In Thing" of the Early 1900s
07 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textSalesman's "Creeds" - There was a concept that started popping up around 1905, spreading to individual companies, industr...
Don't Be A Dunderblitzen - a Sales Leadership Parable from 1909
20 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textIt's the story for so many - great at selling, promoted into leadership without training or a holistic understanding of what the ro...
The History of Email - in Sales & Marketing
10 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textI went digging...into the origins of email as a communication medium. Along the way, I found a ton of really interesting timeline milest...
Sales Compensation Plans: Origins and Lessons from 100 Years Ago
20 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textSales compensation plans - where did they come from? How did they evolve to where they are today? Are there lessons we can learn from th...
The Rise of the Roman Empire – and the Deplorable Salesperson
11 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textCan you imagine - a profession so deplorable that those in it were rounded up and murdered? As crazy as it sounds, I found that it actua...
The Nine Traits of a Successful 1913 (and current) Salesperson
23 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textIf 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 re...
The Origins of "Modern" Sales Management
09 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textThere's a direct correlation between the difficulty of the selling environment and the need for optimized sales management. There w...
What History Got Right: Setting Sales Quotas
23 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a text“It is far better that the quota be right than that it be simple.” – 1926Something odd struck me as I was investigating the origin...
The Greatest Sales Books of All Time - The Snubs!
09 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textEvery "greatest sales book of all time" listing has its share of "snubs", or books that should be on it that aren&ap...
The First Sales Methodology
26 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textIn another case of a misguided Google result, it's time to set another record straight. What was the first "modern" sales...
Lessons from the First Sales Kickoff
12 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textIt's sales kickoff season. Kickoffs, or what was called sales 'conventions", have been around for at least 130 years. Tod...
What History Got Right: Sales Forecasting
06 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWhile reading and studying books and magazines on sales leadership from the late 1800s through the 1940s:The problems of sales & lea...
The Low Prestige of the Sales Profession
17 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textA once admired profession, taught in colleges and high schools in the early 1900s, was detested by the 1960s. Why? And can we get our mo...
Sales Objection Handling - Circa 1907 - 1920
24 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textSales objections - they've been around since the beginning of time. But the amazing thing is, they read almost EXACTLY as they do t...
The History of Honesty & Transparency In Sales
10 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a text"If the truth won't sell it, don't sell it." - the words of Arthur Dunn from 1919. In the early 20th century, the sa...
An "AMA" (Ask Me Anything) Circa 1906
26 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWith Ask Me Anything's (AMAs) being all the rage today, there was a similar outlet for salespeople...in 1906! Via Salesmanship Maga...
The Top 5 Sales Follows - From 1922
12 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWondering what sales influencers would be the best follows for you on LinkedIn? Well, in today's episode, I give you that list - bu...
Stories from the 1910s - The First B2C & B2B Cold Calling Campaigns!
29 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textAn amendment to Season 1, Episode 10's episode on "When Did Cold Calling Begin?", this episode tells of two newly found s...
Using History to Predict - The Future of Sales
15 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textIf 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 ...
The OG's of Sales Leadership...were REMOTE Sales Leaders
01 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textIsn't it ironic? Today, we fret over the challenge of building and leading teams that are all remote. However, the original sales l...
The Great Salesperson Purge of the 1920s
15 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a text100 years ago - 1922 - the sales world encountered a year with 85% salesperson turnover. You read that right! A year when "sales ex...
An Interview With A Top Performer - From The Early 1900's
07 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textThe best podcasts give you access to top performers; salespeople, leaders & influencers, right? But, how about a top performer...fro...
Sales Process: From Buyer-Centric (AIDA) to Seller-Centric (BANT) and Back Again?
24 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textThe question: Where did the qualification construct BANT come from? In looking for the answer, I realized something...Sales processes of...
The Origin of Sales Quotas & Variable Compensation
17 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textSales compensation - commission-only until the 1900's. And, for good reason. You wouldn't pay a rep you rarely see a salary, r...
When Did Cold Calling Begin?
10 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textCold calling - some love it, some hate it, but when did it start? Specifically, when did salespeople start cold canvassing (in-person), ...
The Origin of "Drummers" & "Bagmen" - The 1800's
03 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textAre you responsible for "drumming up business" in your role? Do you "carry a bag" as a salesperson? Do you know wher...
Why Sales History Matters - If We Don't Know It, Are We Doomed To Repeat It?
27 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textMany 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 ...
The Story of Arthur Sheldon - The G.O.A.T. of Sales Philosophers
20 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textIf there was a Hall of Fame of sales thought leaders & pioneers, who would you put in it? Zig Ziglar? Dale Carnegie? Brian Tracy? Wh...
The Weird (by Today's Standards) Sales Methodologies of the Early 20th Century
13 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textPhrenology. Physiognomy. Graphology = A couple of the sales methodologies of 100 years ago that may sound really strange to us today, bu...
Sales Education in College - Pervasive, Disappeared, and Now It's Back!
06 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWe so often hear and see people proclaiming that "Sales should be taught in college". Well, it was...and in high school, too, ...
1920's Telling of "The History of Sales"
29 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textImagine, it's 1920, and someone is sitting around asking themselves, "I wonder what the history of sales is". They do the...
The 1st World Sales Congress & An Admired Profession
22 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a text105 years ago - the sales profession was not only respected & trusted, it was admired! As evidence, the first World Sales Congress w...
The Modern History of Women in Sales & Lucinda Prince
16 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a text"Salesmanship" - a pervasive word at the time, but that doesn't necessarily mean women didn't play a prominent role ...
Was Mark Twain the Pioneer of Modern Sales Enablement?
08 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWilliam Faulkner called him “the father of American literature”. From my research, Mark Twain may also be “the pioneer of sales en...