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The Sales Historian

@saleshistorian

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Just trying to bring new life to the big brains and sometimes strange ideas of sales history. From @tcaponi CSP®, author, speaker and nerd.

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Think about the cold calling you do today. You're calling outside your own city, right? In 1940, these were the rates for a 3-minute call during working hours. $1.50 in 1940 is $36 in today's dollars...and that's just 3 minutes! You had to make every call count.
#coldcalling by @saleshistorian

Rex Smith rants that all new salespeople want to know is the price and how to discount, but finishes with, “The Crescent Manufacturing Co. has spent too long a time building and maintaining a reputation for quality to have it undermined by even one salesman with a price triangle mind.” by @saleshistorian

As you've probably noticed, I LOVE old magazine covers. This one is from 100 years ago today! October 29th, 1926. Salesology, The Magazine of Salesmanship. by @saleshistorian

Don't think for a minute that sales contests, club designations, and awards are anything new. 90 years ago, Shell had their "Star Sales Club". A lot of inputs went into attaining it, but "an elaborate President's Trophy will be the grand prize". by @saleshistorian

The number of air travelers rose from about 150,000 in 1931 to over 1M in 1936. Pictured: A sales kickoff where a group of reps flew overnight to Cleveland. by @saleshistorian

Comic from a 1959 edition of Sales Management Magazine.
“Aside from the fact that you talked the other seventeen men out of applying for the job, what are your sales capabilities?" by @saleshistorian

What was it like to sell during the Great Depression? Out today, let's go through it in another episode of The Sales History Podcast. Get it wherever you get your podcasts, like iTunes | Spotify | YouTube | Amazon Music | iHeart | etc. by @saleshistorian

“If you want to know how much you will be missed when you quit your job, stick your finger into the ocean, pull it out, and look for the hole – if the ocean is not handy, a bucket of water will do.” - Sheldon (~ 1920) by @saleshistorian

"The salesman who realizes that his main job is to give helpful service rather than to get big orders will find that his sales record improves in direct proportion to his improving sense of service." - George H. Read, The New Salesmanship by @saleshistorian

Great sales quote on the cover of the October 17th, 1917 edition of Business Digest.
"The super-salesman will not only study the immediate needs of his customers, but he will provide against those needs even before the customers realize that they exist." - Charles M. Schwab by @saleshistorian

Frank Farrington, in his 1918 book The Successful Salesman, encouraged his readers to read! I'd argue that today, knowledge isn't only cheap; it's a commodity. You'd better be in a constant pursuit of it... by @saleshistorian

In a 1955 article for "Today's Speech" magazine, Northwestern University Professor Thorne resented the idea that teaching was any form of salesmanship. Here, he rants about the sales profession. 😬 by @saleshistorian