Would you have any interest in me launching a podcast on Sales History?

(my “1-Question” ask is at the bottom)

If someone were to ask me, “What’s your hobby?”, as strange as it sounds, I’d answer, “the history of the sales profession”.

While there was a book 15 years ago on the subject, I’ve found that a lot of it was (a) incorrect, and also (b) missing some incredible information and stories.

As a matter of fact, I spent my downtime over the Labor Day weekend reading the book, Salesmanship, by Elmer Ellsworth Ferris…from 1924. It’s incredible. These books from the early 20th century need to be brought back to life.

I have 5 more books coming over the next two weeks…one I found a copy from and managed to procure from 1918.

The podcast would be a combination of shorter, story focused episodes, plus potentially longer, interview based episodes:

• Stories of sales’ past…the sales methodologies of the 1800’s”Medicine Men” and “Drummers” and the first true sales methodologies.
• The original tactics of prospecting, positioning, sales process, territory management, presenting, and negotiations
• Who were the great sales “influencers” of the time? From Ferris to Aspley to Whiting to Bergdahl…so much incredible content.
• The history of sales resistance, and the tactics used to overcome them. Combatting the door-to-door seller all the way to the invention of caller ID.
• The crazy stuff – phrenology as a sales methodology, chemistry in sales, not being afraid to get physical with a buyer, etc.
• Perceptions of what made a great salesperson – and how closely they match today’s perceptions.
• Interviews: with other sales historians, with some of the grizzled veterans who experienced selling even 30 years ago, etc.

Engagement has been a bit spotty with some of my previous sales history posts. Here are two of them:

• The Pioneer of Sales Enablement: Mark Twain.
• The World Salesmanship Congress – the dawn of sales transparency

Here’s my EXTREMELY QUICK ask.

This is a link to a one-question survey. It simply asks you to score from 1-5 your interest…1 = not interested, 5 = very interested. (it also has a comment box for any anonymous thoughts or suggestions)

1-Question Survey

And, if you are interested, check out www.saleshistorian.com and pop your name/email in the boxes at the bottom to be kept up to date. I stood up a quick website because I wanted to grab the URL. 😄