The 1908 Broadway Play That Put Sales on Trial
In 1908, Broadway audiences packed theaters to see The Traveling Salesman, a comedy built on something really familiar – the fact that nobody trusted salespeople.
In this episode, I take you through the play, exploring how the sales profession went from untrusted to trusted and back again, and what this old play can teach us about buyer skepticism, transparency, and reputation.
For more, 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 – The book on revenue leadership 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.