The Sales History Podcast

Audio Podcast Audio Podcast Todd CaponiPodcast Episode DescriptionCold calling - some love it, some hate it, but when did it start? Specifically, when did salespeople start cold canvassing (in-person), and when did they start doing it using the telephone?The...

Audio Podcast Todd CaponiPodcast Episode DescriptionAre you responsible for "drumming up business" in your role? Do you "carry a bag" as a salesperson? Do you know where those terms come from? They come from the traveling salespeople of the 1800s. In today's...

Audio Podcast Todd CaponiPodcast Episode DescriptionMany 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 use history as a guide, where technology was changing an awful lot more than...

Audio Podcast Todd CaponiPodcast Episode DescriptionIf there was a Hall of Fame of sales thought leaders & pioneers, who would you put in it? Zig Ziglar? Dale Carnegie? Brian Tracy? Who else? Arthur Sheldon needs to be on that list - I'd argue ahead of all...

Audio Podcast Todd CaponiPodcast Episode DescriptionPhrenology. Physiognomy. Graphology = A couple of the sales methodologies of 100 years ago that may sound really strange to us today, but were embraced and pervasive back then. So pervasive, the Ford Motor Company...

Audio Podcast Todd CaponiPodcast Episode DescriptionWe so often hear and see people proclaiming that "Sales should be taught in college". Well, it was...and in high school, too, back in the early 1900's. The most prominent universities in the country (Harvard,...

Audio Podcast Todd CaponiPodcast Episode DescriptionImagine, it's 1920, and someone is sitting around asking themselves, "I wonder what the history of sales is". They do the homework, then they write about it. Well, I found it. And in this episode, I summarize it -...

Audio Podcast Todd CaponiPodcast Episode Description105 years ago - the sales profession was not only respected & trusted, it was admired! As evidence, the first World Sales Congress was taking place in Detroit, keynoted by the President...in the middle of a...

Audio Podcast Todd CaponiPodcast Episode Description"Salesmanship" - a pervasive word at the time, but that doesn't necessarily mean women didn't play a prominent role in the profession 100+ years ago. And even more amazing, in this episode, I tell the story of...