Sales Travel Challenges, A Troll, And The Realization of Modern Comforts

I got lit up by a troll…and in hindsight, maybe he was right. 

I’m right in the middle of a travel binge, flying to a city, speaking, flying to the next, doing it again…six times in less than three weeks.

Due to an unforeseen situation one of the clients experienced, I had to suddenly change destinations. The only flight I could get was on an airline I had no status with, which, combined with it being last minute, resulted in me having a terrible middle seat in the back of a plane.

In a moment of weakness, I tweeted about it. 

This “Mitchell” guy saw it and replied, “The horror WAHHHH” with a bunch of crying emojis.

At first, I let it bother me. 

Then, I read an interview with a salesperson in a 1923 article. As of that year, “Uncle Charlie” Terry had been a traveling salesperson for sixty-four years. At the time of the interview, he was eight-seven years old. 

While we may complain about selling environments today, in what is actually obvious when thinking about it, we are living in the most comfortable period of selling of all time. 

The travel, the illness, the wars, the economy, the inability to communicate or even make simple plans. Something as simple as not having any means to know what to expect in terms of the weather. Reading Charlie Terry’s story made me feel like the biggest wimp on the planet. 

Charles Roy Vance, a writer for the Times-Democrat newspaper out of Arkansas in 1923 wrote,

“The salesman sacrifices his love of his home, and, to be plainer, sells his life for a living. He is tipping bellhops and porters for every little favor. He pays more for his meals and lodging than any other class of men in existence.”

Here’s Uncle Charlie’s story

As a child, Uncle Charlie lived south of Milwaukee in an area that now is called Caledonia. His father was persuaded to move to Chicago. His parents moved, but (for some reason not explained) left Charlie to live with a doctor. He had to do chores to pay for his room, schooling, and food.

Charlie was thirteen years old and missed his family, so he started collecting pennies. He accumulated a whopping eighty cents, and on December 23rd, 1849, he snuck out of the window into a snow drift with his small amount of clothing, and started traveling. 

He made his way to nearby Racine, Wisconsin, where he spent some of that money on breakfast. Then Charlie kept walking, making his way to Kenosha that day. He found someone to take him in for the night, provided him with dinner, a bed, breakfast, and the next morning he kept walking. 

While he had no idea where his parents lived, he found a policeman who helped him find his parents home in Chicago, and arrived just after dark on Christmas Eve. 

He snuck in as his parents had friends over.  They were playing a game called Snap-dragon. Apparently that involved a bowl of brandy and raisins, where the brandy was set on fire. You had to try to snatch a raison from the burning bowl. Sounds like a smart game. I digress…

The reunion was joyous, but he only was able to stay for three years. Cholera broke out in 1852, and may people were dying. He was sent away again, this time out to the western suburbs of Chicago – Aurora, Illinois. 

Charlie knew how to travel – and made that his profession. Beginning in November of 1859, he started out on the road as a salesperson. First buying and reselling furs, traveling on horseback. Keep in mind, this was before cars and airplanes. Even railroads weren’t yet extended far enough to be a viable travel option. 

His next job was selling subscriptions to a local newspaper, then he moved on to sell insurance policies for Aetna. 

In 1861, the American Civil War broke out, and soon after he was enlisted into the military. Uncle Charlie didn’t last long, suffering severe sunstroke which took him years to recover from, resulting in an honorable discharge. 

Charlie went right back to selling insurance, traveling throughout Illinois and Missouri. Most of his time was spent on horseback under what would be considered “pioneer” conditions. 

His favorite story to tell encapsulates what selling must have truly been like at that time. He and another salesperson were traveling through the backwoods of Farmington, Missouri. They had planned to stop for the night, but their meetings ended early, so they decided to press on and hope they’d be able to find a place to stay. 

It was November. It was cold. It started to rain. That, combined with the wind, meant it was time to find shelter, a meal, and a place to sleep. 

At the time, there was an order in Missouri to all residents to not take anyone in unless they were known to be on the Union side of the war. Uncle Charlie was on the Union side, but they had no way to prove it. So, any farmers they asked to let them in for the night turned them away. 

Finally, they found a place; a rough log cabin, where a couple was willing to take them in. The couple and the cabin itself were filthy.

The woman of the house put together something to eat for the two salespeople. Charlie explains that there were two yellow bowls on the table for them, filled with what he called, “rancid grease”. One had a slab of bacon fat, and “in another fried eggs swam in their bath of hot lard. Large quantities of the same greasy ingredient had plainly gone into the overgrown and overweight biscuits.” The woman poured them both a cup of “so called” coffee. Charlie inquired if she had milk for the coffee, and she grabbed the coffee, and (I’m inferring here from the language) she squirted it directly from a cow. 

She handed the cup back to Charlie, who passed it directly onto his companion, responding, “I’ll just take mine black”. 

The two were provided beds – which were in the same room and pressed right up against the farmer’s beds themselves. So, they all slept in the same room and within a few feet of one another. Exhausted and hungry, the two salespeople fell asleep quickly. However, the farmers woke them up at 4am, and aparently weren’t shy about it, and they went on their way. 

Charlie’s career journey was discussed further throughout the interview. He moved to Kansas to sell sewing machines in the 1870s. He sold for the Haydock Brothers Carriage Company starting in 1883, then moved to Iowa to work for another carriage company in 1901. 

Eventually, he moved onto to sell as a “field representative” for Implement and Tractor Trade Journal in 1910, and stayed with that job until the time of the article.

Uncle Charlie’s story is not unique. It was quite a life for him, and a calling for the many, many like him! Because, as Charles Roy Vance wrote,

“He must succeed if the wheels of the great factories and manufactories keep turning. Upon the salesman depends the payroll of the laborer, the shop girl, the office force, and the man must make god if the great wheels of commerce run smoothly.”

Charles Roy Vance was a traveling salesperson himself, having “traveled over fourteen states on horse back, in a buggy, hack, wagon, ferry boats, skiffs, freight trains, log trains, passenger trains, bicycles, automobiles, Fords, and have walked some.” 

Next time I’ll take my back middle seat, and appreciate all that we have today.

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I’m a sales keynote speaker who also teaches revenue organizations how to leverage transparency and decision science to maximize their revenue capacity. It’s what I do…teach sellers, their leaders, well…entire revenue organizations how we as human beings make decisions, then how to use that knowledge for good (not evil) in their messaging (informal and formal), negotiations, and revenue leadership. I wrote a book Book Authority listed as the 6th best sales book of all time (𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘺 𝘚𝘢𝘭𝘦), and a second award-winning book (𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘚𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳).

Reach out if you want to discuss The Transparency Sale sales methodology, or really…anything else (sales kickoffs, workshops, keynotes, the economy, history, etc.)! Email info@toddcaponi.com or call 847-999-0420.

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