The Top 12 Technological Inventions That Changed Sales Forever

They say, “AI is the most significant technological invention to ever hit the sales profession”. I say, “Meh.”

I made a list of every technological invention that transformed the practice of selling over the past 150 years. Then, I created my top 10…I needed 12 to get to AI, and I’m not even that confident it should be there. Yet. What say you?

1. The Telephone – turned selling from purely face-to-face into a remote-capable function. It created inside sales, accelerated everything, and drove the invention of call metrics

2. The Automobile – traveling salespeople became the lifeblood of commerce, especially during the Industrial Revolution. Territories expanded, and efficiency exploded.

3. The Typewriter – it professionalized correspondence. Proposals, contracts, customer letters, etc. Made them not only legible, but scalable

4. Photography and Motion Pictures – products could now be seen instead of just described. Early sales catalogs, then even film reels, became the first demos.

5. Air Travel – A single salesperson could now manage multiple states, multi-national companies, quickly and efficiently. Changed the definition of territory and quotas.

6. Radio & Television – You could now persuade at scale, which greatly accelerated marketing-driven selling. Perception before contact was forever changed.

7. The Personal Computer – It not only put an incredible tool in the hands of salespeople (eventually CRM, quoting, forecasting, presentations, communications), but made selling data-driven, too.

Telemagic software – widely regarded as the first CRM…just before ACT!

8. Email – Immediate asynchronous communication revolutionized sales cadence. Salespeople could now manage many relationships simultaneously, automate follow-up, etc.

9. The Internet – Exploded information accessibility to both buyers and sellers. Reshaped the entire persuasion game and birthed the need for transparency (shameless plug for The Transparency Sale, I know)

10. Customer Relationship Management Systems – Made sales organization and organizations visible. Could now track and understand every conversation, deal, and forecast.

11. Video Conferencing – Made visual selling possible, where you could now blend in-person selling with the efficiency of remote selling. Drove the global, hybrid sales model.

12. Artificial Intelligence – Theoretically, if done right, it should be the greatest salesperson teammate, shifting salespeople from messengers to strategists. But we’ll see…

Do you agree? What would you replace or add?

Here’s the honorable mentions…according to me:

Electric light/electrification | Mass railroad networks | Postal service evolution | Printing press | Telegraph | Fax machines | Credit cards | Spreadsheet software | Beepers | Mobile phones | Smart phones | Mobile apps | PowerPoint | Barcoding | eCommerce | Seach engines | Social media (i.e., LinkedIn) | Cloud computing | Video conferencing | Online reviews | Digital payment systems

I’m Todd Caponi, CSP®. (<– links to LinkedIn)

I’ve written three books so far, The Transparency Sale, The Transparent Sales Leader, and my soon to be released Four Levers Negotiating.

I’m a sales keynote speaker and sales trainer, focused on teaching 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), sales negotiations, sales presentations, and revenue leadership.

Reach out (email to info@toddcaponi.com) – for inquiries about speaking at your event or sales kickoff, for programs to upskill your customer-facing teams and leaders, or just to nerd out on sales or sales history.

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