Sales Historian

Happy Birthday to the GOAT of sales philosophers. Arthur Sheldon, born on May 1st, 1868, would be 158 years old today. His framed picture sits behind me here in the sales history museum. First to create public-facing sales training correspondence courses, all based on SERVICE!

I am fascinated by reading the 1931 editions of Nation's Business Magazine - right in the heart of The Great Depression. In an article, the writer argues that people saw the depression coming, but didn't want to say anything for fear it might speak it into existence.

Frank Gray's article on "Better Selling" in a 1956 edition of Salesman's Opportunity wrote all about how buyers need to know what they can count on, judging only by results. "...not a question of what a man says he can do. It is what he does do." True then. True today.

Act like you've been there before, right? In Walters and Wingate's Fundamentals of Selling from 1942, this image says, "The salesman should give the impression that taking orders is a mere routine matter. He should avoid becoming nervous and excited."

I've been studying The Great Depression, and what sales was like back then. Salespeople lost their courage. In 1931, W.T. Grant encouraged salespeople to get their mojo back in this quote from Nation's Business magazine. #saleshistory #greatdepression #salestips

Such a cool picture of @FirestoneTires first sales kickoff, called a convention from 1906. #saleshistory

Never bash your competitors. We know this. We still do it. But this advice is as old as the modern profession. In this clip, I take you back to 1894, from the book The Art of Canvassing by William Miller. #saleshistory

Be a foxier fox - this was the caption for a 1906 comic from Salesmanship magazine where the author tells of the fox who can't quite reach the grapes, then makes excuses for why the grapes were probably bad anyway. Salespeople do this, too, and the lesson is to own it.

1930: “There never was and never will be a salesman who will reach the pinnacle of success without having ABSOLUTE CONFIDENCE.” - J.E. Greenslade, NSTA Lecture Series, Book No. 7

The first 30 seconds - the most important part of any sales cycle. That, according to Jack Lacy's 1954 Sales Pushups series.

Sure it feels good to be honest and trustworthy, but I wrote it in The Transparency Sale, and George H. Read believed it in 1931 in his book, The New Salesmanship. It sells better to be honest, transparent, and helpful!

April Fool's Day? More like April "Full" Day, according to this cover of Salesology Magazine from 100 years ago - the April, 1926 edition.

There was an entire era of sales kickoffs where organizations staged a play...with professional actors, etc. In 1955, Chevrolet went full Broadway style, and just wait until you hear the song at the end of this one!

After almost 1,500 separate posts here and @saleshistorian on Instagram on sales history, coupled with engagement going almost down to zero, time to change things up a bit... #saleshistory

Who wants to sing along? The "Song of a Salesman", from Alden Hiern in 1955!

Ok, what's the @ChicagoTribune trying to say in this 1955 comic regarding the outlook for the rest of 1955? Are salespeople the horse's ass of business? 😁 #saleshistory

What's the maximum sales manager-to-salesperson ratio? In 1917, George L. Williams believed it to be no more than 15-20. Remember, all your reps were remote back then. #saleshistory #salesleadership

At NCR, once you finished your "Agents Training School" - where "agents" were salespeople, you received a diploma. Here's one from 1904.

How to make your cold calls hot, circa the October 1956 article by Earl Prevette? "Make the prospect the center of your sales canvass. Make him the hub in your wheel. Make him the spider in the web." #salesprospecting (Canvassing was the common term for prospecting at the time)

In the January 1919 edition of Sales Management Magazine, the results of an analysis of the reasons underlying salespeople's failures were shared. They studied 207 of them, and these were the results. 4% "went stale"? Do salespeople have an expiration date? 😀