The Sales History Podcast
Welcome to The Sales History Podcast, the show that uncovers the forgotten stories, ideas, pioneers, and moments that shaped the sales profession and what they can teach us about selling, leading, and earning trust today.
The show is hosted by three-time award-winning author of The Transparency Sale, The Transparent Sales Leader, and Four Levers Negotiating, who has earned the Certified Speaking Professional keynote speaker designation, is a go-to-market sales trainer, and a sales nerd, Todd Caponi.
The Sales History Podcast
The Great Sales Irony of Prohibition
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The sales profession spent the early 1900s trying to shed the stereotype of the hard-drinking, back-slapping salesman. Then came Prohibition...and suddenly, and ironically, booze became more valuable to the sales profession than ever.
This episode explores how scarcity transformed alcohol into a powerful relationship-building tool, why sales leaders were alarmed by the trend, and what their debate can still teach us about influence, ethics, and creating value over a century later.
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.
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