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 1908 Broadway Play That Put Sales on Trial
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In 1908, Broadway audiences packed theaters to see The Traveling Salesman, a comedy built on something really familiar - the fact that nobody trusted salespeople.
In this episode, I take you through the play, exploring how the sales profession went from untrusted to trusted and back again, and what this old play can teach us about buyer skepticism, transparency, and reputation.
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.
Podcasts we love
Check out these other fine podcasts recommended by us, not an algorithm.