The Sales History Podcast

Hosted by Todd Caponi

Business Management

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Latest episode

Oct 2026

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EN-US

About the show

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.

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60 recent

October 22, 2026Episode 822 min

Selling - During the Great Depression

Send us Fan Mail What would it have been like to sell during a depression, and specifically, the Great Depression? In this episode of The Sales History Podcast, I take you through it, starting with the boom and prosperity of 1926, then tracing the collapse into the darkest years of 1932–1933 and the uneven recovery that followed. During the episode, I'll take you through what life actually was like, we'll go into some of the details around why (and how) salespeople were largely excluded from New Deal wage protections, and the advice Norval Hawkins gave businesses in 1931 that is a great way to thinking about selling in any economy. For more, visit me at www.toddcaponi.com . Or, 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 - This revenue leadership book 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. Support the show

October 8, 2026Episode 718 min

Worthington C. Holman - The Ginger Man

Send us Fan Mail In the category of foundation builders in the sales profession that you've got to know, there's Worthington C. Holman. He'd be my fourth on the Mount Rushmore of sales goats. Why? Holman taught an emerging sales profession how to write, and an emerging sales leadership profession how to inspire, through writing, many miles from their teams. He worked under John Patterson at NCR, was a prolific writer on sales and sales leadership, and created the "Ginger Talk". But this isn't just a biography. His writing was next-level creative, hilarious, and I'm envious of his ability to use metaphors and analogies - spineless jellyfish, sidewalk toads, and salespeople needing a little yeast to rise. Learn about the man, his story, hear of many of my favorite analogies, and the story of how he disappeared in his prime...and what happened to him. For more, visit me at www.toddcaponi.com . Or, 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 - This revenue leadership book 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. Support the show

September 24, 2026Episode 622 min

The 1926 Sales Dictionary: The Sales Terminology of 100 Years Ago

Send us Fan Mail In 1926, W.L. Barnhart began publishing something called the Salesman’s Dictionary in How to Sell magazine into 1927. Some of the terms are still familiar today. Others, like “swindle sheet,” “ginger letter,” “information clerk,” and “knights of the grip”, have disappeared completely. And a few, like “character analysis” and “phrenology”, are probably best gone away. In this episode, I take you through some of the language used 100 years ago in the sales profession. What they used, what we’ve just renamed, and some great advice for the sales profession through the dictionary and terms themselves. Another example of how in many ways, sales hasn’t changed much at all. For more, visit me at www.toddcaponi.com . Or, 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 - This revenue leadership book 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. Support the show

September 10, 202621 min

Tin Men: The Scams of the 1960s Aluminum Siding Salespeople

Send us Fan Mail In the 1950s and 1960s, aluminum siding salespeople, known as “Tin Men”, became infamous for some of the most creative and dishonest sales tactics in American history. Bait-and-switch advertising. Fake “model home” discounts. Theatrical calls to nonexistent managers. Broken yardsticks. Phony guarantees, misleading financing, fake deadlines and “free” gifts that were neither free nor delivered. Some salespeople even refused to leave a homeowner’s kitchen until a contract was signed. In this episode, I dig into the aluminum siding history and explore the real schemes that inspired the 1987 movie Tin Men , the government regulations created to stop them, and how the industry transformed the public image of salespeople from semi-trusted professionals into fast-talking, high-pressure manipulators. I may be biased, but some of them are pretty funny, really creative, and sadly, still in use in certain places today. 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. Support the show

August 27, 2026Episode 416 min

Women in Sales in the 1800s - Their Stories & Lessons

Send us Fan Mail A hundred years before many (including myself) thought women really entered sales offices in the 1980s, they were traveling America’s railroads, dirt roads, mining towns, and rural communities, selling books door to door. In this episode, I dug deep into the stories of the women who "carried a bag", literally, in the 1800s, confronting hardship, danger, sexism, and social stigma in pursuit of income, independence, and opportunity. #womeninsales 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. Support the show

August 13, 2026Episode 318 min

The Sales Genius of Benjamin Franklin

Send us Fan Mail Benjamin Franklin is known as an inventor, printer, scientist, and Founding Father. In this episode, we look at him through a lens he rarely gets credit for - and I had no idea about: sales savant. Turns out, Franklin was a master persuader who sold ideas, institutions, French support for the American Revolution, and ultimately consensus around the U.S. Constitution. Through stories from his autobiography and things I dug up from 100+-year-old sales books and magazines, we explore Franklin’s sales philosophies that you can use today. 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. Support the show

July 30, 2026Episode 222 min

The 1908 Broadway Play That Put Sales on Trial

Send us Fan Mail 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. Support the show

July 16, 2026Episode 114 min

The Great Sales Irony of Prohibition

Send us Fan Mail 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. Support the show

December 18, 2025Episode 1216 min

The Salesman Who Lacked Courage - A Negotiating Story from 1907

Send us Fan Mail Anxiety in negotiating is timeless. In this episode, I tell a story written in 1907 about a salesperson who lacked courage as it relates to delivering and negotiating price. It has so many lessons that are still so applicable today. This 115+ year old problem matters more today than ever. Today, we're still treating negotiating like it's the peak of the selling engagement, versus the early milestone it truly is. We are taught to defend, explain, and concede, eroding trust right at the goal line instead of negotiating on a sound foundation that builds trust. If negotiation feels like the moment everything goes sideways, this episode will help you understand why and how to change it. COMING IN JANUARY OF 2026 - Four Levers Negotiating - chock full of history quotes, too...pre-order now. @saleshistorian on Instagram - daily quotes, pics & comics from the past (and can also be found @saleshistorian on X, too) 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. Support the show

November 13, 2025Episode 1113 min

The Most Significant Sales Keynote In History

Send us Fan Mail Picture this. A sales conference featuring the then-sitting president of the United States as the keynote speaker. It happened in July of 1916. It wasn’t because the president had nothing going on that day, happened to be in town, and decided to swing by. A world war was raging in Europe. What we now know as World War 1. It was because Woodrow Wilson had an important message for the sales world that day. It was the United States' opportunity to establish itself as a world superpower…and it depended largely on salespeople to make it happen. He had four lessons he wanted every salesperson to hear clearly and embrace. It was the most significant sales keynote speech of all time… these are the lessons. @saleshistorian on Instagram - daily quotes, pics & comics from the past (and can also be found @saleshistorian on X, too) 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. COMING IN JANUARY OF 2026 - Four Levers Negotiating - chock full of history quotes, too...pre-order now. Support the show