What Sales Used to Get Right and Why CEOs Should Bring It Back (Ep175)

Sep 3, 2025 | Sales Talk for CEOs Podcast

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What Sales Used to Get Right and Why CEOs Should Bring It Back (Ep175)

In this episode of Sales Talk for CEOs, Alice Heiman sits down with Todd Caponi, sales historian and author of The Transparency Sale, to explore the forgotten history of sales and why understanding it could completely change how your company grows revenue.

We’ve moved from serving buyers to selling at all costs and it’s hurting your sales team, your customer relationships, and your bottom line. Todd takes us back to the early 1900s, when trust, service, and even high school sales classes were the norm.

What CEOs will learn:

How sales was once respected, admired and taught in schools
When and why we moved from service to high-pressure tactics
What today’s sales orgs can learn from 100-year-old best practices
Why “buyers know more now” isn’t new and never was

Todd brings powerful historical context, rare quotes, and practical examples that challenge how modern sales is built.

Watch below or on our YouTube channel

🔥 Recommendations by Todd

Book: How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
Podcast: The Sales History Podcast (hosted by Todd Caponi)

📚 Books Mentioned in This Episode

The Five Great Rules of Selling by Percy H. Whiting (1940s)
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie (1936)
Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden (1890s)
Salesmanship: Theory and Practice by Thomas Herbert Russell (1910)
The Art of Selling by Arthur Sheldon (1911)
Salesman’s Compensation by Harry R. Tosdal (1953)
Scientific Selling and Advertising by Arthur Dunn (1921)

🧠 Quotes Referenced from Classic Sales Authors

Arthur Sheldon (1911):
“True Salesmanship is the Science of Service. Grasp that thought firmly and never let go.”
Thomas Herbert Russell (1910):
“Buyers know more nowadays.”
(Reflecting concerns about new technologies like mail-order catalogs undermining the sales role, eerily similar to today’s AI discourse.)
Arthur Dunn (1921):
“If the truth won’t sell it, don’t sell it.”