History of Sales

Trading or buying & selling was one of the first activities after being clothed and fed that individuals or tribes engaged in. Selling has been a part of human activity since the earliest times.

That said the establishment of selling as a career and profession is a comparatively recent development

Whilst every country will have it’s own historical context surrounding the development of sales and selling as a intrinsic part of their economy. In terms of modern history, the American experience is perhaps the most well recorded and  documented.

As the vast hinterland was opened up, the advent of the railway provided the technological trigger to easier travel also enabling delivery of the purchased products in a relatively safe and time efficient manner. Combine this with the flood of new immigrants from Europe who did not have the monetary means to buy a business or the professional qualifications to be employed, and who had the immediate need to create a living from scratch. They were employed as door to door salespeople or as hawkers on the street.

Salespeople were called many different names, peddlers, hucksters, hawkers, canvassers, tinkers, or drummers. The travelling peddler with their sample case visited far flung homes and farms offering the latest products the result of the advances in design and manufacturing in the industrial age reducing work at home or on the farm, appealing to their desire to educate their children or increase the decoration in their homes that they might appear more educated, more well off than their neighbors. The products were wide ranging including brushes, books, clocks, pots & pans, sewing machines, farm equipment and even weather vanes.

Where as some walked or travelled and knocked on doors at homes and farms others walked the boardwalks of towns “hawking” their wares. In both cases sales were usually to individuals on a transactional selling basis, making a one off sale and moving on.  In the early days travelling salesman showed samples of the products and how they were used took the orders and money and sent the order to the office to be supplied, Hawkers usually purchased the products themselves at a discount sold them and them and repeated the process or sold products on straight commission only..

As the products became more sophisticated and more expensive, more skill was required to sell them and the manufacturing or distributing companies started to appoint a permanent sales force. These “commercial or travelers” or “ travelling salesman” earned more money and had more prestige, they were also more interested in building a client base and receiving repeat business, although sales were still mainly transactional.

The companies in most cases in the industrial cities and ports of the east from the a geographically distant from the actual sales person or the customers. The salesman having been signed up by the company worked in a designated areas or territories or roamed all over depending on the size of the business. The goods were paid for in advance for the goods to be dispatched direct the customer.

As communication was slow and the sales person so distant these companies put great effort into providing every possible support to their sales people to keep them motivated and working. They produced manuals, with instructions on live, how to dress, how to conduct one self, product details and features, sales scripts with tips on how to initiate the conversation and the steps towards securing the sale. Some of the first recorded experience from salespeople was that of sales people selling  bibles for the American Bible Society, who in 1853 had a twenty four page manual to guide their sales people. It was around this time also that one could say the first sales process manuals were being used also.

As sales increased regional offices were opened in cities closer to the end customer and managers appointed to run sales people in their territories.

According to census records in 1890 there were 60,000 + commercial travelers employed in selling products throughout the USA although this figure is thought to be very conservative.

The number of “Commercial Travelers” created it’s own market for magazines, books and associations to represent these sales people and numbers of different trade magazines and journals sprung to promote, educate and inform sales people

One of the first B2B sales was the cash register and John H Patterson of NCR not only created the global company you see today but analyised and modernised salesmanship as it then was. He was also one of the first to use territories sales managers, introduce sales training, have a defined sales process including scripts

In 1916 over 3,000 salespeople attended the World salesmanship Congress in Detroit The congress instigated and promoted by the owner and editor of “Salesmanship” magazine was to “promote the dignity of salesmanship by the elevation of the rank of the salesman to a higher plane”  The congress was attended by President Woodrow Wilson who was the keynote speaker, and a senior executives from Ford including Henry Ford and Norval Hawkins, Ford Sales director, NCR, Frank Dodge of Burroughs Adding machine CEO, Automobile manufacturers, Insurance companies, Real estate companies and others.

In the 1920s larger companies which had been supplying industrial goods converted their factories to appliance and consumer goods and household spending and the percentage of homes with washing machines vacuum machines, irons, toasters all sold largely sold by door to door salesman. In addition the development of credit agencies opened up more opportunities to sell more expensive goods specifically cars but also required a significant lift in salesmanship. The automotive companies were some of the first to instigate sales training for new recruits and refresher courses for existing sales people.

The next 20 years through to the end of the second world war the predominant influence on sales was the growth of advertising and marketing industry which all but overshadowed salesmanship.

After war as factories began to once again convert from industrial & military supplies to other commodities once again we saw the expansion of sales forces across America. In 1949 Arthur Miller wrote “ Death of a salesman” to critical and commercial acclaim placing salesman at the centre of business development, and heralded in the new era of trade and expansion of businesses on a global basis.

The 1950s & 60s saw an exponential growth in the range of products available, with raised income levels and living standards, and growing numbers of salesman and sales teams to sell ever increasing ranges of products and services.

Key figures developed new sales techniques such as J Douglas Edwards who built a global sales force in the insurance industry, were followed and copied by similar leaders in other industries creating new systems for

Sales methods hitherto contained within individual companies began more generic and sales training organisations grew to service the ever increasing demand for higher skilled salespeople and new and better methods and ways of doing things. The ability to record cassette tapes with sales training for use at home or in the car became commonplace followed by the video cassette in seventies and eighties and then videos lead to growth of training organisation and the dissemination of sales methods and systems.

Sales trainers such as Tom Hopkins, Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracey became household names in sales organisations with their books tapes, video courses being an industry in itself