History of American Sales Culture - part one
History of American Sales Culture - part one
In 1822 James Monroe bought Florida from Spain at a marked-down price of $5,000,000 less than the value of a handful of Google shares of today. Then, just after the Civil War and for no particular purpose, Uncle Sam bought Alaska. He paid $7,200,000 and got plenty of blame for throwing away good money for snow- drifts. For thirty years Alaska was generally regarded as a bad bargain, and then some half frozen trapper found the Klondike. In the best time of the gold-rush Alaska paid for itself, in gold, about once in every four months.
Our fourth real estate purchase was the buying of the Philippines. As to just why we did it no one has ventured to tell, for we first thrashed Spain and then to salve her injured feelings, we gave her $20,000,000 for an archipelago off the coast of China.
This archipelago had not been advertised. It was not up-to-date or serviceable. There was no demand for it. But, as almost all other nations own a few antiques, we thought that we could afford a private collection.
The Panama Canal site cost us $40,000,000; very nearly as much as all the others combined. We paid a million dollars a mile for a non-existent canal, which proves that Roosevelt was at least not as clever a bargainer as Thomas Jefferson. But we had to have it, and it is a source of national pride and marine shipping accomplishment.
So, it was buying and selling that gave us half our territory; and it is also a fact, not usually recognized, that salesmanship played an important part in preserving the Union. While it was Lincoln and Grant who put down the Rebellion, it was Jay Cooke, the famous banker, who sold the bonds and brought in the money.
Jay Cooke was unquestionably the first to launch a national sales campaign. In 1864 he was appointed by Lincoln as Sales Manager of bonds, at a time when the Federal Government was at its wits' end for money. At once Cooke sent out more than four thousand agents. He established a press bureau the first in the world, maybe. And he advertised the bonds in every worthwhile paper in the Northern States.
His fellow-bankers were shocked and astounded at his methods. They said he was no financier, nothing but a peddler of patent medicine. But Cooke only laughed at them and sent out another flood of hand-bills. He had a flaring advertisement hung in every Northern post-office. Such was his energy that in a few months the North went into a fit of bond-madness. After the noise and the shouting were over it was found that Cooke had sold bonds to the face value of $1,240,000,000.
TWELVE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS!
Such was the result of the first national sales campaign in the United States.
End of part I
History of American Sales Culture part one - To learn more about this author, visit Alen Majer's Website.
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On five great historic occasions Uncle Sam went out with his money in his hand and bought more real estate. In 1803 he bought Louisiana from Napoleon for $15,000,000. Thomas Jefferson drove the bargain and actually picked up fourteen new States at a price of two and a half cents an acre. That was the greatest real estate transaction known to history. It doubled the size of the United States and gave us a huge territory.
In 1822 James Monroe bought Florida from Spain at a marked-down price of $5,000,000 less than the value of a handful of Google shares of today. Then, just after the Civil War and for no particular purpose, Uncle Sam bought Alaska. He paid $7,200,000 and got plenty of blame for throwing away good money for snow- drifts. For thirty years Alaska was generally regarded as a bad bargain, and then some half frozen trapper found the Klondike. In the best time of the gold-rush Alaska paid for itself, in gold, about once in every four months.
Our fourth real estate purchase was the buying of the Philippines. As to just why we did it no one has ventured to tell, for we first thrashed Spain and then to salve her injured feelings, we gave her $20,000,000 for an archipelago off the coast of China.
This archipelago had not been advertised. It was not up-to-date or serviceable. There was no demand for it. But, as almost all other nations own a few antiques, we thought that we could afford a private collection.
The Panama Canal site cost us $40,000,000; very nearly as much as all the others combined. We paid a million dollars a mile for a non-existent canal, which proves that Roosevelt was at least not as clever a bargainer as Thomas Jefferson. But we had to have it, and it is a source of national pride and marine shipping accomplishment.
So, it was buying and selling that gave us half our territory; and it is also a fact, not usually recognized, that salesmanship played an important part in preserving the Union. While it was Lincoln and Grant who put down the Rebellion, it was Jay Cooke, the famous banker, who sold the bonds and brought in the money.
Jay Cooke was unquestionably the first to launch a national sales campaign. In 1864 he was appointed by Lincoln as Sales Manager of bonds, at a time when the Federal Government was at its wits' end for money. At once Cooke sent out more than four thousand agents. He established a press bureau the first in the world, maybe. And he advertised the bonds in every worthwhile paper in the Northern States.
His fellow-bankers were shocked and astounded at his methods. They said he was no financier, nothing but a peddler of patent medicine. But Cooke only laughed at them and sent out another flood of hand-bills. He had a flaring advertisement hung in every Northern post-office. Such was his energy that in a few months the North went into a fit of bond-madness. After the noise and the shouting were over it was found that Cooke had sold bonds to the face value of $1,240,000,000.
TWELVE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS!
Such was the result of the first national sales campaign in the United States.
End of part I
History of American Sales Culture part one - To learn more about this author, visit Alen Majer's Website.
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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