Birth of a Salesman: The Transformation of Selling in America

Friedman chronicles the remarkable metamorphosis of the American salesman from itinerant amateur to trained expert. From the mid-19th century to the eve of World War II, the development of sales management transformed an economy populated by peddlers and canvassers to one driven by professional salesmen and executives.

Table of Contents:
Contents Prologue, 1916: The First World's Salesmanship Congress Introduction: The Science of Selling 1. Hawkers and Walkers: The Independent Peddler 2. Selling Ulysses S. Grant: The Art of the Canvasser 3. Forging a National Marketplace: The Traveling Salesman 4. Fifty-Seven Varieties: Sales Managers and Branded Goods 5. The Pyramid Plan: John H. Patterson and the Pursuit of Efficiency 6. Salesology: Psychologists, Economists, and Other Sales Experts 7. Instincts and Emotions: Walter Dill Scott and the Bureau of Salesmanship Research 8. A Car for Her: Selling Consumer Goods in the 1920s 9. Selling Salesmanship: Public Relations and the Great Depression 10. Beyond Willy Loman: American Salesmanship Today Appendix Notes Acknowledgments Illustration Credits Index

About the Author :
Walter A. Friedman is a historian at Harvard Business School and coeditor of Business History Review.

Review :
The history Friedman weaves is engrossing and the book hits stride with entertaining chapters on Mark Twain's marketing of the memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant (apparently Twain was as talented a businessman as a writer) and on the shift from the drummer--the middleman between wholesalers and regional shopkeepers--to the department store...In Birth of a Salesman, Friedman has crafted a history of an 'inherently unlikable process' with depth, affection and intelligent analysis. -- Carlo Wolff Boston Globe 20040516 Walter A. Friedman's Birth of a Salesman...should be required reading for anyone who watched The Apprentice for more than Omarosa's spat of the week. It's a much needed history of salesmanship in America, and a portrait of capitalism in transition. -- Jori Finkel Village Voice 20040608 Here is an account of how the hawker, the street peddler, the lowly bagman, then the exhausted and ridiculed Willie Loman figure evolved into the mighty selling and marketing gurus of today, surrounded and supported by a battery of psychologists, economists, colour consultants, social scientists, statisticians, advertising experts and--yes!--philosophers. Financial Times 20040522 In Birth of a Salesman, Walter A. Friedman traces the evolution of the modern salesman from peddlers, hawkers and canvassers of pre-industrial America. -- Harold Perkin Times Literary Supplement 20040709 [Friedman] perceptively chronicles significant inventions, products, events, and people that have shaped the philosophy of selling. A historian at the Harvard Business School, Friedman focuses on the period from the mid-nineteenth century to the eve of World War II, a time when the concept of salesmanship came to the fore in business. Modern principles for selling were developed during those decades, he argues, and, except for some tweakings to meet the times, little has changed since. -- Peter Krass Across the Board 20040701 In Birth of a Salesman, business historian Walter A. Friedman traces the history of salesmanship from its roots in peddling and the door-to-door marketing of Ulysses S. Grant's memoirs and Fuller brushes through the development of scientific selling and marketing by National Cash Register, Ford, Coca-Cola, and IBM. Friedman is a breezy writer with a good eye for cultural and social artifact, like the list of 10 things wives could do to help their NCR-salesmen husbands succeed. But he also has an important point to make: that it wasn't just the genius for making products that propelled the U.S. economy but the knack for creating a demand for things people never knew they wanted. Washington Post 20040815 As Birth of a Salesman makes clear, salesmen--and women--have long been a vital force in driving the economic engine of the United States. Friedman conveys his thesis in a winning book that begins with descriptions of itinerant peddlers and canvassers in the early part of the 19th century...With Birth of a Salesman, he has certainly gone a long way toward fostering a greater awareness and appreciation of this often-maligned profession. -- Thomas J. Brady Philadelphia Inquirer 20041219 This is a carefully researched and closely contextualized study of a relatively neglected, though central, character in American capitalist society during a period when the economy underwent a transformation. An archive-based study of the role of salesmen in business and the evolution of the system of selling which determined their activities contributes much to an understanding of the history of business...A lively narrative describes the development of the selling function in America, beginning with the activities of peregrinating "hawkers and walkers" to the burdensome role imposed by the aggressive marketing regimes introduced by the large, bureaucratically managed companies. -- Roy Church Business History [A] systematic, yet lively and energetic history...Friedman has written a fine book and it deserves a wide reading. -- Burton Folsom Indiana Magazine of History 20070601