In the early days of organized selling, when behavioral science was coming of age, some of the companies fielding large numbers of door-to-door sales people turned to the new science for help. They adopted highly manipulative psychological tactics to their selling processes. After championing selling as an honorable profession (and spending over ten years teaching sales people how to sell with integrity and honesty), I was distressed to find a program sponsored by a leading university that taught the kinds of manipulative behavioral skills that helped give selling a bad name over 80 years ago....

​