The Power-Filled History of SMEI

Founded in 1935 by IBM founder Thomas Watson and Sales Management magazine publisher Raymond Bill, Sales & Marketing Executives International quickly became the preeminent industry organization. At its first meeting at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York, visionary leaders established the framework for what has lasted 75 years and is still going strong. Those leaders have supported and helped to develop the sales and marketing professions, creating an organization, known the world over as simply SMEI, that exemplifies the very best in the field of professional selling.

Countless hours of volunteer labor has gone into SMEI, and even today, someone in the world is working on SMEI initiatives and incorporating its founding principles certification programs, which offer the CSE®/CME® Professional Certification Program for sales and marketing managers and the SCPS™/SMEI Certified Professional Salesperson Program.

When presidents Don Estrin, CME, and Walter Marzinke, CME, presided over the development and launch of SMEI’s professional certification programs in 1985–86, they couldn’t have predicted that the programs would accept more applications per year (not per capita) from The Peoples Republic of China than from any other country.

In addition to its certification programs, beginning in 1990 SMEI founded the SMEI Academy of Achievement at Enterprise Square USA to support free enterprise and recognize individuals for a lifetime of outstanding achievement in sales and marketing. This year’s award will be presented at the January SMEI meeting in Virginia Beach to the founder of Selling Power, Gerhard Gschwandtner.