In the late 1800’s, a traveling book salesman named David H. McConnell noticed a peculiar trend in his business: female customers were more interested in the complimentary perfume samples he gave out with his books than the actual books. Seeing an opportunity, he began hiring an army of female sales representatives to peddle his perfume products (believing that females would be more effective at selling to one another).

In business and in marketing, it’s always imperative to know your customers. McConnell saw an opportunity and pivoted his existing business and sales strategy to meet it head-on.

While there are no statistics on how many books it sells, McConnell’s new company is still going strong today, posting $9.995 billion in revenue in 2013. That company is Avon Products.