While there he noticed that, as a category of business activity, sales were largely ignored. The curriculum focused on apparently less grubby topics, like finance and leadership. In "The Art of the Sale," Mr. Delves Broughton argues that sales might just be the noblest of business callings. Defending sales is, well, a tough sell. Mr. Delves Broughton might have quoted from "Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book," a best seller that since 1962 has indoctrinated children to regard selling with suspicion: "Five foot-weary salesmen have laid down their load. / All day they've raced round in the heat, at top speeds, / Unsuccessfully trying to sell Zizzer-Zoof Seeds / Which nobody wants because nobody needs."