CSS was established in 1983, when Katz Broadcasting Company President Dick Ferguson approached Steve Marx, a corporate VP managing the company's Boston/Worcester properties, and asked him to serve as the company's full-time executive in charge of creating sales training systems for the company. Marx responded by creating CSS, the letters originally standing for Counselor Selling System, and its primary training workshop, Customer Focused Selling (a forerunner of today's 3R Selling). By 1985, a management training component was added, the forerunner of today's Talent Focused Management.

In 1986, Katz Broadcasting evolved into NewCity Communications, Inc. Although dwarfed in size by many other radio groups, NewCity was a very forward-looking, forward-thinking group and consistently scored among the top two or three most-admired radio groups in industry surveys. A key reason for its prominence was its well-known and -respected sales training system. In 1987, CSS became a wholly-owned subsidiary, NewCity Associates, Inc., and began serving clients beyond the NewCity group.

The early 1990s witnessed four major events in the evolution of NewCity/CSS. The company acquired its first television station client; then-president Steve Marx purchased NewCity Associates, Inc. from NewCity Communications; president-to-be Jim Hopes joined up with Steve, initiating a strong collaboration that continues to this day; and CSS relocated to Tampa, Florida. In 1996, NewCity Associates changed its corporate name to The Center for Sales Strategy, Inc., and in 1998, the company moved into its current home in the historic Hyde Park district of Tampa.

In the years since 1995, CSS has developed very rapidly, expanding its professional and administrative staff more than five-fold, extending the range of its programs and services substantially, broadening the diversity of its client base beyond broadcasting, and growing to serve a global clientele. Today, The Center for Sales Strategy serves more than 250 media properties (radio, television, newspaper, cable) in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Malaysia, plus media service firms and the world’s largest wholesale auto auction company. For more information, see CSS Clients.