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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW/
Piano selling should be one of the most dignified of trade pro-
fessions, and it can be made so, if the men who are engaged in it
show the respect for their business which the doctor or lawyer ex-
hibits for his profession in equipping himself for his task. There
are to-day schools of salesmanship in some of the educational insti-
tutions, a fact which proves the correctness of our argument made
years ago, that every salesman should look upon his work as pro-
fessional work.
N
ATURE never meant to make one man just like another,
therefore if we try endlessly to copy the style of the other
fellow we sacrifice our own individuality, and in the end must be
content to be a tailender all our days. Therefore, every sale and
every customer requires special treatment, and to sell pianos suc-
cessfully every obstacle should be met. To do this, it requires a
study of the case in all its bearings, because it may be necessary
to blaze a new trail in order to have the hunt end successfully. If
a prospective piano purchaser's argument is worth something to
him, it must be worth something to the salesman who listens to him
as well, for until he listens and gains the ideas of the men whom
he is endeavoring to sell, he cannot be expected to meet those argu-
ments and impress the prospective customer with his sincerity and
knowledge of the situation.
E
VERY situation must be met and conquered, if the business is
to be successful, and sometimes the demands made by a
piano prospect must be cleverly turned. Sometimes the most diffi-
cult customer on earth is the one who sits back and says nothing,
but a good salesman is carefully winning his point while the other
man is listening. He isn't firing his heaviest arguments until he gets
near the firing line, because the clever salesman is not going to shoot
off in the air, but he will save his ammunition until he has some-
thing to shoot at, and when the objects begin to materialize he has
something then to test the efficacy of rapid fire guns.
S A L E S M A N S H I P is a science, therefore it pays to take a lesson
K 3 from science. What use would a railroad company have for
an engineer who wanted to circle every hill in his construction of
a road? He must cut through in order to be worth anything, and
the man who blindly follows the easiest way grows weaker and
finally fails through lack of ability to make headway. The man who
cuts through, who finds new means, adds to his power and knowl-
edge with every victory, and in the end he can successfully land the
biggest deal. A salesman has got to land big deals nowadays if he
expects to draw a good salary, and one thing is pretty certain that
whether a man is selling pianos, or peanuts, he will not draw a good
salary unless he earns it. The business man demands that the goods
be delivered and he is ready to pay for them, whether it is brains,
salesmanship or instruments. The values must be there, however.
r
I A HERE are some of the members of the Dealers' National
X
Association who are most enthusiastic regarding the pro-
posed trade exposition to be held at Washington during Conven-
tion week next year. This enthusiasm, however, has not as yet
extended to the manufacturing department of the industry. Tn
fact, there is a decided opposition to the move in manufacturing
circles, and no arguments have been presented thus far which have
caused the manufacturers to swerve from their original opinion,
and that is that an exposition on the lines proposed, as a business
proposition, would not be profitable.
One thing is certain, that some manufacturers will send sam-
ples to Washington, but there has been nothing drawn forth as yet
to warrant the belief that there will be a large, comprehensive ex-
hibit in evidence.
T
H E Dealers' Association has opened the door for commercial
purposes, and one of the former officers, while chatting
recently with The Review, said that he believed a considerable
number of manufacturers would send on sample exhibits with sales-
men in charge, and that, in his opinion, much good would result
therefrom.
It is sure' if this plan obtains to a large degree, Washington
will be a pretty lively city between the regular meetings, and the
invitations extended to dealers to visit so and so's exhibit will keep
them hustling.
Will the exhibits prove more potent in their attraction than
the regular meetings of the convention ? That's the question.
Another former officer of the association remarked to The
Review that he believed that there should be a sufficient power of
attraction in the regular meetings of the organization to help the
dealers without interjecting the commercial spirit to such an extent
that it would probably detract from the interests in the association,
and the matters which should be discussed at the various meetings.
T
HE utterances of some of our lesser contemporaries upon the
situation in the talking machine field reach a position of real
humor. Obviously the editors have just become cognizant of the
fact that there is "something doing" in talking machines. One
contemporary waxes hysterical upon the subject, and another doubt-
fully suggests that there "may be money in talking machines." Still
another has been interviewing talking machine men as to the "per-
manency of the business."
Indeed, that is newspaper enterprise with a vengeance. This
institution for years has paid particular attention to the talking
machine trade, and has encouraged its development. More than a
year ago we opened a special department, and have devoted from
one to four pages weekly to the interests of the talking machine
trade. We have in this department, proven by facts, that it was
possible for dealers to add materially to their income by handling
talking machines. We also have been careful to impress upon them
the necessity of exploiting them properly. In other words, to make
a "special department and not show the few instruments in an indif-
ferent manner, and expect profitable trade to materialize.
T the beginning of the present year we put forth "The Talking
Machine World," which is the only journal published in
this country devoted exclusively to the interests of the talking ma-
chine trade. This publication is now a handsome volume of forty
pages and contains more ems of matter in every issue than is con-
tained in the regular issues of at least three of the music trade
papers. We have expended thousands of dollars in advertising and
pushing this paper in all parts of the world, and as a result of our
work, a substantial subscription list amounting to thousands of
copies has been built up. We may say that this institution, through
the two publications which we control, has been the direct means
of increasing the sale of talking machines hundreds of thousands
of dollars throughout the world, and some of our contemporaries
now exhibit surprising enterprise by announcing sagely that the
"dealers might investigate this matter." Some of them know abso-
lutely nothing about the marvelous developments which have taken
place in sound reproduction within the past few years.
Investigate! Why hundreds of them have been making
thousands of dollars out of .sales of talking machines. The sales
made by that eminent Pacific Coast house, Sherman, Clay & Co.,
amounted to more in talking machines last year than their sales in
pianos, and these enterprising contemporaries of ours have just
become awakened to the fact that there is money to be made in talk-
ing machines. Of course there is—good money, and special de-
partments should be fitted up. There should be sound-proof rooms
for the testing of records sufficiently removed from the general
piano warerooms so that records may be tested without interfering
in the slightest with the sale of pianos. The sale of records, too,
cuts a very large figure in the year's profits. We know of one con-
cern who has sold as high as $750 worth of records in a single year
to one purchaser. The recent cut in the prices of records will also
increase the number of sales.
A
E
TERNAL vigilance is the price of success in this age, and no
matter how small a business a man may have, it is worth
looking after with all the care that can be concentrated upon it. It
is probably all that a man has, and if neglected it is hound to die,
and a dying business is a difficult thing to resuscitate. Strenuous,
of course, that is the word that nowadays describes business life,
but the Roosveltian word is nothing to be scared at. It simply
means full play of manly vigor, wholesome exercise of mind and
brain as well as brawn. A new mark set by earnest men to-day is
apt to be overtopped to-morrow by others, who simply will not be
outdone. Some of the new pacemakers are men who have surprised
themselves, most of all by their achievements.
There are some men in this industry who have won a high
position within a few years, so that their advancement becomes
almost phenomenal,