Music Trade Review

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THE
MUSIC
TRA!
SUBSCRIBER says: "1 have been interested in reading your
A
articles on the selling cost of pianos, and it seems to me your
estimate of $70 per piano is a trifle high. What do you estimate the
dealer whose employes are subsidized. It is lamentably weak sales-
manship, and far beneath the dignity of our profession:"
wholesale cost of selling instruments should be?"
We hardly think that our estimate is exaggerated. Of course,
there are individual cases where it costs very much less to sell instru-
ments. There are several men whom we can name who employ no
salesmen, who spend no money for advertising, and who do business
in little dingy places, and to say that it costs them $70 to sell a piano
would be an absurdity. But in figuring our estimates we have to
take a country-wide view of it, and we see no reason to change our
estimates in this particular.
T
R
EGARDING the wholesale selling expense per piano, that is
somewhat difficult to determine, because it varies so much
with different pianos and different salesmen, and the wholesale sell-
ing cost of a piano properly covers so many departments that it is
difficult to estimate just what it should cost to sell an instrument
after it is produced in the factory.
Salaries to wholesale traveling men are not high, when we con-
sider the ability and tactfulness required to successfully carry on a
wholesale campaign. The traveling representative is brought into
the closest touch with the dealer, and his expense varies materially
with the individual. We yet have some men who perhaps have not
a true conception of the traveling man's mission. In the old days it
used to be largely a question of good fellowship, not only in selling
pianos, but in everything else. It seemed to be a regularly under-
stood plan that.when the traveling man struck town he would make
a merry night of it with his trade, and, of course, amid the sundry
popping of corks he would intersperse occasional trade topics.
Serious consideration of business was left until the next day, and
possibly a little wind-up jollification was also in order. All of this
kind of work was not only demoralizing, but degrading to the sales-
man, but it increased the selling cost of all lines of merchandise.
T
HEN again, this is an intensely practical age, and it requires
a clear head and a cool one to conduct business successfully
and to create paying trade, and there are but few T men left in this
industry, if any, who hold their clientage through the expenditure of
money for entertaining purposes. If a man has no element of sales-
manship, no magnetism, no diplomacy, if he is not convincing, and
if he has an undesirable line of goods to sell, all of these impedi-
ments might be overcome in a small degree by a lavish expenditure
for "hospitality/' which is another name for blowing in money. But
it is a colossal misfortune to be forced to resort to such a diaphanous
substitute for intelligent salesmanship. We are not desirous of mak-
ing an estimate of the average wholesale cost of selling pianos; no
good purpose could be served by making such a statement. We
should prefer to individualize, and say rather what it costs a par-
ticular firm to sell its wares at wholesale than give the average cost.
There is one thing certain, however, the wholesale selling cost
is not greater than it should be in most cases. Wines, cigars, dinners
and theaters do not to-day add largely to the wholesale cost of
pianos, and there is not so much buying of favor in a manner that
was so largely in vogue in the early days. The intelligent use of
money only in this era appeals to intelligent people, and we assure
our friends on the road that they stand a much better chance of
success by keeping down their expense accounts and effacing any
desire to treat the buyers to dinners and entertainments, birds and
small bottles.
F
OR years this publication has called attention to the existence of
an unfair competition which if indulged in to a large degree
by the trade would do awav entirely with honest values. For some
instruments were pushed well to the front by the retail salesman
under conditions depending entirely upon what they were receiv-
ing personally on the sale on each individual instrument.
H. O. Fox, who recently resigned from the presidency of the
National Piano Travelers' Association, said in referring to this prac-
tice that he was informed—in fact, that he had evidence to prove j —
that some of the members of the association had been guilty of pay-
ing bribes to retail salesmen for the purpose of securing their favor
in selling certain pianos. Mr. Fox added: "This practice, needless
to say, is entirely wrong. It is a form of extremely unfair compe-
tition as between manufacturer and dealer, and an outrage upon the
HE denunciation of this practice by the former president of the
Travelers' Association resulted in the executive board passing
resolutions and recommending the amendment of the by-laws, so as
to provide for dismissal, or publicity, or both, as a corrective to be
applied to members for conviction under such charges. The Piano
Travelers' Association will certainly gain added strength in the esti-
mation of all fair-minded men by taking such an emphatic move in
endeavoring to crush out completely this admitted evil.
It is said that one salesman in former years used to figure on
spending thousands of dollars in subsidizing salesmen over the coun-
try to push his instruments well to the front. Dealers who bought
his instruments paid a high price for them. They were paying their
salesmen double for selling their pianos, because the prices were
marked up to them on account of a five-dollar note which went to
the salesmen for every piano that they sold of this particular brand.
If this practice should become general, it would do away with
piano values. It would be simply a question of the retail salesman
coming under the influence of the highest bidder. Every branch of
the trade, manufacturers, dealers and salesmen who value their repu-
tations, in future should unite in crushing this insidious form of
graft from the industry. The Travelers' Association certainly has
taken the right stand, one that should receive the heartiest approval.
T
RADE interest has been materially accentuated during the past
week in pending copyright legislation. Leading members of
the trade have been present in Washington, and have presented
their arguments before a Congressional committee. The result of
the hearing will be awaited with much interest, and the opposition
to the bill in its present form has been steadily growing, until to-day
important trade forces, representing many interests, are strongly
arrayed against its passage. A report of the proceedings will be
found elsewhere in this publication.
N Canada they are talking of raising the tariff on American
pianos. The move is hardly necessary, for the present duty
has been sufficient to keep the Dominion market to the home manu-
facturers. There are few American instruments sent to Canada save
some of the higher-priced pianos which appeal to the wealthy people
of Canada. As far as the medium and cheap grade of instruments
is concerned, the tariff practically keeps them out.
It is understood, however, that the factory of the Foster-Arm-
strong Co., at Berlin, Out., is rushed to its utmost capacity. This
concern figured that if they could not get a slice of the Canadian
business from this side they would put a factory in Canada, so that
they could be free to operate upon the same basis as the Canadian
manufacturers.
Judging from present conditions, it will be a long time before
the American piano manufacturers will have an open door in
Canada, and it will be some time before the German piano manu-
facturers send their cheapest piano products to this country. They
have been anxious for some time to see the tariff wall lowered, for
they say that they could compete with the American in his own
market if it were not for the tariff barrier.
I
OME years ago we knew a dealer who occupied an important
position who said that he never believed in advertising, that he
could do business without it. He was doing business then, but he
clung to old fogy methods, and bright, wideawake competition
forced him to the wall, and his name is now but a memory.
The mightiest force in selling goods is advertising, but it must
be supplemented by hard work on the part of the merchant or manu-
facturer. A great deal depends upon the proper display of instru-
ments in the store. There are some dealers who have failed to grasp
the truth of this, and upon entering their store one looks upon a
crowded mass of pianos which are neither displayed properly nor
kept in good condition. Some evidently labor under the impression
that the more instruments they can crowd into the store the better
the appearance. No piano can show to excellent advantage and
impress a customer favorably if it is massed about by other instru-
ments. A well-arranged stock of instruments is a strong magnet
and produces a desire to buy from that stock. It pays not only to
have good advertising, but good display, and, of course, good
salesmen,
S