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THE
flUJIC TRADE
SINGLE COPIES, 10 CENTS.
$2.00 PER YEAR.
V O L . X L V I I . N o . 24. Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill at 1 Madison Ave., New York, December 12,1908.
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ATN! That word is the foundation stone of business success! Show the caller how he
gains by purchasing the particular instrument which you are exhibiting to him, and you
win, if your argument is strong enough.
Show your prospect his gain in acquiring your piano and prove it, and you gain.
Snow every customer how he gains not alone in money, but in comfort, satisfaction, well
being and happiness through the purchase of the particular instrument upon which you are con-
centrating your energies for sales purposes, and it proves profitable.
Gain! That is the word which has dominated the minds of men for centuries and it has been
the personal desire for gain which has toppled empires and held up temporarily the wheels of
progress.
Talk is cheap, nowadays, you can buy yards of it on talking machine records, but the strong-
est and most logical argument showing how the customer gains, is, after all, not cheap talk, for it may
result in business growth.
A good many men are inclined to overlook many essentials in their desire to gain patronage,
but it is certain that the most successful concerns in the world are those who do not overlook the
slightest point which can make for their personal gain.
Here's a leaf from Standard Oil history:
A business man had driven from Cincinnati to Cleveland in an automobile, and ran short of a
certain grade of heavy oil that he had used for cross country runs. He made inquiry for that par-
ticular grade at all of the hardware and paint stores in downtown Cleveland. He telephoned to the
Standard Oil Company to ask where he would be able to find that particular brand. The reply
came, to inquire at two o'clock at the company's plant, three miles from the center of the town.
When he arrived, a watchman was waiting for him at the front gate of the shipping yard. He
took the automobile ow r ner back to the shipping office where one employe took the can and went for
the oil. Another took the money, $1.25, and made inquiry as to his name and permanent residence.
When he reached Cincinnati, a letter from the local manager of the Standard Oil Company in that city
reached him, calling his attention to the fact that on a certain day in Cleveland, he purchased two
gallons of a certain grade of oil, and suggested that if, in the future, he had any use for that particular
quality, that they would be very glad to furnish it, and since apparently, he operated an automobile,
they would be pleased to send a fifty-gallon tank to his garage and keep it filled, the storage
capacity being free of charge to him.
It's easy to understand why the annual profits of the Standard reach forty or fifty millions.
The directors are so keen for business, that they have a follow-up system which takes cognizance
of two gallons of oil sold to a possible customer in another city three or four hundred miles away.
Can you beat it?
Not in any follow-up system of which I have knowledge.
Gain, ves; but there are reasons.
EDWARD LYMAN BILL,