Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
REM LW
THE
fflJJIC TIRADE
V O L . L. N o . 6.
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill at 1 Madison Ave., New York, February 5, 1910
SING
$2 E OS 0 PERVE 0 A C R EVTS
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Cut "KnocKin:
D
OKS "knocking" pay?
Now, by "knocking'' in this case I mean the colloquial term which is applied to
the depreciation of a competitor's wares or methods.
In my opinion trade knocking never pays, even in a money sense.
Do not knock, for it puts business on a low plane of ethics and no man pulls himself up by
his business boot straps by using slurring methods against another.
It is not good business.
It is unethical.
Furthermore, it tends to raise in the mind of the customer a question about the man who
adopts knocking methods.
If you cannot properly present your argument for the product which you are offering to
a prospective customer without abusing your competitor, then you are hard up indeed for argu-
ments, and do not for one moment feel that abuse constitutes argument.
It never did and it never will.
Do not knock your competitor, but emphasize what your house can do and stick to your own
arguments.
They ought to be strong enough to interest.
- Be frank and earnest and sure of what you are talking about.
And above all things do not knock.
The hammer is a dangerous weapon to the man who uses it.
He is quite as likely to smash his own fingers as to drive his purpose home.
The best interests of any trade is not served by it.
Neither is the good of your own house.
If you can stand on your own feet you are all right, but it is all wrong to kick the feet out
from under some other fellow.
You are always in danger of slipping yourself when doing it.
Perhaps it is human nature to be jealous of the strong competitor, but remember it is not
the strong competitor who uses the hammer.
Avoid knocking.
It is a bad practice and should be entirely cut out from the selling vocabulary.
It is in the end apt to come back with crushing force upon the one who uses it as the chief
stock in trade.
Avoid knocking as you would a rattlesnake.
There is no sound reason why good, straight, convincing, clean-cut arguments cannot be made
without resorting to the abuse of a competitor.
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