Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
BUSINESS ACTIVITY IN ALL LINES.
(Continued from page 3.)
The war is wrong, in all of its horrid brutality, and no wrong could ever prevail for a long
period. Events move too quickly in these days.
America is close to all countries, and as soon as the warring nations have broken off diplomatic
relations they speak then through American ambassadors, and among all the warring throngs this
nation stands alone without fear and preserving well-balanced neutrality.
Rich in resources, strong with its hundred million independent men who love the flag, and who
mean to keep the Western Continent at peace to balance the Eastern madness, it is a nation big
enough in character and courage to fulfil the imposed task of peace adjuster of the world.
In the meantime we must feed the war-torn lands—we must carry the commerce of the destroyed
and imprisoned ships, and to do that we must work—all of us.
It is no time to talk of closing factories and waiting for further events in Europe before invest-
ments will be justified.
Civilization does not halt in spite of war—in fact, it will scarcely limp. The demands of the
people—of the world—go on all the time; and to satisfy those demands there must be offered the
products of the soil, of factories, of mines and of the fields.
The future is full of eloquent opportunity, and what we need is only plain, every-day business
sense.
We are free from fratricidal passion. We are as rich as any two other nations, and we are
not using this wealth to forge cannons to subdue mankind, but to raise crops to feed them—to
clothe them. We do not want to rule, but to serve, and to carry on
the work which lies before us.
We should put our shoulders manfully to the wheel, everyone of
us, and do our part to contribute not only to the happiness of our own
people, but to the comfort of the world!
The Keynote of Modern Efficiency.
T
HIS is the day of broad methods in merchandising. The
most successful men in the piano or any other line are
those who realize that all the factors that go to make a business
establishment, whether large or small, are dependent one upon
the other. They recognize that no one can be successful alone,
that the proprietor must depend upon his department heads and
the department heads on the salesmen—that the entire force, in
fact, must work together in the mutual interests of the entire
establishment. And where co-operation between all the various
factors is cordial and complete, and where each factor is made
to feel that he in his way is responsible for the success of the
whole, then victory is bound to be achieved.
Co-operation is the keynote of modern efficiency. Back of
this must be intelligence and enthusiasm. In other words, every
salesman must believe in the goods, he is selling. Hence it is
that pianos of high national reputation, whose standard is beyond
question, excites no small degree of enthusiasm on the part of
the salesman.
A piano salesman who has studied the history and develop-
ment of the piano which he is handling, and who is well equipped
with the positive knowledge that he is offering to the public an
instrument that occupies a commanding position in the musical
world—that the claims he makes for it can be positively demon-
strated—is fortified with selling arguments that makes it easy
to convince customers of the correctness of his position.
There is no question but that this faith, based upon the
knowledge of the quality of the instruments which he handles,
arouses an unusual activity on the part of the salesman, and
to this, in a large measure, can be credited the steady growth
during the past year of the sales of high-priced pianos in this
country.
: Apart from the plan of creating among the sales force a
mental attitude that will cause them to do the right thing intui-
tively there is that of cultivating a proper degree of responsi-
bility. Once a salesman feels that the success of a business
hangs in some way upon his efforts—that the spirit and prestige
of the house in the line of salesmanship must be maintained—
his whole attitude toward his work changes, or, where he is a
newcomer, it sooner or later will be changed.
There is no greater work for the head of a department than
to inculcate among his sales force a respect for the traditions
of the pianos which he handles—that salesmanship does not
merely consist of selling or making a good record in the matter
of the number of pianos sold for the day or month, but rather
that the pianos are well sold. In other words, that there has
been no cheapening of the reputation or standing of the instru-
ment. It is axiomatic in salesmanship that the salesman must
himself believe in the goods he is selling if he desires to score
a degree of success that is essential, particularly in the handling
of high-grade pianos.
It is a pleasure to visit some of the old-time houses through-
out the country and meet salesmen who fully appreciate the duty
they owe to the artistic world, and who believe in the mainte-
nance of those high standards in conduct and salesmanship
which show that they are conscious of the high standing and
prestige of the instruments they are representing and introduc-
ing into the homes of the musical elite.
Despite the talk of commercialism which unfortunately ob-
tained sway in the piano industry for a time, there is to-day a
better viewpoint on the part of the salesmen of their duty toward
the piano which they handle. There is a desire to know more
of the history of the instrument which they are selling and its
maker. They realize that his knowledge may prove an asset of
value, not only to them personally but it engenders a pride and
satisfaction in handling an instrument of reliability and repu-
tation.
D
UN'S says: "There is further abatement of the tension in
financial circles, although money continues very firm and
new business is still closely restricted to urgent needs. The
disorganization of foreign exchange is slightly less marked, inter-
national banking arrangements slowly but gradually improving.
Efforts to restore more normal transportation facilities with
foreign markets are meeting with gratifying success,"