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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
Present Conditions Emphasize the Necessity for More Equitable Relations
Between Those Engaged in Business—The Importance of the Service Idea
in Promoting Sales—Views of Frederick A. Luhnow and Frank E. Morton.
Present conditions in the retail trade are largely ascribed to War. But it is equally true that to meet
new conditions new ideas must be devised. Indeed, remedies always flow from necessity. Thus, the question
is being asked whether a radical improvement in our basic ideas as to merchandising would not give us re-
sults hitherto thought impossible. It is evident that the thinking men of this, as of every other, industry have
for long seen the coming of the day when the old method of "dog eat dog" and the practical enforcement of
the caveat emptor principle must disappear before a rising tide of enlightened public sentiment. No longer, in
fact, can we build successful business on the theory of "putting something across." Naturally, there is still—
and for a long time will continue to be—a more or less solid conviction on the part of most men that this is
the road to success, that one cannot expect to make goods and sell them on their merits strictly. And no-
where has this poisonous false belief shown greater vitality than in our own trade.
Yet its doom is already apparent. Everywhere wise men are waking up to the truth that no transaction is
legitimate until both parties to it have reaped a profit:
Now, all this naturally leads to the idea of Service, by which term we may crystallize the various notions
which are being formulated concerning the new theory of sales. More and more it is being seen that the way
to make a sale is to treat it as a transaction in which value is given for equal value; in fact, in which the
amount of cash that passes is simply the measure of the value given. Moreover, in addition to this we are hav-
ing the point made clear that the responsibility of a seller or maker towards a buyer does not end with the pass-
ing of money, but continues as long a« the peculiar conditions of the goods'irf question, require for their main-
tenance in perfect condition, any oversight on the part of the former. This gives rise to the idea of Service, the
biggest idea in the piano or player field to-day.
Instead of merely theorizing on these points, however, we have asked two gentlemen who have made suc-
cessful application of them to give us their views, which they have done below. One of these, Mr. Frederick
Luhnow, of the M. Schulz Co., a well-known retail sales authority, speaks of Service practically applied as the
remedy for dull times, and shows the value of intelligent thinking. The other, Mr. Frank E. Morton, acoustic
engineer of the American Steel & Wire Co., discourses especially upon the principle involved in the idea of
Service, as interlinked with that of Quality and as suggesting the basis for an entirely new conception of sell-
ing as an art, as a factor in civilization and as a necessary legitimate service to mankind.
And now we shall allow these gentlemen to speak for themselves:
trinsic merit, and amounting absolutely to nothing
in matter of creating a healthy appreciation. The
To put the matter in a word, I frankly assert dealer who sells a dozen players because he wants
that the principal bringer of good times in the to have something to suit every ^capricious demand
player business, and the main preventive measure is in a weak position because he has nothing specific
in case of apparent bad times, is intelligence. Give to pin his faith to. If he sticks to one type, de-
fends that, learns its possibilities and sticks to it,
us increased intelligence in the retail handling of
he
will win out, even though once in a while he
the player and the business will take care of itself
does
lose out a sale to a competitor.
in the best possible manner.
The idea of wanting to change your line be-
Let me particularize: The general appeal of the
player-piano comprises a broad idea, which can be cause somebody won out on a talking point sale is
applied to all types of instrument. But each in- a commonplace of the business, but a reflection on
strument is itself an individual thing, different the sanity of the dealers nevertheless.
After this special form of intelligence which is
from all the others and possessing special features
manifested
in sticking to one line I should like to
which make it advantageous in definite directions.
speak
about
another just as important: I refer to
Seeing, however, that the public mind, while per-
fectly receptive, is at the same time quite vague as that much abused idea; service. In this company
to details, it would seem to be the part of com- we learned some years ago many valuable lessons
mon sense to adopt one line of players, to study through our experience with coin-operated instru-
that line and to devote oneself to selling that one . ments. Among other things—not to make too long
line. Whenever I see a house spreading its player a story—we learned the absolute necessity of giv-
effort out thin, embracing half a dozen different ing systematic maintenance service. We found—I
players and trying to do justice to each, I always am speaking now of some years back—that we had
feel that here is a house which has not studied the to visit each and every instrument we sold at reg-
ular intervals for a given period, whether the re-
player selling question deeply.
quest to do so were definitely made or not. In
The dealer who takes up one line, studies that
fact, we found that only by cultivating among our
in its entirety and devotes himself to the exploita-
customers the understanding that we took a per-
tion of that on? specific type of mechanism, is in a
sonal interest in them and in their instruments
strong position. It is bad reasoning to contend
could we sell them successfully or keep them
that one must have a lot of different types of
sold.
players in order to "give the public what it wants."
Now, in selling the player-piano we have found
The whole public idea is, naturally, just a desire
that* it is a good policy to debit each sale with a
for music at command: and any artificial desire
for something in tubing, in motors, in this, that definnte cost for service. When we sell a player,
or the othgf device, is merely artificial, stimulated a certain sum is set aside to cover the cost af
by salesmen who do not knyw how to talk in*
(Continued Qn page 6)
FREDERICK A. LUHNOW'S VIEWS ON THE SUBJECT.
Those who complain of dull times and ascribe
conditions as they experience them to war, to de-
pression, to everything that can be imagined except
to themselves, are victims of bad reasoning. It is
constantly being discovered that ideas abandoned
as played out, territories believed to be swept
clean of business, propositions thought to be out-
of-date hopelessly, have a way of brightening up
quite marvelously when approached from some
new angle. When we survey the retail player field
we find that many dealers are just now excusing
themselves for lack of business by pleas which are
no different from those which usually exist except
that the plea of war is now available in addition to
all the others. To such men it never seems to
occur that if they really want to know the reason
for dull times they should look primarily to them-
selves.
In our business we find it constantly a good
thing to refurbish our selling methods, to re-
study the arguments we are setting forth, to re-
think our whole proposition in new terms. We
continually find that as soon as we let ourselves
get into a rut sales fall off; and until we get out
of the old careless way into a new and better
reasoned way, we suffer the penalty. In the player
retail business there is a legitimate and natural
demand to be satisfied, with by no means an ade-
quate supply. The public, naturally and rightly,
will take to the player-piano like the proverbial
ducks to their proverbial water; and when we find
that they do not, we must conclude that the fault
is not half so much with them as with those who
are supposed intelligently to supply tfrejr wants.
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