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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
SALES BAITING BY THROW-INS.
(Continued from page 3.)
Just imagine going into Tiffany's and pricing a watch and, after some argument, the salesman
offering to throw in a stickpin or a necktie holder to close the sale! What would your opinion of the
house be, and, most vital of all, what would your idea be of the valuation of the watch?
Go into Altaian's and price a cloak and then have the salesman, as a special inducement, offer you
two or three pieces of lingerie to take the garment! It would disgust you, would it not?
Then, where is the difference in a piano store? If a salesman sets a price on a piano he should try
to establish the correctness of that value in the mind of his caller. The price asked is for the piano, and
anything else thrown in means a cut in price. The w r hole system of throw-ins is just another way of
cutting the price. In other words, it means an elastic valuation placed upon the instrument offered.
It means nothing more or less than that the salesman has no confidence in the instrument which he
offers and is walling to make price concessions.
This publication, probably more than any other in this country, has fought stoutly for years for
price maintenance, and our efforts have brought forth good results.
That is one of the many functions of a trade publication, to make people think and get them out of
their line of beaten thought travel, if you will?
I believe that profits will materially increase when the piano merchants of this country get out of
their heads the thought of using throw-ins as trade arguments. Throw-ins, when offered by a house
have the effect to destroy the salesman's belief in the real value of the instrument which he offers.
The piano business has suffered for years by the introduction of unsound business methods. It
seems that some man will always be inventing some new scheme which he believes will be a sale-closing
force, and his competitor, not to be outdone, will go him one better. And so on, from bad to worse.
Now, there is no reason why we should not abandon a few of the
old business throttling plans of the past and for the New Year let us
remodel our policy of pricing trade-ins and let -us entirely abandon the
plan of introducing throw-ins into our business life!
Cut them out.
who not only wants to believe but wants to know that he is doing
business on the right basis will not trust to his judgment or the
talents of the ordinary bookkeeper, but will secure expert figures
regarding his business.
The investment in expert accounting at intervals is the cheapest
insurance the business man can enjoy, whether he is a piano manu-
facturer or a piano dealer who believes that a safe full of leases
represents the cream of assets..
ESPITE the frequent references to the value of efficiency in
the piano and other industries it is a curb on our perfection
or our pride to know that, according to the philosophic statistician
of a large business house, the proportion of mistakes made every
day in the business world of New York averages twenty-five to
every ioo transactions. This does not mean 25 per cent, of serious
errors, but that one-quarter of the business transactions of New
York show an error targe or small in judgment or action.
The statistician declares that the general managers of all large
concerns make at least one mistake a day in the conduct of their
business affairs. It is true that this one mistake is not so easily de-
tectable as are the mistakes of subordinates. Only the general man-
ager's secretary or confidential stenographer knows about it in most
cases. Yet the mistake is made.
What kind of mistake? Well, one kind is where the general
manager has been informed by his subordinate that a certain mat-
ter must have his yes or no as soon as it can be given. The general
manager may be hurrying away for a week-end or going out to
the golf links on an early train. He will say: "Bring that to my
attention on Monday."
On Monday the matter is brought to his attention again, but
he is just going to lunch with a visitor. He postpones it again.
When he takes it up finally the situation that called for his decision
has changed, and no matter which way he decides a certain oppor-
tunity has been lost.
Of course, the general manager in most cases makes light of
the remissness. Before his subordinate he affects to. believe that it
is just as well that nothing was done because it might have led to
unsatisfactory entanglements. The subordinate knows bettter, but
he doesn't presume to say so. In fact, he would have advised his
D
superior to have come to a decision while the situation could be
saved had he dared. But he knew that such advice would have met
with haughty rebuff.
And it may as well be noted that the same sort of remissness.
on the part of a subordinate would meet with seyerc reprimand
from the general manager. The latter would be likely to tell the
subordinate that such conduct was very reprehensible. But this is
not a recital of the differences between employer and employed.
The mistake statistician figures that 15 per cent, of the daily
mistakes in the business world are in computations. Bookkeepers
are supposed to be exact, yet not a day passes that some absent-
minded man at a ledger is not setting down naughts where there
should be sixes and fives where there should be eights. He is put-
ting trouble in cold storage through the mistake. It will not be dis-
covered perhaps for months, but when it looms up it will have
'become a mountain of error.
There are few lines of business where mistakes do not occur.
We have them on the railroads, in the telegraph world, even
in the banks where they are most quickly ascertainable—in fact,
the men at the head of the concerns make trivial mistakes of routine
every day. In fact, they are part and parcel of humankind, but mis-
takes by the men who direct things seem the more flagrant because
they have so many aids to prevent error.
!
All in all, if the statistician is correct in his computation, the
business world is far from the goal of infallibility that many sup-'
pose it long ago reached. In the case of mistakes made by the big
fdlows in control of things, remember: "To err is human.'' In the
case of mistakes by the small fry in the business world, likewisq
remember: "To err is fatal."
{
f < O ALESMANSHIP is the fundamental thing," says W. R]
v 3 Hotchkin, a recognized expert in this important domain<
who adds: "Many men who contemplate entering into advertising
come to me and ask me what steps to take to prepare themselves
for the business. My advice to all of them has been: 'Learn
salesmanship.' Get a job somewhere selling goods; develop assur-i
ance in yourself and confidence in your ability. Analyze your mer-
chandise so that when a customer comes up to you vou will know
what you are going to talk about."