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THE
MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
An Interesting Comparison of Practical Opinions as to the Best Methods
to Pursue in the Selling of Player-Pianos—Where Personality Must be
Combined With Knowledge—Belief in Player Proposition Necessary.
We have been making some experiments with
a view to finding out just what the practical men
nf the retail end of the trade think about selling
methods. What follows is a comparison between
opinions gathered from personal conversation with
a number of successful player salesmen.
A great deal is being said all the time about the
right and the wrong ways to sell players, and a
great many opinions are being constantly ventil-
ated. In what fo.Uows we present what we have
heard from the lips of several successful salesmen,
whose names we have, in deference to their mod-
esty, veiled behind initials. They are all represent-
ative retail men on Piano Row in a certain metrop-
olis. The results of this comparison are interest-
ing, to say the least.
Personality, Not Knowledge.
"In my opinion, the thing which counts in sales-
manship is personality. I don't care whether you
are selling players or automobiles, bonds or dry
goods. If you have to meet competition and sell
on your salesmanship ability, then your personality
is all that counts.
"People don't want to know all about the mech-
anical beauties of a player. They want to be con-
vinced that you have the best player, but technical
talk makes them tired. I never use it. I talk name,
reputation, and how easy our player is to play. I
never try to educate or to improve their taste. All
mo.ney looks alike to me and all prospects look the
same way.
"I am saying to you frankly that I know very
little how a player-piano is built and I am no ex-
pert demonstrator. I don't scare people away with
talk about construction nor make them think that
only an expert can play. I rely on my personality,
and my experience shows that I am successful in
relying on this.
"F. J. H."
Talking Points Sell.
"What is the right way to sell players? Well, I
suppose if everyone in the world was tlvo.ughtftil
and intelligent, merit and merit only would be the
deciding factor. But few people think deeply, and
it has been my experience that the slick talker with
the talking points gets away with the pro.spect
nine times out of ten. Nobody, or hardly anybody,
knows anything about a player, and when a person
has been shopping around and comes to us we
show him our talking points and defy anybody else
on the street to duplicate them. When the prospect
sees that we have something that everybody else
has to explain away, we generally get him. That
is the way I look at it.
"But do I consider that sort of thing the way to
build up an intelligent clientele for the player
business? Well, no., I cannot say that I do; but
then you know the player-piano is not a proposi-
tion that appeals mainly to the cleverest people.
The people who buy players are usually very un-
musical and they simply want the most for their
money. The salesman who can give the impression
that he is offering the most fo.r the money is the
salesman that wins. That is my judgment of the
player selling situation. It may not be high-brow,
but it is honest.
"W. M. C."
Terms the Deciding Factor.
"When I began in this business the player was
a quite new thing, so new that it was raw; very
raw. We had the old cabinet players then, and I sold
some of the first ever sold in this city. In those
days it looked as if the player was to be the big
profitable end o.f the piano business—provided it
lasted. Lots of people thought it wouldn't last, but
all saw big profit in it while it lasted. Now all
the prophets (no joke) have been fooled. The
player business has lasted, but it has fallen to the
same sort of level as the straight piano, and is
sold on the same terms and at pretty near the same
prices as we asked for a good upright piano when
I entered the game. I may be missing the meat
of the proposition, but I look at terms as the de-
ciding factor in the sales of ordinary priced play-
ers. Of course, the man who is selling $1,000 and
up propositions has a different sort of game. But
the salesman who has his stock based on $400 or
$500 players finds that the terms question is the
most important. People care less for the price
than for the terms. And talking points don't cut
much ice with cur house, I know.
" 'How about selling to cheap trade?' Well, I
don't believe in it, but it is done. People ought not
to be allowed to contract for the purchase of a
player unless they can put down $50 at least on a
$500 contract. Moreo.ver, I find that when the
player stops playing the customer stops paying, and
the longer the terms the more chance of trouble
in this respect, for cheap people don't know how
to treat a player anyway; hence trouble. My
remedy would be to stiffen up prices and terms
everywhere; but so. long as the public find that
they can buy on the longest sort of terms they
will buy that way, and will care less for the real
merits of the article. I think it is wrong; but
what are you going to do about it?
"L. M."
The Best Game in the World.
"I believe the player game is the finest game in
the world. I have had what is called great success
in selling players even in what are generally re-
garded as dull times, and I attribute this success to
one simple fact. I appeal as far as I can to the
prospect's intelligence. What is the use of wasting
yo.ur time knocking your competitor's goods? Sup-
pose they have seen another type of player! And
suppose that type has some talking points that
mine has not, or that are different from mine! Do
I proceed to knock? Not on your life! And espe-
cially not when I am knocked in the first place by
the other fellow. I simply go through our player and
show what it will do. Do I believe in technical
knowledge? You bet I do! I believe a salesman
ought to know the construction of a player so
thoroughly that he can explain it in words of ojie
syllable, words so, simple that a child can under-
stand them. When a man can do that he can talk
player intelligently. Then I believe in demonstrat-
ing. I have studied how to demonstrate so that
the prospect, no matter how timid or diffident,
wants to try for himself. If I can get the prospect
to trying the player I have made my sale. The rest
is merely a matter of price and terms.
Store Rack for 500 Music Rolls-$12
6j4 feet high, 3 feet wide, holding 500 rolls. Made of metal with
bright copper finish. Keeps rolls properly classified and displays
them so you SELL rolls instead of storing them. Send the $12
today on a money-back-unless-satisfied plan.
If you want more details
before sending the $12,
ask for Folder No. 6.
The
I. Y.
"We are a one price house, strictly. But we
have a certain latitude in terms. Virtually we
allow the prospect to propose the terms and if
these come within our limits we accept them. But
we have one special point besides. Always we
Choose Our Trade.
"We don't believe in selling to everybody who
comes aln.ng. We sell players only to people who can,
we think, reasonably pay for them and reasonably
ought to have them. We never have repossessions,
or perhaps T should say, 'Well, hardly ever.' But
my main point is always
Intelligent Demonstration.
"I sell our player on what it will do, and on that
basis I know that it will stand up against any sort
of competition. I have studied how to show up
that player in every way, how to demonstrate its
ability to do anything in music, easily and simply;
and especially I have studied to bring the prospect
to understanding this and to seeing the beauty of
gradually getting the mastery
That in my opinion is the secret of player sales:
Get the interest of the prospect in the fun of
playing and improving his plaiying. Keep that
principle in mind and you need not worry over
talking machine competition for a minute, nor will
you need electric motor players.
"F. L."
Four Viewpoints.
Here are fo.ur points of the same problem. And
how they differ! One may be called the smartish,
one. the superficial, one the cynical and one the in-
telligent.
The reader is respectfully invited to compare
these opinions and make up his mind which om
sounds the most plausible. We have our own idea;
but this must be a guilty secret.
ATTRACT ATTENTION BY DANSANTS.
Store of Banks Music Co. Crowded to Capacity
on Every Occasion—Victrola and Player-
Piano Supply Music.
(Special to The Review.)
SAVANNAH, GA., February 22.—The John S.
Banks Music Co., of which John S. Banks, former-
ly manager of the local store of the Phillips &
Crew Co., is the head and which opened for busi-
ness in a handsome store on Bull street, has been
attracting considerable attention through the
medium of a series of elaborate dansants held on
the second floor of its building and at which the
seating capacity of 250 proved inadequate on every
occasion. Prominent local dancers are engaged to
give exhibitions at the dansants, and the music is
furnished by the Victiola and a player-piano.
CLOSED A SATISFACTORY YEAR.
Paul J. Stroup, manager of the Universal Music
Co., 29 West Forty-second street, New York, who
spent a few days last week visiting the company's
branch establishment at Toronto, states that this
branch closed a very good year in 1914, notwith-
standing adverse business conditions. Mr. Stroup
was especially well pleased with the increased de-
mand for hand-played rolls which the Toronto
headquarters experienced the past year.
H. M. Hull, traveling representative for the com-
pany, left Monday for a fortnight's trip through
New York State and Pennsylvania. Mr. Hull
spent last week in New England, where he reports
that conditions as a whole show signs o,f decided
improvement.
The Sapulpa Music Store has been opened in
Sapulpa, Okla., with Mr. Brummett as manager,