Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
CONTRIBUTING FACTORS TO BUSINESS SUCCESS.
(Continued from Page 3.)
thought it would be a good joke to pass him along to Mr. Brown, who met him with his usual urbanity
and politeness. Mr. Brown treated him just as if he were a merchant prince. He took him upstairs
and showed him three or four Chickering grand pianos, and when he came down, to the amazement
of the onlooking salesmen, the man whom they looked upon as some sort of a crank species quickly
lifted from the cavernous depth of his pocket an enormous roll of bills, and counted out something
less than a couple of thousand dollars in payment of a grand which he desired sent up the following
day to his daughter's residence.
The actual facts were he was a rich contractor, and had not a man been present who had sufficient
tact to extend courtesy, the sale would have been lost and perhaps other good trade turned away from
the house, for I understood that this same man was the immediate cause
of the making of three subsequent sales.
The jumping powers of a frog may not always be determined by his
size, neither can the buying powers of a man be correctly estimated by the
clothes which he wears.
It Pays Dealers to Emphasize Piano Quality
W
HILE price may always influence a certain percentage of
buyers, yet it may be safely asserted that the American
people are becoming better educated and are not so easily won over
by price baiting arguments in piano buying as they were a few
years ago.
The mail order houses have put forth tempting baits at inter-
vals to induce piano buyers in country places and in small hamlets
to make their purchases from them, and yet, notwithstanding these
unusual inducements, it must be admitted that the piano mail order
business has not developed.
Why is this?
As we interpret it, it means nothing more nor less than that
the piano purchasers realize that instruments of reliability cannot
be purchased at absurdly low prices. They are not won over by
the ridiculously extravagant allegations made in flamboyant meth-
ods of publicity, and the people realize that it takes money to build
a reliable piano product, just the same as it does any product in
other lines, and some of the statements put forth by the mail order
houses constitute an insult to the intelligence of prospective piano
buyers.
This statement applies equally well to any piano house, because
it is an impossibility to sell a product of reliable quality at a price
which is inconsistent with high-grade values.
Now that th? era of cheap piano baiting is subsiding, people
are realizing more and more that the sheet anchor of the trade is
the instruments of standard grade which insure to every purchaser
satisfaction through a quality standard.
The reputation of the piano should be carefully considered,
because the piano, ot all other products, should embody quality
work, for it is not purchased for a few months, but for many
years, and every purchaser, no matter where located, is entitled to a
full equivalent for every dollar invested, and that is what they do
not get in the baiting offers which have been made in various
sections of the countrv.
the moral courage to sign his name to his complaint, even with the
request that it will not be used.
There is nothing less worthy of serious attention than an
anonymous letter. If the writer hasn't enough backbone to stand
up for his own case in a letter to a newspaper, he should hardly
expect that newspaper to fight his ca^e in its columns. There is a
generous sized waste-basket beside the editor's desk in The Review
office, where all anonymous communications find their way speedily
and without delay.
of the observer en that one particular "make of goods. The pro-
spective buyer has an opportunity of seeing the article in action and
the results obtainable. He reads the descriptions in his own lan-
guage and can judge for himself if the article is needful to him.
After the hardpan of an uncultivated ground has been broken with
the dynamite of an industrial moving picture, the salesman or rep-
resentative can sow the seed of a profitable business. Industrial
films of the manufacture and use of American goods are at the
present time being made with just this aim in view by the wide-
awake, keen business men, who realize that Argentines are also
"from Missouri, and have to be shown."
l ; catalogs are useless and personal representatives too expensive,
why not send to all Latin American countries an animated
catalog? A moving picture of the production and uses of any
article. This is the very pertinent question put by American Indus-
trie; and we gladly re-echo the question. "Why not?" W r ith titles
in correct Spanish, or Portuguese for Brazil, the moving pic-
ture will introduce any manufactured product more effectively and
to more people than a single salesman. The films., shown in motion
picture houses, in chambers of commerce, in trade meetings, or in
the private office of a buyer for twenty minutes, rivet the attention
I
T is a mighty easy thing for a manufacturer to sit back and ask:
"Why don't you association men do so and so?" Probably
with your help the association could put over some-of the things
that you think they ought to. Association work takes some of the
time that you would otherwise give to your business, but the time
that you put into association work is time spent in looking at your
business from some other angle than your own. This is well worth
considering.
I
WRIGHT METAL PLAYER ACTION
ADDRESS
ALL
CORRESPONDENCE
TO
George H. Beverly
Sole Distributor
Easily 100% in advance of any action ever offered. Simple—Responsive—Durable
—Beautiful. Contains the Wright "Ideal" bellows.
Being made of metal (the logical material for player actions) it cannot be affected
by dampness or any climatic conditions. Its exclusive features save many dollars
in repair work and make many sales in competition.
KNABE BUILDING
437 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
M s
WRIGHT CO.
WORCESTER, MASS