Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
12
(Salesmanship)
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
Three Chief Essentials for Successful Player Selling,
Confidence in the Instrument, a Knowledge of Its Construction, and the Ability
to Demonstrate it Properly, All Are Necessary to Consummate Player-Piano Sales.
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HE ability to sell player-pianos is not of necessity a gift be-
stowed upon a few fortunate salesmen and to be regarded
as such, but is, as a matter of fact, the combination of a number
of factors carefully and intelligently cultivated, in the opinion of
a {prominent Eastern manager. According to this manager, suc-
cessful player salesmanship can be divided into three sections.
First, the belief and confidence of the salesman in the player
proposition. Second, something more than a casual knowledge of
trje details of player construction, and, third, the ability to demon-
strate the player intelligently and convincingly.
} There are a large number of men who are able to sell pianos
successfully, but who are unable to increase their average in player
safles, simply due to the fact that they are piapo men and have not
g©t away from the impression created in the early days of the
player, that it was an interloper in the piano field and something
to receive little consideration from the real musician. These men
who have no faith in the player themselves naturally find it quite
impossible to develop confidence in their customers. Frequently
they do not try to cultivate confidence, but regard every prospect
as primarily a piano prospect, and sell, or try to sell, a player only
under duress. One of the fundamentals of salesmanship is the
confidence of the salesman in the goods he is selling. Until the old
line piano salesman accepts a new view of the player and begins to
appreciate its artistic position, and learns to believe in that in-
strument so thoroughly that he can convey that belief to the cus-
tomer, then and only then will he be in a position to accomplish
real work in selling player-pianos.
His belief in the instrument must be followed by an under-
standing of its structural features. The salesman must know about
the inner workings of the player he is selling as well as the
mechanical talking points of competing players, and the knowledge
must be more than superficial. The tracker-bar, the governor, the
primary and secondary pneumatics or the relative merits of the
five or six-point motor may be Greek to many customers, but there
are still a lot of people who study the player somewhat before they
determine to buy, shop around for some time picking up a point
here or there, and then come into the last store loaded to the
guards with technical information about the player. The infor-
mation may or may not be correct or important, but the salesman
must have real knowledge to fortify or combat that of his cus-
tomer. The advertising of the automobile people has taugflt the
buyer to study the details of the machine he is about to purchase,
and with a great many people it is found that the player mechanism
comes under the head of things that should be studied.
The demonstration is the final factor in player salesmanship.
and upon the ability of the salesman to bring out the points of his
instruments intelligently frequently depends the final decision of the
customer.
The salesman who is interested in the player game will make
a study of a goodly number of music rolls, practice with them until
he has built up a repertory that will meet any ordinary demand of
the prospect, whether it is for the opera, ragtime or the melodies
of other days. In other words, he should be letter-perfect in those
rolls and know how to get the best results. It does not impress
the customer much when the salesman puts in a roll and grinds it
out in a manner to simulate the music of the hurdy-gurdy. It
frequently happens that the prospect has a neighbor who plays that
way and after the salesman performs believes that all players are
mechanical and devoid of expression and therefore undesirable.
Then there is the salesman who plays one roll after the other
without taking time to talk to the prospect or letting the prospect
himself get in a few words. The customer is frequently so flooded
with music that he has enough to last him for the time being and
postpones the actual buying to a later date and probably in another
store.
In comparison to the salesman who gallops through the music
without attention to tempo or expression is the fellow who may be
termed the player fiend. He puts the roll of a heavy piece on the
instrument and proceeds to play it with all the contortions char-
acteristic of certain concert pianists and about as many more move-
ments all his own. He shakes his head, sways his body, keeps his
fingers working at full speed on the several control devices. The
musical result may be good, but the innocent prospect who watches
him for a few moments is struck with horror at the thought that
such technique, or rather athletic ability, is required to play a simple
melody, and transfers his desire to own a player from the possi-
bility to the ambition column.
In demonstrating players, common-sense and simplicity are
essential. The appearance, the evident taste and expressed desire
of the customer should always receive attention. The proper ren-
dition of "Annie Laurie" proves much more convincing to an old-
time customer than an energetic demonstration of a Grieg concerto.
The prospect knows "Annie Laurie," knows how it should sound,
sees that the salesman can make it sound properly, tries it himself,
and purchases the player with confidence that he is getting some-
thing he can operate and enjoy without several years of musical
study or an athletic training back of it.
The rewards of the player business are large—large enough
to warrant the expenditure of a little time and effort in developing
player salesmanship intelligently.
Profits, and Not Gross Sales, the Aim to Be Achieved
The Salesman Who Endeavors to Make the Sale Which Shows the Largest Percentage
of Profit, Rather Than the Largest Gross Amount, Is of Real Value to His Employer.
HE salesman who does not show a profit for his house does
not as a rule stay with that particular house long, for it is
out of the profits that he draws his salary or commission, or both,
and not out of the original caflital. It is, therefore, reasonable
that the greater profit the individual salesman can show for his
efforts, so much more opportunity will he have for sharing in those
profits and increasing his individual income.
It frequently happens that in his desire to make a sale and
increase his gross sales figures, a salesman will temporarily lose
sight of the profit factor of the transaction. It may be that the
price and terms are fixed, and may not be altered, but he is
called upon to handle the allowance question largely on his own
responsibility, and in an effort to keep the sale from slipping by
will act against his better judgment on a chance of the deal get-
ting by his superiors. A piano salesman who is worthy of the
name naturally has a fair idea of piano values, and to be on the
safe side should discount his own figures in making such allow-
ances. An allowance that is fair should at least permit the house
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to repair, put in good condition, and resell the instrument at a
price that will cover the allowance, the repair work, the cartage and
salesman's time, and probably leave a little net profit. Under this
system the gross profit on the new 7 sale remains intact and reflects
to the credit of the salesman.
The salesman who always looks on the profit side of the ledger
resorts to the minimum terms fixed by his house as a court of last
resort. He increases the first payment and shortens the period of
payment as much as he thinks will fit in with the circumstances of
the prospect, and thus finds an opportunity for further argument
should his judgment prove wrong. If he is finally compelled to
accept the minimum terms fixed by the house the customer closes
the deal feeling that he has forced the concession.
Close adherence to terms and rigidness in the matter of allow-
ances may overcome the salesman's arguments and cause a loss of
certain sales, but the reduction in the number of repossessions will
more than offset the sales lost. Business done simply for the
benefit of gross figures and without a fair profit is not good business.
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