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SALESMANSHIP
Vol. IV.
N o . '2
A Complete Section Devoted to Piano Salesmanship Published Each Month
N e w York, Feb. 10, 1917
Pointers on Selling Pianos to Catholic Institutions
This Field Has Its Own Particular Problems, Yet They Are Easily Mastered, and
Piano Salesmen Will Find It Profitable to Study the Requirements of This Field
A
VERY fertile and profitable field for the piano salesman, yet
one whose problems, as well as possibilities, are greatly misun-
derstood, is that represented by Catholic institutions. The extent of
this field and the volume of business which can be done therein is
surprising to those who are not well informed concerning it.
There are several problems peculiar to the selling of Catholic
institutions, which will come as a surprise and as a possible discour-
agement to the salesman who does not understand these problems
and who does not know how they can be solved. Perhaps one of the
greatest difficulties is really the attitude of the average piano sales-
man, who does not appreciate fully the religious character of the
women who conduct these institutions, nor the motives which under-
lie their reserved methods of doing business.
The affairs of the great majority of Catholic institutions are ad-
ministered by women, and by virtue of their religious character these
women do not deal with the public with facility and freedom. They
are generally difficult of approach, and are slow to place their busi-
ness with anyone, and until the piano salesman can assure them of
his dependability he will make but little progress, although after they
have learned to trust him he will have no difficulty whatever in secur-
ing any business they may have. Whenever the sisters find a sales-
man who will guide them and advise them wisely and sincerely they
are very much disposed to give him their confidence and to call upon
him for many small services even sometimes outside his own line.
Another difficulty, and one which also is primarily the fault of
the salesman, is the fact that he is often actually afraid of ihe
Mother Superior who, in the majority of institutions, does the buy-
ing. The average piano salesman would probably laugh at such an
accusation but it is true, nevertheless, particularly if the salesman is
not a Catholic. In the minds of those not familiar with the Catholic
Church and its orders there is a certain timidity produced, chiefly
through ignorance and sometimes from intolerance and bigotry. The
mystery in the lay mind surrounding the Catholic orders, the sombre
costume worn by the sisters, as well as their reserved and retiring
mode of life and conduct, all combine to awe more or less a salesman
not of their faith.
That salesmen are not the only ones who act this way is illus-
trated by Earl D. Eddy, who tells of a large hospital which was
opened in one of the Central States by a Catholic order. The doctors
of the town, when they came to the hospital, acted like cats in a
strange garret. If they had occasion to pass one of the sisters in the
corridor they would step around her at a distance of several 'feet as
though they felt something might happen to them if they passed
closer to her. In conversation they were obviously ill at ease, and the
situation was anything but conducive to the successful outcome of
the enterprise. Finally the Mother Superior got all the doctors into
a room one morning, and said to them: "Gentlemen, we have estab-
lished a first-class hospital in your city and to your advantage and
benefit. We should like to feel welcome and to know that you appre-
ciate our work. Your actions make us feel, however, that you seem
to be afraid we would bite. We are human beings just the same as
you are, and are engaged in the same great work—healing the sick
and preserving human life: We have, it is true, given up our lives
to the Church and also to this hospital work, and we are just as much
in earnest in it as you are in your own profession. Because of our
isolation from the world and the repression of our lives and our train-
ing in general, it is clearly impossible for us to conduct ourselves as
do those in the outside world who have been in unhampered associa-
tion with their fellows of both sexes all of their lives. There is cer-
tainly no occasion for you to act as you have been doing. We must co-
operate and be at ease with one another and thus make this hospital
an example of team work which will be a credit to all concerned."
This talk cleared the air, and from that time on the doctors were
quite at home and things went along very smoothly. There are many
salesmen who are just like those doctors, but they, however, unfortu-
nately have not the advantage of having some Mother Superior take
them off to one side and give them a good lecture.
Another difficulty often encountered in this field is the preva-
lence of a well defined theory that it is essential that the salesman be
himself a Catholic. This is almost entirely a theory. The writer,
himself a Protestant, is acquainted with four piano salesmen who
have made a success with this trade. Three of them are Protestants
and one is a Catholic, and the Catholic sells less than any of the
other three, which proves that the theory mentioned above is not
founded on fact.
In commenting on the problems to be found in this field, one of
these salesmen recently said: "Catholic institution people are really
no different from any other people if you give them a chance. I
believe my success has largely been due to the fact that I meet the
sisters exactly as I meet any other prospective buyer. I agree that
the head of one of these institutions is hard to interview, not because
she is a Catholic, but because her time is largely taken up with im-
portant work and she has delegated to sisters of lesser rank such odd
jobs as answering door bells, chasing off book agents, peddlers, etc.,
and to the extent that I can convince these doorkeepers that I am
neither a book agent nor an ordinary peddler is the degree of my
success. The hardest battle is fought in getting to the Mother Su-
perior, who is the real buyer.
"If I succeed in reaching the Mother Superior I usually find a
live prospect. She believes in buying and using good goods. She
does not haggle on the price, and from a business standpoint does
not care what my religion is or whether I have any at all. In fact
I sometimes think that many Mother Superiors prefer to deal with
a man who does not prop himself up with any suggestion of interest
other than the merchandise which is offered. The safest line to
follow, the one which makes for real permanent success, is to go
after this class of business along business lines, appealing to the
buyer with the merits of quality and service—that universal service
that makes no distinction as to race, color or religion."
Another piano salesman, who has had wide experience in sell-
ing to convents and other Catholic institutions, said: "When I first
started calling on Catholic institutions I felt more or less uneasy
when I finally reached the presence of the buyer. I was always
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