Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE
to be judged by a year's or by a six months' work rather than
by what you accomplish in a spurt of a week or a fortnight. Hit
up the pace gradually rather than trying to jump ahead all at
once. There is no advantage in setting a clip you cannot hold
because you will be all the more conspicuous as a failure when
you drop back to normal again.
The salesman who keeps doing a little better and a little
better by trying harder all the time is going to keep forging
ahead in his sales and if you forge ahead in your sales you will
also forge ahead in pay.
The way you spend your money has much to do with your
eventual success. Very probably you think it is nobody's busi-
ness how you spend the money you earn by your own labors.
Technically you are probably correct. Neither your boss nor
myself would have any legal right to institute an inquiry as to
how your salary is spent so long as there is no evidence of your
being other than an honest man. But your boss is interested
and I am interested in knowing how you use the money you
work so hard to get.
A certain amount you must use to pay your reasonable
running expenses. This is, in a way, a fixed sum. What do
you do with the rest? Some of the balance ought to be saved.
Whether you have one dollar or a thousand left after paying
for your keep, some of that amount should inevitably be saved
every year. Life insurance is the best bet for the younger men
and of course the older men will be better off to have some
of the same if they can get it. After this, the purchase of a
good hundred dollar bond now and then, paying you 5 per cent,
and giving you safety of investment, is a right choice. Then
when the amount to be saved is regulated, there should be a
sum set aside for buying knowledge. Every salesman ought to
spend some of his money for business literature.
It is the money spent for amusements, for booze, for tobacco,
lor worthless literature, that is wasted all or in part. If you
can afford it there must be an expense of the amusement kind
and there should be recreation of course. However, don't get
the value of the various items of the expense account reversed.
Luxury expense should be prevented.
A good many men make no decision as to what they shall
be or do in the future. These men, until they bring their minds
to a fixed focus, will remain in the low salaried class. When
you take a position in a store you do it simply to earn a living
until you find something that suits you better, and if you let
the job be merely a filler, you will not only find the something
REVIEW
(Salesmanship)
15
better a long time coming, but the filler will not prove very
filling. No matter what you set out to sell, make up your mind
that you will sell those goods in a better way than anyone else.
While you are in the store, be the best retail salesman in the
store. If you make good right where you are, when the chance
comes to take up something better you will be able to start with
a better salary than you otherwise could. There is nothing
but disadvantage in being anything less than the best man you
can be for your position.
If you are not getting a salary that you believe is up to
what your ability deserves, appoint yourself an investigating
committee to consider the situation carefully. Investigate your-
self! Find out first whether you are worth more than you are
getting, whether your actual sales entitle you to a larger propor-
tion of the profit of the business. If you can satisfy yourself
that you ought to have more pay, then set about getting it.
If you find out you are not entitled to more, then you must be-
gin farther back.
To get more when you deserve it, find out whether the boss
agrees with you that you earn it. If he does he will give it to
you if he can afford to, and if he cannot he will agree that you
ought to be looking for a more profitable position. If the boss
does not think you earn more than you receive, while you are
sure you do, talk it over in a friendly way and see how far
apart you are and why. It is possible you are not working for
the right kind of a man. It may be that your employer is a
tight-wad, or that he is anxious to squeeze out of his sales-
people the last possible ounce of energy without paying a fair
price for it. There is only one answer when that is the case—
get a new boss. But if the proprietor honestly thinks he is pay-
ing you all you are worth to him while you honestly think he
is not, reduce the matter to figures. Estimate, if you cannot
get at it exactl)-, the amount of your sales. Take the average
profit of the business and see whether your salary is eating up
all of that profit on your individual sales or whether you might
get more money and still leave a net return of fair proportions
for the business. Don't resort to threats of leaving in discussing
salary matters with your employer. Arbitrate, and do the arbi-
trating without taking outsiders into confidence in the matter,
or complaining among friends and acquaintances.
An honest and fair-minded employer will always talk over
the wage question with you without quibbling, just as you talk
over with a customer the matter of the price of the goods be-
ing shown.
Some Reasons for the Shortage of Piano Salesmen
N every side among piano dealers is heard the call for sales-
to hire such men. Of course now and then a good man might
O
men. This means, of course, good salesmen, for there is
have made frequent changes before landing right, but the case
never a scarcity of the other kind.
is very, very rare. Such a man not only does not bring profitable
Why is this call so universal, and if it is founded on a real
want, why does not the supply more nearly match the demand?
Prices are controlled always by the law of supply and de-
mand. A short crop brings a high price. If there is a real short-
age of piano salesmen, the good ones have no need to worry
about securing lucrative positions.
Beyond all question there is a shortage of good men. Whose
fault is it? Is it that young men do not see opportunity in piano
selling either in not recognizing the possibilities and because the
dealer does not show them, or that the dealer is hesitant about
breaking in new men?
The common query of the dealer is, "Where can I find a
good man?" The nature of this question indicates that the man
must already be one of experience. Being a good man of ex-
perience he probably is in a good position from which he must
be taken.
This can be accomplished sometimes with mutual benefit as
in gaining a broader field with more opportunity for advance-
ment than the former position offered. But as a rule, the original
employer of the man can afford to pay him as much as any one,
and often a little more, for seldom does a man reach his highest
value for some time after taking a new position.
Many salesmen are continually moving from one dealer to
another, somehow having the faculty of getting a living with
very little in the way of productive qualities. Dealers are foolish
results in the way of money returns, but almost invariably hurts
the dealer in another way.
There is only one real remedy for the scarcity of salesmen,
and that is to make more salesmen. When this advice is offered
to dealers, they reply that just as soon as the man begins to be
valuable and before perhaps he has really made them any profit,
another dealer comes along and takes him away. This will
happen now and then.
There is a law of averages in human nature which will never
fail, and all people will not do as they know they should, but
in the main a dealer can keep his employe if he wants to. To
a man whom he wants, he can afford to pay as much, or a little
more than another can. Such a man can be reasoned with. He
can be shown where it is for his interest to stay, and the dealer
should be able to see for himself where it is for his own interest
to keep a good man if possible by every reasonable inducement.
Treat hjm in such a way that he has just as much interest as
though the business were his own.
Any dealer who has the elements for success can, if he
chooses, select employes who can be developed to form an organ-
ization of well-nigh invincibility.
Many dealers say that they don't want to wait to do this,
but it is usually far more economical for them than taking men
from the rank and file of those who can be hired at any time
from others.