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SALESMANSHIP
A Complete Section Devoted to Piano Salesmanship Published Each Month by The Music Trade Review
The Farmer as a Customer for Musical Instruments
The Pronounced Prosperity to Be Found in the Agricultural Districts Throughout
the Country Makes the Farmer a Prolific Source of Profit for the Piano Salesman
HOSE who make it their business to preach the gospel of
T
efficient salesmanship, so-called, are not always as practical
as they might be, and their preachments savor sometimes of
the lamp and the study, or of the electric light and the type-
writer, to be up-to-date. But the man who told the salesman,
anxious for new fields to conquer, "Go to the farmer, young man,
and sell your pianos and player-pianos to him," told a very big
truth in a very few words. One's homage goes to this anony-
mous person, whoever he may have been. His head was in the
right place, or at least he made a very lucky hit.
So much salesmanship talk is devoted to the city salesman
and to his problems that the case of the country dealer and of
his selling difficulties is not always kept sufficiently to the front.
Yet in truth it is the country dealer who ought to be the im-
portant and even vital element in the trade. For if the city men
are bigger, the country men are -more numerous; and if the
city trade is more intensive, the country trade is certainly more
extensive.
It is a truism to say, at the present moment, that the farmers
of the great corn and wheat producing belts are prosperous be-
yond any former calculations. Travelers who have gone through
the Mid-West areas this summer have reported incredible things
about the size of the crops. They have observed during the past
few seasons the steady increase in the number of expensive
automobiles owned by farmers, the richness and fashionable cut
of the clothes worn by their wives and daughters when visiting
neighbors or the county seat, and the long lines in front of the
windows of tellers at the banks on Saturday evenings. All these
facts, although they may be superficially regarded, of course,
are nevertheless significant in the extreme. They furnish testi-
mony of the most eloquent sort to the present prosperity and
up-to-date ways of the great agricultural class.
This class, however, is by no means to be found buying
pianos or player-pianos in numbers proportionate to its strength
or prosperity. Some careful observations which have been made
within the last few weeks seem to indicate some very peculiar
facts. That farmhouses now commonly have pianos, where
twenty years ago they had organs, is not to be denied; but
neither is it to be denied that the pianos bought have mainly
been of cheaper grades and are generally in very poor condition.
These facts cannot be denied, and they are unfortunate indeed.
Why does the rich farmer spend all kinds of money on an
automobile, not hesitating to buy the best makes and pay the
asked prices without a complaint, when he will haggle for a
month over a piano or player-piano, ending by taking the cheap-
est instrument offered irrespective of any quality argument!
This question, of course, does not pretend to state universal
truth; for there are exceptions; but it certainly does exemplify a
generally prevalent condition, and one which can hardly be said
to reflect credit on either the farmer himself or the piano mer-
chant.
Does not the secret of the whole mystery lie in the fact
that the farmer has been educated deliberately by the piano
merchant to believe that piano buying is a bargain-hunting busi-
ness? Who that remembers the infamous special sale campaigns
of a few years ago can think otherwise?
It would seem that there is a great future for the dealer who
will get out of the accepted rut, take his little old Ford with the
trailer or piano loader on the back, and spend his entire time
canvassing the rural districts looking for piano and player pros-
pects. The player-piano has certainly not yet found its way out
into the farmers' homes in anything like the right quantities up
till now, and yet it is equally certain that there is no prejudice as
such against the player-piano among- the agriculturists. Why
then don't they buy more of them? Mainly because the proposi-
tion is not put up to them in that direct, effective manner which
the automobile man uses. It is true that the farmer comes to
town; but it is also true that he usually comes to do general
shopping with his family, to visit his bank, and for similar rea-
sons, and that it is not easy to get him into a piano store without
strenuous preparatory work.
Again, it is well known to all that the farmer'9 family are
intelligent and bright-thinking people these days, who keep up
with the great world around them and know what is going 1 on,
who read and talk about that world, who subscribe to the nearest
city daily paper, who love music and would like to have as much
of it as possible. The player-piano is the one best bet for them,
and the dealer who is not selling player-pianos to the farmer is
neglecting the most profitable line that can be imagined.
The ambitious salesman in the country can be given no
better advice than that which recommends that he take up the
player-piano, keep after it and specialize on it; for the special
purpose of concentrating his efforts upon the farmer.
Two points may be further emphasized. A complete knowl-
edge of the player mechanism is highly desirable. Many player
sales have been lost through slight troubles developing in an
instrument in a neighbor's house, which the local tuner did not
understand and could not adjust. With the great present short-
age of competent tuners, the salesman who concentrates on
players should acquaint himself with their mechanism and with
the principles of their operation. This is by no means a matter
(Continued on page 11)
WINTER & CO.
RUDOLF
PIANOS AND PLAYER-PIANOS
PIANOS AND PLAYER-PIANOS
22O SOUTHERN BOULEVARD, NEW YORK