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SALESMANSHIP
A Complete Section Devoted to Piano Salesmanship Published Each Month by The Music Trade Review
Salesmen Should Work to Maintain Prices and Terms
The Tightening of Sales Terms on Musical Instruments Has Been a Great Benefit to
the Entire Industry, and Piano Salesmen Should See to It That Prices Are Maintained
HE idea that unlimited competition is the life of trade is an
T
idea which dies hard; but it has to die sooner or later. The
sooner it dies the better we shall all be pleased—all of us, that is, who
look ahead. The curse of piano retailing has always been the absence
of fixed prices, and the present is no time for selling pianos on a
sliding scale. The manufacturing situation, as regards pianos and
player-pianos, has not been materially improved since the signing of
the armistice, save only in respect of restrictions on production.
It is to-day possible to obtain supplies for manufacturing in some-
thing nearer to normal quantities, but no marked change has been
made or is likely to be made for some time in respect of the cost of
materials. There is a chance, no doubt, of prices rising still higher;
but there is none of them falling.
Now the result of these conditions existing is that the manu-
facturers of pianos and player-pianos are compelled to continue
doing two things which were first forced upon them by the war.
They are forced to hold up their wholesale prices and they are also
forced to demand and obtain much better terms. The conditions
are not the result of any wish on the part of manufacturers to make
the lot of the dealer harder; but they are the result of the operation
of causes beyond the trade's control.
During the past eight months all of us have been obliged to
accustom ourselves to a method of doing business with the manu-
facturer such as we have never before thought either possible or
desirable. But we have found that when we undertook to pass the
buck to the retail consumer and make him or her pay the necessary
higher prices, there was no trouble at all. Still more, we have found
that the higher and more rigid terms which we have had to pass
along from our manufacturers to our customers have been accepted
by the latter without any serious argument. So that, after all, we
discover that the conditions which we faced with such fear and
trembling have actually turned out to be highly beneficial to us.
We have paid more for pianos and have had to put up our money
more quickly; but also we have charged more and have got our
money more quickly. The two processes have balanced, or very
nearly so; but the advantage lies with the retail merchant.
Now we really ought not to deceive ourselves into the belief
that we either can or ought to go back to the old methods of pre-
war days. Nothing but the pull of tradition and old custom should
even induce us to think twice about such an absurdity. Yet on all
sides one hears salesmen voicing the hope that prices will come down
and that it will again be possible to sell pianos at the good old prices
of the good old days.
These very same men know well enough that the good old days
were very nearly killing days for the piano trade and that the piano
trade came very nearly to grief during their continuance. The sell-
ing of pianos was getting down to an impossible basis. Dealers were
making nothing; manufacturers were making little more, and were
obliged to act as bankers into the bargain. The cheap piano flour-
ished; and in direct consequence thereof public interest in pianos
was steadily decreasing. The trade sought to combat the danger
by still further lightening terms to the consumer, whereby the
danger was only increased.
The war came, and with it came shortage, combined with active
business in other lines. A great demand sprung up which could
not be satisfied. The "sellers' market" came into existence. Pianos
once more were actually offered at fixed and fair prices, on fair
terms. The public bought and was glad to pay the prices, on the
asked terms. Cash appeared among piano buyers. It was like a
dream; yet it was all true.
Now we have it in our power to prolong this splendid state of
affairs. If we let it die the fault will be ours. The public has
been educated to understand, better than ever before, that the piano
has a real value and that it is worth real money. In a time of short-
age in pianos we did not advertise how cheap pianos were; and the
public has never asked that we do so. Why should we do so again,
now that the days of peace are upon us? Would it not be absurd
that we should kill the goose that lays the golden eggs? So long
as we hold up prices and stiffen terms we make the piano business
really profitable, without the public letting out a single toot. It is
only a question of sticking together and refusing to fall back into
the lazy way of doing business which once prevailed.
Let us resolve to stick together and refuse any longer to ap-
prove of'the re-entrance of the cheap piano to the market. Let us
insist on selling pianos on the basis of their desirability as musical
instruments, not on that of their relative low prices. Let us remem-
ber that, whether we like it or not, the era of high prices is yet with
us. Let us therefore work to maintain the existence of that era—
not to bring it to an end.
The era of high prices and terms has been the salvation of the
piano business, and the the salesman who cannot see this needs to
do some thinking.
How the Piano Salesman Should Study His Prospects
The More the Salesman Knows Concerning the Personality of His Prospective Cus-
tomers, the Greater Are His Chances of Doing a Profitable Business With Them
is a single word which indicates that great
S ress ALESMANSHIP
force which keeps the factories humming and the wheels of prog-
revolving, and yet how little really earnest attention the art of
salesmanship, of itself, receives from those of the music trades most
interested. The average piano salesman, if he is a reader, may
perhaps glance over an article or volume on salesmanship, and while
he may acknowledge the truth of many of the points set forth by
the writer, he is prone to rest in the confidence that the article in
no way refers to him, for he already knows his business and requires
(Continued on page 13)