Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
FEBRUARY 8,
1919
THE
MUSIC
TRADE
no further instruction. The younger the salesman, as a rule, the
greater his faith in the superiority of his own knowledge and the
greater his distaste for those who advocate the study of salesman-
ship as a means for advancement toward business success.
Salesmanship in the selling of pianos does not differ in its
essentials from salesmanship in any other line of business. It has
been said that the man who has won success selling carpet tacks
can, if given the opportunity, attain success in the selling of steel
bridges, for the actual gift of selling is the same in both cases and
it is only the details that differ. In the same way it may be said
that the man who has sold wagons successfully can also sell pianos
by simply changing his arguments to suit the product and pushing
his selling logic to the front in his usual manner. To the salesman
the knowledge of the construction of the piano, of the history of
piano making or of music, while a valuable asset, is not entirely as
essential as the ability to present arguments that will prove con-
vincing to one particular customer and presenting those arguments
at the right time and place. The canvasser or shop assistant who
sells a piano to a man who has signified his intention of buying a
piano of a particular make is not to be classed as a salesman ; he is
simply an order taker and worth only the salary of the ordinary
clerk. The fellow who persuades a man that he really requires a
piano and that the piano should be of the make the salesman is
representing is selling goods, for he is not only supplying the goods
but creating the market for them.
The accepted method of the average successful piano salesman,
whether he is working on "leads" or "prospects" supplied to him,
or those he himself discovers, is to learn something of the social
and financial standing of the prospective customer before making
the first call, with a view of ascertaining whether lie is in a position
to purchase a piano and whether he will be able to pay for one if
purchased. If the preliminary investigation is not satisfactory, the
first call is never made, for the experienced salesman has long ago
learned that the man in no financial condition to purchase a piano
is often only too willing to assume an obligation to pay for a valuable
instrument on long-time credit, which means that such credit must
be refused after the sale has practically been closed or else the
company is burdened with an undesirable debtor. In either case the
prospect is offended at the action of the piano concern, and through
his talk among his neighbors he may serve to kill chances for closing
a number of very desirable sales in that particular district. Careful
investigation before the prospect is approached means that there will
be fewer regrets after the sale is consummated.
After assuring himself that the prospect is desirable, the careful
salesman begins to study his man—his personal characteristics, so
far as possible, his home environment, how many and what sort
of children he has and the other points that go into the making of a
sales talk that will prove convincing from a number of angles should
one or more arguments prove ineffective. No physician worthy of
the name would think of treating two of his patients exactly alike,
even for the same disease, without a study of the individual cases
to determine what particular treatment or combination of treatments
is likely to prove most effective. Why should the mental charac-
teristics of the piano prospects prove to be any more standard to the
salesman than the physical characteristics are to the physician?
The writer knows of one salesman who worked on a rich and
elderly prospect for some weeks, talked of a grand piano as an
ornament to the home, of the musical atmosphere it created and of
the entertainment it would afford for the prospect and his imme-
diate family, all without apparent result. As the salesman left from
what he felt was his final call he noticed the prospect run forward
to greet his grandchildren, two girls.in their early teens. The sales-
man from that point carried on his campaign through the children
and finally sold the piano to their grandfather.
Another salesman, who had met with failure in his efforts to
have a prospect and his wife visit the warerooms for the purpose
of inspecting the pianos or to permit a sample instrument to be
placed in their home, loaded an attractive piano on a motor van and
as he passed in front of the prospect's house the machine devel-
oped engine trouble. The salesman asked permission to place the
piano in the house to avoid a possible storm and, when it was ob-
tained, spent the entire evening playing and singing for the enter-
tainment of his host. The piano practically sold itself and was not
removed from the house.
Still another salesman had a prospect who desired a piano but
did not see his way clear to make the necessary payments. The
REVIEW
(Salesmanship)
13
final sale lagged and seemed lost until the salesman learned that the
prospect was anxious to dispose of some country property in order
to secure funds to handle a real estate deal in the city, and after
some effort the salesman succeeded in finding a purchaser for the
property. With ready cash and the prospect's gratitude both in the
salesman's favor the piano was quickly sold.
A piano salesman in one of the larger cities, the assistant to the
manager of a large wareroom, always made it a point to maintain
a telephone in his lodgings, and on stormy days when other sales-
men were loafing about the store or trying their skill at billiards out
of sight of the employer, he called up those whose names were on
a select list of prospects in card index form. The rainy-day con-
versations and inquiries over the telephone were productive of a
volume of clear-day sales with consequent commissions for the
salesman that made the cost of the telephone a trifling item.
The instances cited, all based on actual fact, go to indicate that
there is always a way for the man who is not merely an order taker,
but who is rather a salesman who will not take "no" for a final
answer or become discouraged by rebuffs, to get in under the skin
of the hard customer. When the man of the house refuses to buy,
the housewife herself becomes an excellent channel to the family
exchequer through her pride in the furnishing of her home, her
desire that her children learn to play the piano or her envy of some
fortunate neighbor who already owns an instrument. The ability
to find the weak point in the prospect's armor after no matter how
many fruitless attempts marks the salesman. Rvery sale and every
failure adds a new page to his book of experience upon which he
can draw at critical moments. A sale made is not a closed incident
with a real salesman, it is only a forward step toward his chosen
goal. If a business argument or an appeal to family pride will not
bring the prospect around, the salesman can next attack his vanity,
as in the following incident:
A piano salesman had about given up hope of selling a piano
to a rather grumpy individual when one day he chanced to learn
that the prospect was extremely fond of motoring but bad but few
opportunities for enjoying that form of entertainment. The sales-
man, however, immediately arranged for a car, and, managing to
meet the prospect at his home, proceeded to take him for a spin
about the countryside. When the trip carried the salesman and
prospect through the city the latter was so well pleased with his
ride that he readily 'consented to visit the warerooms and inspect
the pianos. Some more good salesmanship and a sale resulted. As
a matter of fact a trip in a motor car has on more than one occasion
been the lever that has moved a difficult prospect to visit a piano
wareroom for inspection purposes, especially if his wife and children
are invited for the ride. This fact is well recognized and many
piano stores keep one or more touring cars in service for the use
of salesmen in calling on prospective customers and bringing them
to the store, where they generally arrive in a frame of mind that
makes the final sale a comparatively simple matter. The desire to
secure something for nothing on the part of prospects, whether it is
a motor car or railroad trip to the piano warerooms as the-guest of
the salesman, is a factor that has been instrumental in closing thou-
sands of piano sales, for the prospect entering the wareroom under
such conditions feels that he is under a certain obligation to the
salesman and is therefore more responsive to sales argument.
We have talked thus far of some of the phases of the outside
salesman's work, but a successful inside man has something more
to do than simply supply the expressed demands of those who enter
the warerooms with their minds made up to purchase a piano or
player-piano, for he, too, must be a judge of character and under-
stand at least something of the psychology of salesmanship. In the
first place the salesman must be able to judge, after asking a couple
of leading questions, the sort of piano the prospective purchaser
desires and how much he is willing or able to spend for it. To
offer a visitor to the warerooms a piano that is far beyond his means
frequently has one of two effects—it either frightens him to such an
extent that he will take the first excuse to leave the store or he will
hesitate to acknowledge that he is unable to pay the price asked and
after wasting more or less of the salesman's time on a false lead
he will make his escape with the best grace possible and without
buying. To offer a prospective customer an instrument at a lower
price than he is able or willing to pay either wounds his pride and
makes him combative or influences him to accept the cheaper in-
strument and thus cause the loss of a more profitable sale. Thus
(Continued on page 14)