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THE
REVIEW
J1UJIC TIRADE
VOL. LXXII. No. 4
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman BUI, Inc., at 373 4th Ave., New York. Jan. 22, 1921
Single Copies 10 Cent!
$2.00 Per Tear
New Salesmanship the Present Need
T
HERE is no use in denying that for several years past in the music industry salesmanship, so-called,
has been enjoying more or less of a rest, not due to the dulling of the selling instinct to any great degree,
but rather due to the lack of necessity for the display of salesmanship. The selling methods in the
music industry have been criticised more or less for years, but they were the accepted methods and
were all the industry had. With a seller's market prevailing even these selling methods were forgotten.
But in place of the salesmanship which is dead and gone we certainly need a new salesmanship of
another and better kind, based on a foundation according with the requirements of to-day. To speak fairly,
we have neither such a salesmanship nor, for that matter, any substitute. We have at the moment virtually
no piano salesmanship at all. The seller's market put out of business the old methods, and no new ones have
as yet been devised.
Such a conclusion, true as it undoubtedly is, will not suffice. The music industries have to come back
to normal, and they can neither hope nor expect that the seller's market will return, nor, on the other hand,
can they hope that the old methods of piano salesmanship will satisfy or succeed with people situated as the
people of to-day find themselves.
The people of to-day are critical as no people ever were before. The better class of people of to-day
are not interested solely in prices and terms. Though, in periods of temporary slackness, there is a slowing up
of piano buying, it is not true that such slackness can be remedied by offering pianos at lower prices and on
easier terms. liroadly speaking and considering the trade as a whole, it remains remarkably true that the
annual sales of pianos in each community year by year average about the same per 1,000 of population, hi fact,
it is not certain that sales are maintaining the average which they used to maintain per 1,000 of the population,
say, twenty years ago.
The fact is that the piano had been sold as a piece of furniture or as a price-and-terms, easy-pay, con-
tract proposition for so long that when the war swept away temporarily the available supply, and the sudden
riches of thousands made them mad to buy anything at any price, what passed for salesmanship would not do
for a moment. And now that it is again necessary to go out and sell pianos, instead of waiting for them to be
bought, and allotting them to one's favored customers, the industry has not the reserve of selling talent and
the basis of selling principle which it needs.
When we say that the piano trade needs a new salesmanship we are telling only the strict truth: The
piano trade needs a new salesmanship, which shall be based on the idea of selling to the great riasses of
the people the belief in music in the home. Music in the home is a phrase which means nothing when
a whole nation is going crazy with easy money, but it means a great deal when a nation is being obliged
to work hard, to conserve its income and to live in a healthy, frugal manner. Such a time is upon
us, and it is certain that during the next decade we shall all have to live a good deal more sanely. At such
a time the piano once more comes into its own.
Let us, then, face the future with the understanding that all our talk, all our advertising, all our demon-
stration should be based on the idea of selling pianos and player-pianos, not as furniture, not as something easy
to buy, but as "means to music," and especially to music in the home. All that, of course, means emphasizing,
as never before, the truly musical -side of the piano. Piano music, demonstration, piano-teaching, piano-playing,
the musical possibilities of the player-piano—all these require intensive cultivation. With that the piano busi-
ness will not only equal its past records, but will greatly surpass the best of them; for then the piano will be
going into the homes of the people for what it is and not for what it costs or for how it can be palmed off on
those who, in fact, would never buy it of themselves.
The day for the new salesmanship is h«re. Let us help to bring it in.
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