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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
HAS AGGRESSIVE YANKEE SALESMANSHIP GONE TO SEED ?
A Straight-from-the-shoulder Analysis of the Importance of Salesmanship as a Business-promot-
ing Factor by Wm. Maxwell, Vice-president, Thos. A. Edison, Inc., in Printers' Ink Monthly
During the past five years the sales sense of
the nation has gone to sleep. Our national in-
difference toward our foreign trade, hostility to-
ward efficient business methods manifested by
numerous legislators, the reliance of portions
of the public on half-baked schemes of buying
and selling—all are symptoms of our decadence
as salesmen.
During the next' twenty years, at least, sales-
manship is going to be the most important of
all professions. The very salvation of the world
depends upon better salesmanship—and the na-
tion that serves bests and sells best will be the
most prosperous in this new world.
If we are to be that nation we must begin at
the bottom, and it is up to us as individuals.
We can't pass the buck. Even though Con-
gress and the executive offices of the Govern-
ment were filled with experienced sales man-
agers they could not accomplish a great deal un-
less the general public developed a higher de-
gree of sales sense than it now seems to possess.
Yankee salesmanship used to be on a par with
Yankee inventiveness. Too rhuch Government
in business, the ease with which merchandise
sold itself during the inflation period and numer-
ous other causes seem largely to have robbed
us, as a people, of our sales instinct, and to have
obscured in the public's mind the importance of
salesmanship to our national prosperity and the
well-being of the world.
Unless the big-scale production of our fac-
tories is sold somewhere, by somebody, neither
will labor get its wages nor capital its reward
and we will slip back into some other less satis-
factory system of civilization. And the individ-
uals who should be developing the better sales
sense are proving deficient.
Most of the sales managers and salesmen who
received the bulk of their training during the
past five years have a great deal to learn and
perhaps even more to unlearn. If I were hiring
a sales manager or salesman to-day I should
pay very little attention to his achievements
from 1916 to the Spring of 1920. If I were look-
ing for a sales manager, merchandising manager
or an advertising manager I should try to get a
man whose experience began prior to 1907.
The so-called buyers' strike has been greatly
prolonged by inexperienced and unskilled sales-
manship, first on the part of manufacturers and
jobbers and later by stupid retail merchandis-
ing. It would be a fine thing for the country
if the principles of salesmanship and merchan-
dising could be effectively taught in the high
schools and colleges. It is easy to teach mer-
chandising to a man or woman who understands
salesmanship, but it is very difficult to teach
real salesmanship.
One of the chief difficulties is encountered in
the individual's resentment of the high personal
criticism and minute direction to which he must
submit if he is to be thoroughly trained. If a
salesman would accept instruction and constant
rehearsal with the same good grace that the
traditions of the stage require from the actor it
would be comparatively easy to develop any in-
telligent person into a good salesman.
I am interested directly and indirectly in
about 25,000 salesmen. I am trying to take my
own medicine and develop sales sense in this, my
particular cross section of the American public,
by organizing and operating what is virtually a
traveling school of salesmanship. This year I
expect to meet 5,000 of these salesmen.
[Reference is then made to the four-act
comedy with a cast of professional actors, which
was the principal feature of the recent Edison
Caravan Convention, held in New York, Chi-
cago, New Orleans and Vancouver, and which
depicted more or less humorously some of the
difficulties which attend the teachings and prin-
ciples of salesmanship. Through this play it
was hoped to overcome, to some extent, the
prejudices which so many salesmen entertain
against any form of instruction—and it is this
very prejudice which keeps so many of them
from developing a general sales sense.—Ed.]
The article then continues as follows:
Every manufacturer this year should try to
make his sales convention a clearing house of
real ideas, a place of new enthusiasms and
JULY 23, 1921
broader vision—but, above all, a place where a
better sales sense may be born in the individual
salesman.
For unless we who are supposed to know
salesmanship do our utmost to develop this sales
sense among our own associates we cannot ex-
pect to see it grow without cultivation or effort.
The years of 1921-1941 are the biggest po-
tential years in the history of the world—they
aren't over yet. And during these years sales-
manship will be the most important profession
in the world. Without it initiative, invention
and civilization will go to seed. With it will
be brought about a closer understanding be-
tween the peoples of the world, a higher stand-
ard of living for every individual and a period
in which the arts and sciences will develop and
life itself be made more livable.
KNIGHT-CAMPBELL CO. HOLDS CONVENTION OF DEALERS
Fifty Dealers From Territory Served by Western Victor Wholesalers Attend Two-day Session
Held in Denver Following Annual Meeting of National Association of Talking Machine Jobbers
DENVER, COI.O.. July 16.—The Knight-Campbell
Music Co., Victor wholesalers of this city, took
the advantage of the presence of a number of
Victor Co. officials, as well as jobbers from
other sections of the country, to hold a conven-
tion of its dealers in this city on Thursday and
Friday of this week, attracting about fifty deal-
ers from Colorado, Wyoming, northern New
Mexico, western Kansas and sections of Ne-
braska.
The first session was held on Thursday after-
noon, when R. A. Bryant, manager 'of the whole-
sale Victor department of the company, wel-
comed the dealers. The first speaker was Hor-
ace W. Wilcox, advertising counselor, who
talked on "Fighting for Business." He was fol-
lowed by D. N. Andrews, of the Thos. Cusack
Co., who spoke on "Outdoor Advertising," and
J. M. Spain, manager of the local Victor depart-
ment, described the method for organizing the
sales campaign. J. A. Frye, sales manager, made
an excellent address on Victor business from the
wholesaler's standpoint.
In the evening the visiting dealers were enter-
tained at a special dinner at Lakeside, a popular
Denver resort, where Paul Whiteman and his
orchestra furnished the dance music for the eve-
ning and attracted a crowd of over 3,500 people,
who were willing to pay double the admission
price to hear that famous musical organization.
On Friday morning a business meeting was
held in the Knight-Campbell wholesale head-
quarters with a number of Victor officials pres-
ent, including Ralph L. Freeman, director of
distribution. The first speaker was H. A. Beach,
of the Unico Construction Co., who described
a number of equipments installed by his com-
pany and showed stereopticon views of some of
them. The next speaker was J. S. Macdonald,
sales manager of the Victor Co., who made a
general review of the existing business situation,
particularly as it affected Victor trade, and em-
phasized not only the importance of greater sell-
ing effort, but also of the necessity of providing
the proper physical setting for the display and
sale of Victor goods.
The next speaker was F. A. Delano, head of
the Victor Salesmanship School, who gave a
most practical talk on efficient methods in rec-
ord selling, giving to the dealers many points
that should prove of inestimable value to them
in developing record sales. Following Mr. 'De-
lano, Ernest John, advertising manager of the
Victor Co., .outlined to the dealers the proper
method for co-operating as individuals, and
locally, with the Victor Co.'s national advertis-
ing campaign. E. J. Dingley, assistant sales
manager of the Victor Co., also spoke briefly,
and was followed by Raymond Bill, Associate
Editor of the Talking Machine World and the
Music Trade -Review, who outlined to the deal-
ers a survey of business conditions made by
these publications and the lessons that they
held for the retailer.
Efforts are at present being made to organize
the dealers in the Knight-Campbell territory into
a permanent organization, a preliminary meeting
to that end having been held in the company's
offices Friday afternoon without accomplishing
any definite results.
OKEH RECORDS IN SPORTING EVENTS
Fight Fans From Middle West Entertained on
Special Train by Okeh Records—Music Sub-
stitutes for Bennie Leonard
Okeh records have figured prominently dur-
ing the past few weeks in several sporting events
that have attracted considerable attention. Pre-
liminary to the Dempsey^Carpentier fight two
special trains left Chicago for the fight contain-
ing some of the leading fight fans in the Mid-
dle West. The members of the party were en-
tertained all the way from Chicago by Okeh
records, which added materially to the success
of the trip.
At Benton Harbor, Mich., recently, Bennie
Leonard, lightweight champion, was scheduled
to fight, but, owing to illness, did not appear.
The rest of the program was carried out, how-
ever, and the entire audience was entertained
with Okeh records, the volume of which was
augmented by the use of a Magnavox.
At the Twenty-third Regiment Armory in
New York recently Miss Vaughn DeLeath, well-
known contralto, and exclusive Okeh artist, gave
a comparison test which met with unusual suc-
cess. Miss DeLeath sang several selections and
immediately afterward Okeh records of the same
selections were played for the audience. The
comparison served to emphasize the fidelity that
characterizes the Okeh reproductions of Miss
DeLeath's voice and the 1,500 people in the au-
dience were enthusiastic regarding the test.
STEELE-RIKE PIANO CO. FORMED
NORFOLK, VA., July 18.—The Steele-Rike Piano
Co. was formed here recently by Leon C. Steele
and E. G. Rike. The new music house is an
outgrowth of the Columbia Co., Inc., which was
purchased by Mr. Steele in 1919. The two
firms have been merged and a full line of re-
producing, grand and upright pianos has been
added to the talking machine supplies. The
establishment has been equipped with piano dis-
play rooms designed to create the impression
of home surroundings that will add much to the
comfort of patrons.