Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
FEBRUARY 10,
1923
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
9
Selling Conferences Prove Real Value
Both in Industry and Trade Salesmen's Gatherings With Executives Are Stimulants to Sales Organization
Revitalization—The Grinnell and Knight-Campbell Meetings—What the Smaller Dealer Can Do—
The Ampico' Art Society—Hallet & Davis Co. and Its Annual Travelers' Meeting
The periodic sales conference, whether in a
retail or wholesale organization, is one of the
most important methods of revitalizing a sales
force, of filling its members with new enthusi-
asm and energy, and of sending the men out
among their customers in a state of mind which
results in an increased volume of business. All
this the sales conference does, provided, of
course, that it is something more than a mere
social gathering, and that the men are given
hard facts and not the stale platitudes which
too often make up the context of papers read
before such gatherings.
Sales conferences in the retail piano trade
range all the way from weekly gatherings held
in a single wareroom to elaborate conventions
held by the larger chain selling organizations,
which last from two days to a week and draw
an attendance as high as one hundred. It is
a significant fact that the sales conference is
found at its highest development in selling or-
ganizations that rank among the best in the
retail trade.
Two Outstanding Retail Conventions
Perhaps the two outstanding yearly sales
conventions in the retail piano trade are those
of Grinnell Bros., of Detroit, and the Knight-
Campbell Music Co., of Denver, Colo. Each of
these lasts for nearly a week, during the course
of which branch managers and salesmen from
the stores controlled by these organizations are
brought to headquarters, policies are thrashed
out in strict relation to the facts these men face
in their daily work of selling musical instru-
ments to their customers, flaws in selling
methods are exposed with relentless severity
and remedies are worked out for eliminating
them. The fact that Grinnell Bros, have fol-
lowed this practice for twenty years, and the
Knight-Campbell organization for nearly as
long, shows the value the executives of these
two organizations place upon these gatherings.
One of the outstanding features of the Knight-
Campbell convention is the decision in the
yearly selling contest which is conducted by
this firm. Clarence Campbell, of this house,
stated some time ago that this contest idea
proved a greater stimulus to selling activity
among the managers and salesmen than any
other plan which had ever been tried, and that
it aroused a competitive spirit which, in results,
more than justified the time and expense in-
vested in it.
One of the most striking proofs of the value
of the sales conference was given some time
ago by the New England musical instrument
house of M. Steinert & Sons Co. Alfred Cortot,
the French pianist, was appearing at that time
in Boston with the Duo-Art piano, which the
Steinert house represents in that territory. On
the day of the recital Alexander Steinert
brought his entire force of branch managers
and many of the salesmen to Boston, the firm's
headquarters, where a discussion of selling
methods for this instrument was held in the
morning, a lecture by a representative of the
Aeolian Co. on the Duo-Art was given in the after-
noon and in the evening the men attended the
recital in a body. The mood in which they went
back to selling these instruments can be
imagined, for many of the Steinert branches
are. in small cities where it would be impossible
to bring such an eminent artist as Cortot for
a concert and where the selling forces had not
had the fidelity of the Duo-Art's reproduction
of pianists' interpretations demonstrated to
them. They went back to their work more than
ever convinced of the merit of the product they
were selling, the basis of all good salesmanship.
These examples have been cited from large
selling organizations. But the dealer who has
but the one store can utilize the selling confer-
ence to just as great advantage, in fact to per-
haps greater advantage, for he can hold them
at shorter intervals and maintain a more per-
sonal contact with his men. An example of
this is found in the Knabe Warerooms in New
York, where every Wednesday morning Man-
ager Berthold Neuer gathers his entire organi-
zation, from his best outside salesman and de-
partment heads down to the girls in the music
roll department, for an hour's conference on
the week's work. These gatherings have proven
especially valuable in developing selling methods
for the reproducing piano, which, after all, is
a comparative novelty in the trade, for which
the selling approach had to.be developed along
new lines.
And here it is necessary to speak of what is
probably a unique selling conference. That is
the annual meeting of the Ampico Art Society.
Formed spontaneously by dealers from every
section of the country who represent the Am-
pico, it has done wonderful work in its annual
gatherings, not only in formulating better sell-
ing methods, but in bringing about a more per-
sonal contact between the men who sell the
Ampico and the artists who record for it, both
of whom are eligible for membership. When
it is remembered that the reproducing piano is
sold strictly upon the basis of music, the value
of this contact can be immediately seen. One
of the latest activities of this organization has
been an effort to meet the problem of the
trade-in, an important one in selling the repro-
ducing piano, and considerable progress has
been made, the Ampico Art Society's work
being used to some extent as a basis, for the
effort now being made to solve this problem
by the Music Industries Chamber of Commerce.
The Hallet & Davis Wholesale Meeting
In the wholesale field the sales conference is
as important as in the retail end of the industry.
No manufacturer has developed this idea further
than the Hallet & Davis Piano Co., which holds
an annual gathering of its travelers. At that
just completed in Boston two days were de-
voted to personal work between the salesmen
and the executives of the house; one day to a
study of recording work with the Angelus re-
producing piano, members of the artists' staff
giving demonstrations; one day to the player-
piano, a visit being paid to the Simplex Player
Action Co.'s plant in Worcester; one day to
the Hallet & Davis factory in Boston, and on
the final day a visit was paid to the Angelus
Recording Studio in Meriden. No traveler went
back to his territory without an intimate knowl-
edge of the goods he is selling the dealers nor
without a full realization of the company's pol-
icies, thus being able to give 100 per cent co-
operation, the basic essential of any properly
functioning selling organization.
The sales conference is susceptible to still
further development. Properly handled, it de-
velops a degree of harmony among the salesmen
which eliminates many of the evils that, at the
present time, hinder them in their work. But
it must be carefully handled. While it has its
social side, the men must be made to realize
that they are there primarily for business, and
the only way to do that is to plan a program
where real problems arc placed foremost.
MOVING PICTURE FILM SHOWS ORGANIST'S TECHNIQUE
Strand Theatre, San Francisco, Shows Interesting Picture in Connection With Installation of
Robert-Morton Organ—Hand and Foot Movements of Organist Displayed With Clarity
One of the unique features in connection with
the installation recently of a Robert-Morton
organ in the Strand Theatre, San Francisco,
was played while the film was being shown
and the result w-as a very interesting demon-
stration. The accompanying photograph shows
Eddie Sellen at Strand
by the American Photo Player Co., was the
showing ol a film at that playhouse depicting
tlio hand and foot movements of the organist
while seated at the organ console. The organ.
Robert-Morton Organ
Eddie Sellen, organist at the Strand Theatre,
stated at the console of his instrument. The
audience took a deep interest in the deinonstra,-
tk>n and greeted it with applause,