A UGUS T
THE
18, 1923
MUSIC
TRADE REVIEW
5
Make All Your Employes Salesmen
A Plan by Which Lyon & Healy, Inc., Succeeded in Otaining 6,000 Prospects' Names Within Twelve Months,
SeJling a Gross Volume of $450,000 in Musical Instruments in That Time to 20 Percent of
the Names Turned In The Way in Which the Employes Were Enthused
In rvery retai l lllusic ho use there is a latent
se llin g force 'w hic h too ofte n the head of the
co ncern bils to e ncoura ge, t o the detrim en t of
hi s sales vo lume. Tha t force is the personal
con tacts of all employe s on the payroll.
\Vhelher it be th e office bo y ar th e s tore porter,
th e hearl of a d epartmen t or some other equally
imp ort;' n l exec utive, eac h one of them has a
lar ge nll1 ;Lber of personal conta't ts whic h, if
p r operly ll.ti li ze d, can be made to cr eate sa les .
:\ store h'lvinr: a ny numb er of emp loyes ca n
thu s rC'lci! a co nsidera bly lar ge number of peo
pic I'.' h o in m il ny cases ar c not touched by the
re g ul ar sa les force a nd a consid erab le num ber
of sales be lll ilde th at o th e rwi se would ~o to
competi tor s, or not be develope d at all.
But this la tent sales fo r ce does not sp ring into
;,ctivity oi il.; OWIl vo lition . It must be brought
into cxi dcn cE. th;)t is , acti ve expe rience, through
'.k · action oi , h< hous e it se lf. :LV1any of t he
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nas
Names,i t is stated, come in from this division
at the r ate o f from 200 to 400 per month, and
the per ce ntage of thos e who are sold is hi g h, as
any piano m a n can se e. C. H . Anders on, secre
tary of the company, r ecently describ ed thi s
sys tem in the Retail L edger as follows:
" It never seemed goo d business to ignore th e
fact th a,t our 1,000 e mployes must co ntinu all y
come in co nta ct w ith relatives and frie nds who
n eed pianos an d other musical goo ds, or h ea r
of strange r s who migh t be interested.
"This idea , g ro win g all the time, ca used the
president, Marquette A. H eaty, to inaugurate a
plan in th e early part of 1921 v.-hiLh would offer
a n incentive to emplo yes of the non-selling d ivi
s ions to u se their eyes and ears for the benefit of
th e sales staff. M r. Heal y gave th e crude idea
to a m em ber of th e sales staff and m yself to
d evelop.
"At th e star t there were ar ranged thi r ty t ea ms
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Lyon & H ealy, Inc., Emplo yes' Prospect Cards
ll'lu ; ic retail hou ses of the trade have
of eight em plo yes each, includin g a captain for
s tudied this questi on eard ull y ,; 'ld hav e deve l
eac h t eam, t he team captain select ing his own
oped ph", wi c,cby th is auxili a ry selling force
Illemb crs. Inrli" idual meetin~s were h eld eac h
has b een a con siste nt fa ct or in cr " at in ,': vo lu me.
day until a ll had been ins tru cted as to how t o
obtai n prosp ec t n :" <1e- and ~ 11C amo unt of t.h e
S uch hous es :\s S herman, Cla y & Co., the ,['a
cific Coast chain, the K night- Campbell Music
co mmi ss ion.
Co., of De n ve r, Col. , he\\ C wo rked out an d hav e
"Captains" on Each Floo;
in op eration plans whi ch lliake practically "vuy
" S;ncc the n a more practical and more su c
ces sf ul a rrangement h", bee n mad e. Now th e
emplo ye on the pil vro ll a cons tant source of
pros pect s, through offering co mmission s and
Inn er Sa les Division is divided into floors, one
o th e r remuner ation to employes who tu rn in
tcam to a floor, because of the fact that eac h
prospec ts t hat ar c ultim atel y so ld . In ever y
floor is dev ote d to one line of goo d s or close ly
case thi s system has pro ven profitau te, not onl y
re la'te d lin es in one group. O ne employe o n
in dir ect r es ults, but in crea tin g a better spirit
each floor is re spo nsible for instructing new
am ong th e employ es in lin king th em more
people as t o the sys tem and th e genera l hi story
close ly with the hou se and deve lopin g that feel
of th e div is ion. He a lso accepts prospect ca rd s.
in g of solidity w hi ch is one of the m os t va lu
If th e floor carries a la rge nu mber of employes
ab le fa ctor s in a ny organization.
the captain w ill ha ve a sub-captain to assist him.
The L yon & Heal y System
In addi ti on to this instru ction, the personne l de
['. yon & Healy , Inc., of Ch icago, is one of
part ment assem ble s empl oyes w ho have j o ill cll
o ur organization during the la st fe w month s,
Ih os e ho us es wh ich have ca rri ed this syste m t o
it , greatest developm ent and whi ch hav e thu s
an d I g ive them a sho rt ta lk on the histor y of
received the g reate s t r es ults f rom it. It is sta ted
the Inn er Sales Div is ion and the benefits t hey
th at the "Inner Sales Dil'ision," as it is terme d, ma y derive.
"\ll/e a ll ow a ca ptain a co mmission of one-half
h as rec eived $25,000 in comm iss io ns sinc e Au
g us t, 1921, w hi ch represent s a great to tal of
of 1 per cen t o n all sales secur ed from pros
sa les directly tra ceab le t o th at work. During
pe ct ca rds turned in b y emp loyes on hi s floor
that t ime the nam es of 6,000 prospective cus
and the commission to th e empl oye wh o turn s
in the card amounts to 5 per ce nt o f the net
tamers 'we re turned in , of wh ich 20 per ce nt
were so ld $450,000 worth of mer cha ndise.
amount of the sal e.
le~ding
" This plan h;)s proved to be most sa ti sfacto ry
to b o th emp loyes a nd the stor e. 'INhere we h ad
on ly forty ..s ix pro s pect card s in th ree mont hs
in the fir st tryout, th ey j um ped to the high e r
figur es mentioned at the start of thi s article.
Thi s is due pa rtly to the fact Ihat th e team ca p
tain s are in position t o keep the interes t alive ,
the captains being chosen because of their in
t eres t in th e p lan, the ir abilit y a nd the attitud e
of the emplo yes towa rd th em.
"Team captain s make it a point fr om tim e to
ti me to ask their team-mates :,.bout p r osp~ct
cards and in thi s way the stream of cards is
ne ver allowe d to slacken . \Vhen sales show the
need for a stim ulant they can be h elped by us in g
effort along til is line.
" 'How about filling out a ,-arc !. jar US to -da y 0 '
d team captain as k ed a yo un g wO lllan in a dt ·
partment on his floor a iew months ago when
th e prospects we r e no t co ming in a s th ey sh oul d.
Thi s young woman did not li ke to fill out a
card. She took one to ho ld until sh e could
t hink of a name . Lat er sh e r eca lled th at 1 ie ~,
days previously she heard a woman m en tion th e
Llct that a r elative of th e \, oma n wo ul d h ~ \ c
p ur chased a seco nd -hand piano of a neighb o r
ha d she kno wn of th e instrume nt being for sale.
T he yo un g woman los t no li me in ge tting th e
r equired information ove r the telephone f"Olll
he r friend. Sh e fil led OUl and filed a ca rd and
the sa lesma n did th e rest. This oPl)Qrlunity
m ight hav e been overlooked.
Commissio ns Paid Cheerfully
"This o rga ni %ed effort to so licit pro spec t
names frolll employes \',·as n o t us ed muc h prio r
to '\u )-: us t, 1921. A s a malter of fact, ve r y littl e
e ncourageme nt ,va s g ive n the em ployes to seek
business un their own time.
"'vVe fo und it to ue of suthc icllt i i,t ·. rest to
ci llploye s [or th em to know that they would
receive th e ir com mission w ithout any di fficu lt y
and that th <.:y wo ul d not ha v" to r es ort to argu
lIlUll to prove that the y wer e entitled to th e
commiss ion. L Yall & Hea ly let them Sec that
th e store was g lad t o pay the commi s sion. Em
ploy es were ass u red th at eve ry effort would be
made to clos e the sal e for th em _
"One of the s tronge st factors in retaining th e
s upport and int erest o f the emp loyes is th at the
departm ent is direc tl y controlled from the
executive office. It ass ures t he emp loyes a fai r
d ea l a nd, from th e other angle, se rve s as a le ve r
on our sa les departm ents to give the proper
attention t o pr ospects fi led.
"A g lance at the prospect card sh ow s it to
be self-exp lana tor y. As soon a:c an employe
h ears of a prospect for any of th e m erchandi se
that we sell he secu res a card from his t ea lll
captain or s ub- captain and fill s it out in dupli
cate. \ Vhen he r eceives this pair of ca rd s the
cap ta in Illak,:s out o n e for his own file, sendin,C
the fir st two to th e executive office, which is the
headquart ers for the Inner Sales Di vision.
" 'J ohn Johnson' filed th e s pecimen card re
produced on May IS, sho wing that 'John Sm ith'
is a prospect for a piano. On the rever s" s id e
of this ca rd app ear notat ions sho"v i ng the pro g
re ss of the follo w- up a nd the resu lts of the case
The promptness and thoroughnes s with w hich
pr ospe cts thus secured are handled impresses
the employes with the fa ct tha t it is an impo r '
tant part of the business.
" These not ations, typical of many actua l cases,
s how that on M ay 16 an d 17 our sa les depart
ment called on this pros pect. On May 2S we
had not r eceived a further repo rt on this pro s
pect, so a tracer from th e office was se nt The
final form shows the result of the tracer-on
(C ontinued on page 7)