Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
JANUARY 19, 1924
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
THE POINT OF REVIEW
time ago The Review published a detailed account of what
S OME
Lyon & Healy, Inc., calls its inner sales department. This con-
sists of every employe with the exception of the regular sales organ-
ization, who are encouraged to turn prospects into the house and
who are paid a commission upon every one which is eventually
closed. The article, which told how this had been the basis of some
$400,000 worth of business for the big Chicago house, attracted
wide attention in the trade, since it was the first time such a descrip-
tion had appeared in the trade press. Several months ago. the
Aeolian Co. in New York began a somewhat similar system and,
judging by the results thus far achieved, it has been as successful
with that house. As a matter of fact, there isn't a retail music
house in the trade which should not have some similar system in its
organization. If a dealer would stop to think that every employe
he has is the center of a certain social group and in a position to
reach every individual of that group much better than any outside
salesman ever can he would not stop a moment before he would
encourage his employes to make themselves part of his selling force.
It makes no difference how large or how small a dealer may be, the
plan is just as good. All that is required is a little encouragement,
the assurance to the employe that his interests in every prospect
turned in will be fully protected and that the more work he does in
this direction the greater his own profit is going to be. Lyon &
Healy, Inc., did nearly a half-million dollars' business through this
system and every other dealer can do a proportionate amount if he
were to establish a similar one.
V£
«<
%
of selling and making a long jump in doing it, the
S PEAKING
announcement that a well-known British trade press editor con-
siders that the British piano manufacturer is unable, under present
conditions, to compete with the American manufacturer in foreign
markets, which was published in the last issue of The Review, will
no doubt be read with considerable interest by those in the American
trade who at one time considered the export trade in pianos and
player-pianos merely a result of the confused conditions growing
out of the war and thus only a temporary development. Evidently
the British writer quoted believes that the American industry's
great advantage over its British competitors is the large-scale pro-
duction methods which have developed here during the past few
years. There is a great deal of truth in that. American piano
factory organization and development has made remarkable strides
during the past decade or so and, best of all, quality has in no way
been sacrificed to speedier and more economical production meth-
ods. At least there is no indication of that, for comparing Ameri-
can pianos to-day, grade for grade, with those of the past, they
are probably better values now than have ever been offered the ulti-
mate buyer at any previous time in the industry's history. The old
"thump-boxes" that at one time were a feature of the commercial
grades, and which were notorious, are no longer with us nor are
they ever likely to return. The American buyer has received too
good an education of late years in tonal values, and this condition
has been reflected in the reception which the American piano and
player-piano has met abroad.
Mf
% %
* I *HE growth of this condition has been largely due to the re-
A markable advances that have been made in factory organiza-
tion in the industry, in part in the replanning of old plants and in
part in the erection of new ones which embody the most modern
industrial construction that is available. Considering such new
piano factories as those of the Baldwin Piano Co. in Cincinnati, the
Vose & Sons Piano Co. in Boston, the Gulbransen-Dickinson Co. in
Chicago, the new Weber plant of the Aeolian Co. in New York, and
many others, and considering the remarkable organization of such
plants as that of Steinway & Sons, with a high-grade production
ranging well over 5,000 annually, gives some idea of the work which
has been accomplished in this direction. Undoubtedly factory meth-
ods in America have been carried further to-day than has been the
case in any other country and yet, when all is considered, there is
much more to be done in that direction which will affect general
conditions in the industry during the future to a considerable extent.
Progress is a dynamic element which must be steadily carried for-
ward to achievement.
%
MS
tt?
F
^ OR, after all, it is not too much to say that the American piano
industry is still in a transitional stage. The transition is com-
plete neither in the producing nor the distributing ends. Such a
fundamental of modern merchandising methods as a national one-
price system is not yet completely established, though the number
of manufacturers adhering to it is increasing annually. National
advertising of name value pianos still remains to be developed much
more widely than has been the case in the past. Careful study of
markets and planned campaigns to meet their needs and supply their
desires are still new to many manufacturers. But the realization
has come to the industry that if it is to advance in the same ratio as
does the population and wealth of the country, it must necessarily
distribute its product on bases that take all these things into consid-
eration. Thus it can be seen that the period of transition is to-day
in full swing with a constantly growing impetus that is making
progress more and more rapid. The last ten years have been ones
of great accomplishment in the industry, but they are nothing to
what the next ten years hold in store for it.
%
% %
A
I ^HIS is the time of the year when sales conventions are in full
-*- swing. Grinnell Bros., the well-known Michigan house, held
theirs last week and a big event it was. The Knight-Campbell
Music Co. of Denver recently held a similar event, bringing together
its executives and managers to confer on selling problems. These
events cannot be surpassed in developing a feeling of solidarity and
co-operation among selling organizations which are as widely sepa-
rated as are those of these two houses. Consider the situation of
the average branch store manager. Ninety per cent, at least, of
his contact with his house is through the medium of correspond-
ence. It is not often that he can visit headquarters and it is no
oftener that the executive of the house can visit him. If it
were not for an annual sales conference he would hardly know the
men who are confronting the same problems as his in other stores
of the company and could not benefit by their experience. Pen-and-
ink contact can never be as valuable as that of meeting face to face
and personally. The retail music merchant who has several branch
stores, and there are any number of them in the trade at the present
time, who does not have at least one such conference every twelve
months is losing a degree of co-operation and contact among his
forces which cannot be estimated, to say nothing of failing to place
the accumulated experience of all his men at the service of every
man who is on the firing line. When it is considered that Grinnell
Bros, have just held their twenty-first annual gathering and that
the Knight-Campbell Music Co. has just completed its seventh meet-
ing some idea of the way in which these leading houses regard such
events can be had.
«
as
y&
deal has been said regarding the Ampico service
A GOOD
courses on the reproducing piano and a good deal more could
be said without doing justice to the work that this company is carry-
ing on. The recent conference in New York of the men charged
with the responsibility of this enterprise showed that what has been
accomplished thus far is but a beginning. But how good a begin-
ning it really is. Courses are now to be held both in Detroit and
Minneapolis, thus giving the benefit of this work to tuners and
repairmen in both these districts. It is a development that is doing
a great deal for everyone in the industry, and one that will accom-
plish great things in creating wider public confidence in the repro-
ducing piano. For nothing injures the prestige of an instrument so
much as to have it refuse to work properly within a short time
after it is purchased and then have no one at hand to remedy what-
ever is wrong. Most of the defects, if they may be termed that,
are trivial and could be remedied by a competent mechanic in five
minutes' time.
T H E REVIEWER.