Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
flUJIC TRADE
VOL. LXXVIU. No. 4 Published Every Satirday. Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., 383 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. Jan. 26, 1924
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Making a 100 Per Cent Selling Force
V
ERY progressive institutions and individuals in the retail music trade are fast losing the idea that the
business should be divided into various sections, one perhaps devoted exclusively and entirely to selling
and carrying the whole burden while the other division represents unproductive but necessary over-
head, this including clerical workers, members of the delivery force, the porter, etc.
For decades has appeared the story of a porter or an office boy who became so imbued with the possi-
bilities of piano selling that he actually brought in a prospect who developed into a sale and thereby won the,
undying gratitude of his employer, as well as some possible publicity in trade papers, for the incident was
sufficiently unusual to warrant its being classed as news. In some rare cases employes not on the regular sales
force were encouraged to turn in prospects, but such occasions were unusual.
It is quite evident that the story of the manner in which Lyon & Healy, Inc., of Chicago, encouraged
each individual member of its big organization, regardless of how humble his place, to give thought to possible
sales among friends and acquaintances with a fair and worth-while commission as an incentive, which was
published in The Review some time ago, made a deep impress on the trade as a whole.
The Lyon & Healy plan was widely commented upon for the reason that its success was unquestioned.
Four hundred thousand dollars' worth of business is not to be ignored by any business institution and this is
just about the amount of business turned in by employes of Lyon & Healy, or through their efforts, up to the
time the story was written. This business was all supplementary to that closed through ordinary channels by
the regular and accredited sales department.
Among other concerns that have followed the same plan with distinct success is the Aeolian Co., New
York, who some time ago offered commissions to the members of its large clerical force, as well as workers in
departments other than the sales department, for names of prospects that could be turned into sales. Interest
was further stimulated in the move by the award of prizes for the best record in the sales campaign covering
a specified period.
There is no retail music business so small that there are not available the services of certain individuals
ranking as non-producers who can be encouraged to canvass their friends and acquaintances and turn in worth-
while prospects, even if they themselves do not close the sales. Ninety-nine per cent of such business is
handled not in competition with the regular sales department, but in addition to its business.
The plan to be successful, however, must be equitable both to the dealer and to the employe. An instance
wv.s c : ted recently of an assistant bookkeeper who ran across a prospect for a grand piano among his friends
and turned in the name. This was assigned to a floor salesman who followed up and closed the deal. The
bookkeeper had the. extreme pleasure of receiving a $10 bill for his trouble, and at the same time entering a
credit to the salesman's account of something over $100 on the same deal despite the fact that he had aided
materially and personally in making the sale.
A music house as a rule spends a good many thousand dollars a year in publicity of various sorts and
yet in many cases overlooks the publicity that its own working force can give it—publicity that is absolutely,
without expense except when direct results are achieved. An employe who is encouraged to build up his com-
pany's business by turning in prospects and selling some of them himself is an asset in more ways than one.
He becomes an enthusiast and transfers part of that enthusiasm to at least a score of friends. This figure,
multiplied by one hundred, fifty or even twenty-five employes, is something with which to conjure.
More than one good piano salesman has been developed through other departments of the business, in
which connection we have in mind one of the most successful salesmen connected with an Eastern piano house
who built up a fine line of prospects while doing repair work for the company, and then joined the outside
sales force to capitalize on those prospects, leaving the repair work in less valuable hands.