Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
DECEMBER 6, 1924
THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
Salesmanship and the Player-Piano
Can the General Principles of Salesmanship, Worked Out Psychologically, Be Applied to the Sale of
the Player-Piano in the Retail Music Merchants' Warerooms?—The Steps in the Sales
Process—The Player-Piano Can Best Speak in Selling for Itself
RE the principles of salesmanship univer-
sal? Can it be truly said that selling, as
an art, whicli it undoubtedly is, rests upon
principles which exist outside any special re-
gion of salable goods? In other words, does
the sale of, say, a player-piano go through the
same stages as the sale of, say, a piece of fur-
niture, a piece of real estate or a piece of china?
This is a question which has much more
than a theoretical interest. With a world or-
ganized such as ours is, salesmanship supplies
the driving power which keeps that world go-
ing. It is not enough to say that goods should
sell because of their merits. We know that in
our mechanically organized civilization the
most important function which the citizen fills
is the function of consumer. He is a consuming
unit, and his value to the society in which he
lives is quite as much proportional to his
powers of consumption as to his ability to pro-
duce or create anything, material or spiritual.
Salesmanship is the driving force of our con-
temporary mechanical and material civilization.
Whether salesmanship, pushed to the nth
power, is or is not a wholly desirable factor
in our civilization is quite another question;
and one to which more than a single answer
may be given. If, however, we simply take
the facts as they appear, and ask ourselves
what this salesmanship is which has within two
generations so pushed its way to the front of
society, we have to admit that it comprises the
whole motive power of our social organization,
since it controls business, and business controls
everything else.
Such a motive power must be founded on
something, nor can it rest on one set of prin-
ciples for one particular purpose and on another
for another purpose. It must be unitary and
it must be at bottom scientific.
"Scientific"
Now the meaning of the word "Scientific"
ought to be made clear from the beginning. If
the word means anything at all it means that
whatever is designated by it shall rest upon
some basis of ascertained fact. This basis need
not be stiff or formal. It may shift day by
day and may constantly be the subject of ac-
cretion as new facts bearing on it are discov-
ered. The main thing about it is that it must
be capable of generalization. That is to say,
it must -rest upon facts which can be brought
together, classified and made the subject of
general assumptions, from which as supporting
points further discoveries may be prosecuted.
That is the meaning of the word "scientific."
Now, if we apply this to salesmanship we find
that the word "scientific" need not by any
means be considered as alien to the ideas which
salesmanship connotes. Salesmanship is the art
evidently of commercial persuasion. In its ef-
fects it is the instrument by means of which
the wheels of trade and commerce are kept
moving. In its nature it is an art of persuasion,
by which persons who have need of things, or
can be persuaded to acquire things, become
buyers, consumers. Such an art, in whatever
its form, or however it be exerted, must rest
upon identical principles.
Identical Principles
And so it does. One does not mean to imply
that there is a sort of magic called salesmanship
which can enable the possessor of it, without
ever having seen a reproducing piano before,
to become instantly a successful seller of such
instruments, merely by walking into a piano
wareroom and picking out a customer. It does,
however, mean that, allowing for the fact that
A
each of its departments requires certain (as we
may say) departmental technical knowledge, the
principles which govern the successful sale of
a reproducing piano are not different from those
which govern the sale of a tin-pan; or a thou-
sand-dollar bond.
It, then, a salesman knows the principles in
question, and particularly if he understands the
nature of the process through which every
sale goes, he will be a stronger and a better
salesman than if he does not have this knowl-
edge.
The limits of an article like this do not per-
mit one to enter into anything like small de-
tail. They permit no more than the mere bare
statement of the sales process, as it exists on
all kinds of selling, and as analysis proves is
to be applicable without exception.
Every sale rests for its successful conclu-
sion upon on appeal to (a) love, (b) pride, (c)
ambition. A mother buys a piano for her
daughter, a father invests in real estate for his
family, a young husband buys a motor car for
his young wife, a business man increases his
plant for the sake of increasing his business.
The Sales Process
Therefore every sale must begin by arousing
in the prospective purchaser a legitimate atten-
tion. Nothing can be done until in some way
the attention of the prospect has been focused
upon the idea which is to be brought forward
or on the proposal which is to be made. That
is why so much advertising is done after a
manner calculated to strike the attention forc-
ibly and sometimes even brutally. Billboard
advertising offers a suggestion here, and life
insurance men can give many examples of its
use in their department of salesmanship.
The next step is to secure that attention
will be followed by interest. Some appeal must
be made to the love, pride or ambition of the
prospect, or to some variant on these emotions.
This works just as much in the sale of a re-
producing piano as of anything else.
The Crucial Stage
From securing interest to awakening desire.
Desire is another step. Here the salesman gets
in his work as demonstrator, as educator. Here
he meets and answers objections. Here he
shows that the advantages outweigh the dis-
advantages. This is the forensic part of the
sales process and the one which can most
easily be spoiled by too much conversation.
Desire is best aroused, in many cases, and cer-
tainly in the case of a fine player-piano, by
letting the thing speak for itself.
Conviction and Action
Desire should be succeeded by Conviction.
The prospect in whom desire is awakened pro-
ceeds to the belief that the thing presented is
a thing needed. But to translate conviction
into action is another matter. This is what is
called closing. Unhappily, too much talk about
closing is talk about tactics which often tend
to become rough and coarse. The old-time ap-
peal of the insurance solicitor to fears and su-
perstitions, the rush tactics which seek to over-
awe, the sort of would-be-hearty Y.M.C.A.'ish,
make-religion-manly-by-making-it-vulgar sort of
talk, the talk which believes that it can suc-
ceed by calling an assemblage of gentlemen
"Men!": there is too much of all that. The
finest salesmanship simply remains still, lets the
customer sell himself (at this stage) and con-
fines his efforts to answering objections and
stilling fears. When he talks at all outside
these regions it is simply to show that the
thing which he has to sell is so eminently de-
sirable, on account either of its profit-making
abilities or its power to produce some wanted
emotion, that one cannot afford to be without
it.
Now the American people is a people which
always wants things. It never wants to be
without anything which it can possibly afford;
and it can afford most things.
The Process
This is the process of Salesmanship. This
in barest outline is what goes on when one
sells a piano, an insurance policy or a railroad
bridge. So there is a scientifically based art
of salesmanship, and it can best be studied by
experience and watchful listening to others, in
the light of the facts here set forth.
Small Goods for Peabody Co.
BALTIMORE, Ma, November 24.—The Peabody
Piano Co. is the latest Baltimore music store to
come out in favor of the general music store idea
by adding a fully equipped small goods depart-
ment. Space in the forward part of the store
has been assigned to the new department and
cases and fixtures have already been installed.
The new department will be under the manage-
ment of Myer C. Friedman, an experienced
small goods man.
Consult the Universal Want Directory of
The Review. In it advertisements are inserted
free of charge for men who desire positions.
Lauter-
Humana
Player Piano
When a customer sees the
Lauter-Humana along-
side any other player
piano, the difference is
very obvious. After she
has had the opportunity
of playing the Lauter-
Humana, her desire to
have it is complete.
RESULT:
a good
sale, and a highly sat-
isfied customer.
LAUTER CO.
Newark, N. J.
62nd Year