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REVIEW
THE
VOL. LXXIX. No. 6
X
Published Every S a tor day. Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., 383 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. Aug. 9, 1924
Single Copies 10 Cents
$2.00 Per Year
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Training the Retail Music Salesman
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HE REVIEW has recently been in receipt of several retail salesmanship courses of instruction already
in use in retail music organizations. These are designed primarily to instruct the novice salesman in the
broad and general fundamental principles of musical instrument selling and to be a distinct aid to him
during that discouraging period when he is endeavoring to learn and apply a knowledge which, in the
future, will make him a productive factor in the organization of which he is a part.
Those retail music merchants who have appreciated the necessity of such instruction are to be con-
gratulated upon their individual efforts to overcome'a condition in the retail music trade which has existed
during the past several years.
Unquestionably, there has been a dearth of retail salesmen with proper training and as unquestionably
this scarcity has been due primarily to neglect upon the part of the retail music merchant himself or the sales-
manager who directs retail selling organizations. The old process of pitching a novice salesman out to work
out his own salvation with but little direction or co-operation was one that led to the survival of the fittest
with a vengeance but which, in the long run, killed the ambition of many a potential producer.
A second disadvantage of this extravagant system—extravagant in the sense that it wasted inherent
selling ability needlessly'—was that it placed a premium upon the sales of any type or character and concen-
trated the attention of the salesman entirely upon his volume of units with small attention being given to the
value of the sale that w T as made. As a result today the retail music trade has a considerable number of sales-
men who were trained under such auspices and who, in their anxiety to sell, are big factors in creating past
due and repossessions. In fact, here is the greatest injury which the improperly trained salesman does to the
trade, a condition which can only be eliminated or ameliorated by his proper instruction in the beginning.
The need for such instruction has become so apparent that the Music Industries Chamber of Commerce,
itself, has had a committee studying the situation and as a result, has formulated a plan whereby it provides at
least a partial remedy for it. But the endeavor to obtain a wide support for this from the retail music mer-
chant has delayed its completion and as a result, individual music merchants are taking the matter into their
own hands and working out their own remedies therefor.
Competition in retail piano selling today is keen, not only in the direct rivalry that exists between the
merchants themselves and the various lines of instruments which they handle, but with an infinite number of
merchants in other lines of retail trade all of whom are striving to obtain their share of the surplus above the
actual necessities of life which is possessed by the average family. In these competing lines, training the retail
salesman on definite plans and through definite courses of instruction, has long been recognized as a factor of
importance in developing men competent to place their products within the American home upon a proper
basis. Where this instruction has been widespread and where it has been in existence long enough to show an
appreciable effect upon the salesmen, the standards of merchandising are invariably found to be upon a higher
plane with the result that the profit to the merchant himself is greater.
If instruction to the retail piano salesman were to be carried as far in the retail music trade, such a
result would inevitably follow for the greatest obstacle which exists today towards better merchandising in this
field is the improperly trained salesman. A merchant or a salesmanager who has a continuous struggle upon
his hands to hold his salesmen in their work up to the standard of the house, has but little chance to plan sell-
ing campaigns that' will yield the proper results, for necessity of selling the salesmen themselves is enough to
take up all of his energy and thought.
In all this there is no desire to place the blame for present conditions upon the shoulders of the salesmen
themselves. On the contrary, as was pointed out previously, the responsibility rests directly and implicitly upon
the dealer who has too often neglected this important part of his business.