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AUGUST 9,
THE
1924
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
Training the Retail Piano Salesman
The Plan Followed by the Chickering Warerooms of Baltimore, Under the Direction of Its President, D. J.,
Tremblay—Meetings Twice a Week Combined With a Regular Bulletin Selling Service—How
One Sales Manager Made the Credit Department Eliminate Waste Time
T
H E question of more and better salesmen
in the retail piano trade is one that is
insistent for a solution. More and more
the alert and progressive retail music merchant
is turning his attention to this work in an effort
to make his salesmen better producers, not only
in the sense that they will make more unit
sales but in the sense that the sales they do
make will be better sales and thus more prof-
itable to the house which employs them. As a
matter of fact, the latter element is really the
more important of the two, since profitable piano
selling at retail is based entirely upon the terms
upon which the sale is made and the relation of
the credit risk to the customer who binds him-
self to make them. Volume has too often been
the entire aim of too many music merchants,
who, in their anxiety for it, have suffered in the
long run through a high percentage of repos-
sessions and of past due on their outstanding
paper.
The individual retail music merchant will find
the time and energy and expense spent in train-
ing the men who compose his selling organiza-
tion productive of good results both in increased
and better sales. As a matter of fact, a great
deal of neither expense nor time need be spent
in this work. What must be done is to arouse
the enthusiasm of the men and stimulate their
interest, show them the relation of each in-
dividual sale they make to the ultimate profit in
it and thus drive home the point that the sig-
nature on the contract is not so important in
itself as are the terms on which the sale is
made and the financial standing of the cus-
tomer who has bound himself to carry them out.
Chickering Warerooms' System
The Chickering Warerooms of Baltimore,
under the direction of D. J. Tremblay, president
of that concern, has inaugurated a course of
instruction for its retail salesmen, which, accord-
ing to Mr. Tremblay, has been productive of
distinctive results, not only in actual sales but
in the higher morale that is maintained among
the sales force, greater enthusiasm and greater
interest. This class in retail piano selling meets
twice a week, under Mr. Tremblay's direction,
he giving a short talk on salesmanship, the
proper methods of handling prospects and on
the terms of the sales contract. The last topic
is always important since there are a great
many retailers, strange as it may seem, who as
yet do not understand a retail selling contract
and are likely to have the customer not under-
stand it either when the sale is made. Mis-
understandings of contracts are one of the
most universal sources of dissatisfaction on the
part of the customer in the future.
Supplementing these personal conferences the
Chickering Warerooms is sending to each sales-
man a series of personal bulletins, covering each
a general topic, such as honesty, ability, etc.
The following is typical of these and was sent
out to the salesmen on July 28:
"First of all, just what is ability in a sales-
man? Where does it start? What does it
include?
"Who is going to determine so broad a thing
as this?
"Ability, in the true sense, is a fine blending
of every quality essential to the salesman—both
the man-qualities and the business-qualities.
Your ability is the flowering of all your other
Highest
Quality
qualities—and absolutely in keeping with them.
"Consider, for example, how inseparably your
ability is tied up with your initiative, with your
knowledge of your product, with your knowl-
edge of human nature, with your sincerity, your
honesty of purpose, your judgment, and, not
least of all, with your health.
"How vital it is, then, that these traits, every
one of them, be earnestly developed. How
vital it is that you culture yourself in the per-
sonal qualities which so completely govern your-
self and your rewards.
"'Your results and your rewards!' There, in
a phrase, is the real measure of your ability.
It is from your results and" your rewards that
you may gauge whether you are picking your
prospects intelligently; whether you are putting
in enough time calling on prospects; whether
you are employing the right tactics at the time
of sale; whether your selling personality is as
strong as it should be; whether you know
enough about what you are trying to sell;
whether you are weak at closing your prospects
after they are interested. These are the ele-
ments of ability. You can not pay too much
attention to them.
"Study your prospects—their needs, their
tastes, their varied mental attitudes. Adapt
yourself to the individual case—attune your
story to the prospect's particular personality.
There is no royal road to the name on the
dotted line, but there is such a thing as lessen-
ing resistance. Find the weakest point in your
prospect's defense.
"Know your merchandise. Be able to tell
your prospects the things they should know
about any instrument—the things that will in-
terest and influence them. Be able to answer
their questions properly and confidently. Be
able to tell them why they should buy our in-
struments instead of someone else's.
"Study your own personality. Analyze your
methods as though you were somebody else.
Where is your weakness? Are you uncertain
about your approach? Can you direct the con-
versation to your objective? Are you weak in
getting your prospect to visit the store? Are
you sufficiently familiar with the stock? Is your
appearance all it should be? Do you meet your
prospects on their own level, without awe and
without condescension? Does your story hang
together, does it sound as truthful as the facts
really are? These things, men, are at the very
root of every sale. As selling men, you can
never afford to slight any of them. Rehearse
your selling thoughts, review your selling
methods. Challenge them! Do they stand
scrutiny? Where do they fall short? Be honest
with yourself for the sake of yourself.
"But, above all, remember—ability itself is
worthless without the work that makes it pro-
ductive.
"Energy, initiative, honest effort, untiring per-
sistence—these are the only miracle workers.
They are the moulders of ability. 'If you would
learn to write—write,' said Mark Twain. Just
so, if you would learn to sell—sell. Sell till
the cows come home, sell untiringly, constantly
see people, more of them and still more. Strive
intelligently to interest them, to make them
realize their need and natural desire for a musi-
cal instrument, and to sell them. Observe your
methods, correct, refine, strengthen them.
ONKBENCH
"This, in very truth, is the highest ability.
It is this intensive, unrelenting work that will
build ability, that will swell results and increase
rewards."
The other bulletins in the series thus far
issued are along very similar lines, and, as stated
earlier in this article, they are bringing excel-
lent results among the salesmen.
Another method of instructing salesmen is
used by a sales manager of a well-known musi-
cal instrument-selling organization in the Middle
West. This house is noted for the standard
which it maintains in terms, etc., and to hold
the men in the selling force constantly up to
the mark, the manager uses the following
system:
Creating Better Sales
At the weekly meeting of the sales force he
will take a sale which the credit department
has refused during the previous week and pro-
ceed to analyze it before the assembled sales-
men. He will show first of all why the sale
was refused and how the salesman who closed
it was wasting his own valuable time in en-
deavoring to bring this particular prospect to
time. Then he will point out that the credit
department is always willing to co-operate with
the salesman, and before the sale is made and
not after as is usually the case. He will show
how the risk involved was so great that the
house could not afford to accept it. But he
will show also how the salesman, by having the
proper information regarding the prospect, could
have sold him a cheaper instrument, for in-
stance, one that was within his means to pay.
Since this method was adopted 75 per cent of
the work of the credit department is done before
the sale is closed and the percentage of sales
that are refused, either by reason of bad credit
risks or by reason of too lengthy terms, has
dropped almost to nothing. The credit depart-
ment of this organization has insured the out-
side salesman's time.
Duo-Art Grand for Oberlin
Conservatory of Music
Well-known Educational Institute's Latest Ad-
dition to Those Which Have Accepted the
Duo-Art Piano as an Instruction Medium
A distinct tribute to the Duo-Art piano is to
be found in the purchase of a Steck Duo-Art
grand by the Oberlin Conservatory of Music,
Oberlin, O., one of the leading musical educa-
tional institutions of the country, for use in the
musical appreciation classes conducted by Prof.
W. H. Hall, and also for concert use at the uni-
versity. The sale was made by the Educational
Department of the Aeolian Co. through the
Dreher Piano Co.
The increasing recognition given to the Duo-
Art piano by the educational authorities of the
world is evidenced by the number of institutions
that have selected that instrument for instruc-
tion purposes, they including the Paris Con-
servatoire of Music; Royal Academy of Music
and Royal College of Music, London; College
of Sacred Music, Rome; Eastman School of
Music, Rochester, N. Y.; Wolcott Conservatory,
Denver; Dayton Conservatory, Dayton, O., and
the latest the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.
Highest
Quality