Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
JANUARY 3, 1925
THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
9
Selling the Difficult Radio Prospect
The Type to Which the Novelty Element of Radio Does Not Appeal or Who Has Held Off Buying Waiting for
Improvement Is Now Coming Into the Market — The Selling Methods Which Turn Them Into
Customers — Making This Type of Buyer a Selling Asset in the Future
W
I T H O U T a doubt, many music mer-
chants were disappointed during the re-
cent Christinas season by the amount of
radio business that they received. From talks
with several music merchants in Newark,
Brooklyn, New York City and the Bronx it
is quite evident that they expected fully 50 per
cent more radio business during the week pre-
ceding the holiday than they received.
It may seem strange, but those retailers who
have been in business for over two years ex-
pected this, knowing that the amount of busi-
ness done before and after the holidays would
be in an inverse proportion, and that the pro-
portion of business they would not receive be-
fore the holidays would be balanced by the
increase of business immediately after the holi-
days. This is, of course, mainly due to the
fact that immediately preceding the holiday
the money was tied up in the small incidental
presents for the friends of the family. Now
that the general Christmas buying season is
over the merchant who has a radio department
should make all efforts to sell the radio re-
ceivers to those prospects who made inquiries
before the holidays.
The people have their holiday money, many
of them have their bonuses and they can now
think about the presents they were going to
buy for themselves. This will bring into the
field of the merchant a new class of radio pros-
pect and customer. It is the customer who,
in most cases, has held off from the pur-
chase of a radio receiver, due to the fact that
he was waiting for "improvements" many of
which have materialized. These buyers have
not on the whole been actuated by the public
craze for radio, but have rather looked upon
it as a commodity which had not been brought
to a perfect enough point to interest them, or
to permit them to purchase one with assurance
of long and faithful service.
This was demonstrated to be the case by
Mr. F. Steers, one of the proprietors of the
T. L. Steers Co., located at One Hundred and
Forty-fifth street and Broadway, New York
City. This merchant draws his trade from two
different sections, one being the people who
are, to use a slang expression, more or less of
the temperament of "keeping up with the
Joneses" and who have been rapidly buying the
radio receivers up till now. Then there is the
working class living in the less pretentious
apartments east of Broadway, to which the ex-
penditure of $150 means more than "keeping up
with someone." A radio set to a party of this
kind is something which in nine times out of
ten will deprive them of their outside enter-
tainment during the coming spring season. As
for the payments, the merchant mentioned the
fact that during his experience the credit of
the working class of people is much better than
is the credit of the people who buy the most
expensive equipment and then open an ac-
count.
This and the similar experience of other mer-
chants in the sections mentioned, shows that
now is the time for the music merchant to go
after that type of trade—the man or woman
who, while interested in radio, has not pur-
chased because of the fear of some great im-
provement which will revolutionize the industry
overnight.
The fact remains that while radio sales have
been large enough to cause merchants to in-
crease their stock during the holiday season,
the surface of the field has not even been
scratched. It is a fact, however, that people
will have to be approached and sold along
a different basis, and this calls for a reorgan-
ization of the selling ideas and the approach
of these customers.
Accumulative Work Results
An instance of this change in policy was out-
lined by the radio manager of the Bronx Music
House, Inc., located at One Hundred and Forty-
ninth street and Clermont avenue, Bronx, when
he stated that during the past two months,
while the sales of radio had increased, they had
increased in the sale of radio sets to people who
six months ago were unapproachable. He has
never stopped hammering them with letters,
literature and personal calls.
When dealing with this class of people a
different set of tactics will have to be adopted.
These people know of and have heard radio
and, in many cases, are partly enthusiastic about
it—but not up to the purchasing point. It is
now that they will have to be approached and
sold.
In the first place they do not think of radio
from a novelty angle, but purchase their sets
on the same basis as a person would a piano
or other musical instrument. The mere fact
that it is a radio set will have little to do with
the sale. In several of the cases where dealers
have approached this class of people they find
that they have at some time during the past
owned a radio set, but, due to the incorrect sell-
ing methods or their own fault of purchasing
a set which did not give the proper results, they
had been discouraged, in the most cases this
being-due to being sold a cheap machine which,
of course, showed up radio in its worst light by
giving distorted music and talk, and making
more noise than anything else. Therefore these
people will have to be convinced mainly by the
quality of the reproduced reception and the mer-
chant should attempt to work out in his show-
rooms a combination of medium priced ma-
chines which will give the best results. The
merchant should realize that now he is begin-
ning to deal with the skeptics, and while there
are plenty of people who have desired to own
receivers and will now purchase, the merchant
who first approaches and starts to sell the peo-
ple who a year ago were "hard boiled" to radio
will find that during the coming year his sales
will reach a much higher point than ever before.
Making the Buyer Sell
There is an angle back of this which, while
not generally realized, yet exists.
Imag-
ine in a circle of friends one who is always
making fun of radio suddenly announcing that
he has a radio and becoming as enthusiastic as
the rest. His other friends who did not be-
lieve in the wonders of radio will also start
to wonder if there is not really something in
it and be in the market. The idea is to make the
people who are just mildly enough interested in
radio to make fun of its ardent fans, and it is
within the power of the music merchant and
his staff of salesmen to accomplish this re-
sult. Make the knocker the booster.
In dealing with these customers, decide be-
forehand to deliver nothing but the best of
everything within the price than can be af-
forded by the purchaser. Giving personal dem-
onstrations at the home, by catching the pro-
spective client off his guard. Calling with a
set "just to demonstrate the wonderful capabili-
ties of this new combination" will create an im-
pression, if the merchant is lucky enough to get
the entire family at home at one time.
It would be well for the salesmen of the
merchant to study the improvements which have
been made in ilie field of receivers over a period
of two years, so as to be able to talk intelli-
gently of them to these customers. Keeping
in mind the fact that there are many receivers
today which are the same as they were a year
ago, with the exception of a new cabinet or
handsome period case, cite the wonderful im-
provements in tonal quality, the added refine-
ments in tuning, the ease with which the set
may be manipulated and in all the wonderful
strides that the art has taken over a period
of time. Do not stress it so much so that the
purchaser may take the angle that as the radio
manufacturers have made such strides during
the past two years they may make as many
during the next year. In that event the entire
scheme of things will be ruined. The idea is
to accentuate the progress that has been made
and the fact that the manufacturers have about
reached the highest points of perfection and
that the purchaser of a radio set at the present
time may be assured that with the exception
of a new type of dial, a new panel material
or a new cabinet, nothing will change radically
in a long period of time.
Things run in cycles in radio as in every-
thing else, and during the past two years the
manufacturers have placed improvements and
some pseudo-improvements on their machines
and have seemingly reached the end of their
improvement rope for some time to come. Cir-
cuits have, of course, appeared under new and
intriguing names, but both the public and the
merchants have learned what these names mean,
and you have but to convince the skeptical
buyer of this fact to reap a large harvest of sales
and open tip a new field for the sale of your
radio merchandise.
It should be remembered that when selling
this type of client that complete instruction of
the operation and care of the set should be
given before the sale is completed. Two hours'
time spent with a client of this type, selling
him at the same time on its quality while the
set is being operated, either by himself or the
operator, will save explanations when the set
is in operation for some time. The operator
should not "stretch the truth" one point in any
of these cases because he will be caught up at
the first excuse by the purchaser. Inform the
purchaser of the set of all the intricacies, such
as fading, static, the limitations of distance,
daylight reception, not always being able to get
the station that is desired due to another sta-
tion on a wave length near that of the one
desired interfering, and, in fact, all the real
facts of the case. This is not to say that the
dealer misrepresents in a sale, but that these things
are not generally talked of in a regular sale.
However, if they arc handled right they will
further sell the machine for the merchant be-
cause then the purchaser thoroughly under-
stands it, is that much ahead of the rest, does
not have to learn them from practical experi-
ence and will not believe that it is the fault of
the machine because a station varies in volume
five and six times an evening.
Opens Store in Marietta
^fARIETTA, GA., December 29.—Fred Burton, for-
merly manager of the Brumby Furniture Store,
has just opened an up-to-date music shop on
the east side of Park Square. Mr. Burton will
handle music Roods exclusively, and will feature
Victrolas, small goods and accessories. The
store will also have the latest models of radio
sets.