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REVIEW
THE
VOL. LXXX. No. 14 PMblished Every Saturday. Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., 383 Madison Ave., New York, N. Y., Apr. 4, 1925
Single Copies 10 Cents
$J.(MI IVr Year
Getting 2,500 Live Prospects in a
Period of Two Months
How Sales Manager Leo J. Driscoll, of the Peabody Piano Co., Baltimore, Md., in a Remarkable Campaign
Which Covered the Entire State Succeeded in Obtaining a List of the Highest Caliber i n
Sales Possibilities at a Low Expenditure Per Actual Prospect
LTHOUGH there are numerous methods
for gathering the names of prospects for
piano sales, ranging from the house-to-
house canvassing method, generally quite ex-
pensive, to the plan for giving cheap souvenirs
to children for lists of names of friends with-
out pianos, it is found that the element of
efficiency enters strongly into this work of
prospect getting, not only as a means of keep-
ing the costs down, but also for the purpose
of insuring quality and therefore the elimin-
ation of much useless and unnecessary follow-
up work.
1'iano retailers who have gone off the beaten
path for the purpose of building up prospect
lists have often found that there are many
channels through which this work may be car-
ried on that have yet been left untouched. They
are direct channels which for one reason or an-
other have been overlooked, but which can be
made highly productive of results both in pros-
pects and sales.
A Case in Point
A case in point is offered by the experience
of the Peabody Piano Co., Baltimore, of which
concern Leo J. Driscoll is sales manager. It
occurred to Mr. Driscoll that those connected
with music educational work should be inter-
ested not only in music itself but in the means
for producing music, and he therefore set out
to get as complete a list as possible of the
music teachers in the public schools of the
entire State. No complete list of these teachers
being available, an interesting and indirect
method of securing the information was used.
First Mr Driscoll wrote to the state general
supervisor in the schools for a list of the
various county supervisors which was furnished
without delay. Next, the county supervisors
were asked to supply complete lists of teachers
in the. schools under their control, and as a
result the Peabody Co. secured such full lists
for fifteen of the twenty-four counties in the
State.
With the lists of the teachers in hand the in-
tensive work of prospect getting began. A let-
ter was sent to each teacher, offering a music-
book of considerable value in exchange for in-
formation regarding the pupils under the teach-
er's direction, they being asked to fill out a card
containing the following questions: Name of
pupils without pianos. Age. Distance and di-
rection of the pupils' home from the school.
A
i.
(This for the use of the salesmen.) Parents'
name and post office address, etc. The opinion
of the teacher was then asked on the following
questions: Have they talked of buying a piano?
Do they own their farm or rent? If they own
BTAINING live prospects is one of the
most difficult problems which con-
front the retail piano merchant. Names are
easy to secure, but a list which requires a
heavy weeding out before the actual possi-
bilities of it are worked runs up the selling
expense to a degree that makes an appre-
ciable lower net profit on each actual sale
developed.
The plan used by this well-
known Baltimore piano merchant has the
advantage of giving a large proportion of
live prospects and giving them at a cost
commensurate with ordinary overhead ex-
O
pense.—EDITOR.
a piano would they exchange it for a player-
piano? Do they own a talking machine? Do
you think they would buy?
The Results
Whether it was the idea of getting a music
book without charge, or whether it was the
natural interest of the teacher in the musical
equipment of the pupil, the fact remains that
the plan brought in 2,500 prospects in a period
of two months, the majority of them of high
caliber from the standpoint of sales possibil-
ities. The cards received from the teachers
were acknowledged with special letters of
thanks in addition to sending the promised
book and were then carefully sorted and filed
for future use.
A direct result of the plan has been that tli-e
business of the company has spread from a
comparatively small section to a point where it
covers the greater part of the State. Salesmen
have been sent out through the fifteen counties
listed and are getting excellent results, particu-
larly in the farming districts where it appears
that the teachers in many cases have seen fit
to pave the way for them. At the last report,
made within two months after the prospect list
had been compiled, fifteen pianos had been sold
through that means, together with a number of
talking machines and other instruments.
The work on this prospect list has in a sense
barely started, for the territory to be covered is
a wide one, and Mr. Driscoll has planned an
intensive campaign on the list to be carried on
right through,, the summer and believes that by
the end of the year the results of this one par-
ticular method will prove little short of sur-
prising.
The practice of enlisting the aid of local
music teachers in the work of building up a
prospect list is not exactly a new one, but in
covering an entire State and working from the
state supervisor down in order to get a tie-up
with those teachers in direct touch with the
children is a distinctly new angle and proves
the possibilities for a hook-up between the
music merchant and the music educational
forces in various sections and various States.
In addition to the actual securing of a first-
class prospect list, the work of Mr. Driscoll
emphasizes most emphatically the possibilities
for the dealer tying up directly with the con-
tinually increasing amount of music educational
work that is being carried on through the me-
dium of the public schools of the country. In
this he cannot be charged with a purely com-
mercial attitude for, if the music education that
is being given to the children of the country
is to be of any definite and permanent value,
they must have at hand the means for musical
expression. Supplying these means is the func-
tion of the music merchant.
Martin in New Store
JEFFERSON CITY, MO., March 28.—The Martin
Bros. Piano Cb.'s branch here, which has been
located for the past month in the Parks-Wadley
furniture store, has taken permanent quarters
at 208 Madison street. The store is being re-
modeled and decorated in an up-to-date manner,
according to R. B. Dye, temporarily in charge
of the business in this territory. The move
from the original location was occasioned when
Ashley Payne and Fred Schwaller, former man-
agers of the local branch, took over the busi-
ness.