Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
More and Better Retail Salesmen the
Nub of the Piano Problem
Walter L. Bond, Treasurer of the Weaver Piano Co., York Pa., in an Analysis of the Conditions Which Have
Created the Question "What Is the Matter With the Piano Industry", Declares Better Training
for Salesmen Is the Answer to Many of the Obstacles That Exist for Increased Sales
ACH week there is increased attention be-
ing given by the members of the piano
trade in its various divisions to the solu-
tion of the outstanding question as to what is
the matter with the business and as a result
there have come to light many earnest sug-
gestions designed to improve the situation gen-
erally and" to increase the annual turnover of
pianos throughout the country.
Some of these suggestions are distinctly prac-
tical, and some few are based more or less on
theory. But the fact that so many members of
the industry are giving attention to the matter
shows a thoroughly commendable spirit which
should result in much good coming of the pres-
ent campaign.
It is significant that the successful men of the
industry, as measured by existing standards, are
well to the forefront in their efforts to give of
their thought and experience toward the bet-
terment of the situation and this in itself is to
be accepted as emphasizing the importance of
the matter. The Review has been privileged
within the past few weeks to publish numerous
letters from, and interviews with, these repre-
sentative music men and will continue to offer
to the trade other opinions as they are formu-
lated and presented.
Among those who have given real thought to
the future of the piano business is Walter L.
Bond, treasurer of the Weaver Piano Co., Inc.,
York, Pa., who, by successful experience in both
the manufacturing and retailing of pianos, is
well qualified to offer opinions that are to be
accepted as authoritative and practical.
In an interview with The Review this week,
Mr. Bond held to the belief that the factor of
better selling must be taken into consideration
in any plan designed to bring about a wider
distribution of pianos. In short, any plan that
is adopted and put into effect must depend for
its ultimate success upon individual sales effort
and therefore upon the selection of the kind of
salesmen who can produce results. In this con-
nection Mr. Bond said:
"In the hope of clarifying the situation, I
would like to inject a few different thoughts and
take issue with a few familiar ones on the sub-
ject: 'What's the matter with the piano busi-
ness?'
"On the one hand, we hear that there is too
much competition for the public's money on the
part of the automobile, radio, household utili-
ties, fine clothes, entertainment, etc. But this is
only partly true. Statistics show that leading
railroads have 600,000 stockholders to-day as
compared with 80,000 a generation ago; corpora-
tion stockholders have increased from 4,000,-
000 to 14,000,000, mostly among the workers;
11,000,000 bank depositors in savings accounts
with $9,000,000,000 deposits in 1914 have in-
creased to 38,000,000 depositors with $23,000,-
000,000 in savings deposits now. All these in-
crease the income of the people and augment
their salaries and wages. The public has more
money left over after buying the things they
want to-day than ever before in history. So it
is not lack of funds that keeps them from buy-
ing pianos.
Desire to Learn to Play
"Again, we are told we should make America
want to become a nation of 'Music Makers'
and make them want to learn to play the piano.
A short time ago your paper published a table
of figures compiled in Johnstown, Pa., by Leo
E
J. Buettner, recreation director of that city.
These are not figures collected by a person in-
terested in proving some pet theory but they
were compiled from a questionnaire of a recrea-
tion director following special activity with har-
monicas. The school children in sixteen pub-
lic school buildings were asked what musical
instruments they are playing or learning to
play. Of the 5,596 children in the canvass, 134
boys and 556 girls are now playing or learning
to play the piano. 166 boys and 804 girls said
they desired to learn to play the piano and are
not now taking lessons. Johnstown is an in-
dustrial city and the canvass was sufficiently
city-wide and general to give a cross-section of
child attitude toward the piano the country over.
There were thirty-one other musical instru-
ments besides the piano mentioned by the ques-
tionnaires so that no claim can be made of any
influence to win the children over to specify
the piano. If this demonstrates anything to
me, it is that the children of America in large
numbers want to learn to play the piano.
Specialty Selling
"So I do not think it is accurate to say other
things are taking the public's money nor that
the public is losing interest in learning to play
the piano. I believe we must look within the
industry for the trouble rather than to blame it
on the public. And in this connection, I would
like to first state that the piano, from a sales
point of view, is a specialty.
In this select
class are other articles of utility, or labor or
time-saving devices, or culture, not of them-
selves so indispensable that the people are un-
able to get along without them. Included in this
class are sewing machines, washing machines,
electric sweepers, sets of book, cash registers,
adding machines, etc. Specialties, from a sales
standpoint, are things which people rather
readily admit are desirable but which they plan
to buy 'later.'
"We are sometimes led to hope that some-
one may come along who will help us make the
piano in the home as indispensable as grape-
fruit on the breakfast table and do it in one
short, intensive campaign. When we hope for
this we forget that food belongs with the
staples which people buy (for the most part)
while pianos belong to the specialties which
are sold to the people (for the most part).
Personal Solicitation
"It requires personal solicitation and persua-
sion to get action on any specialty from the
majority of the people who can use it. Price
appeal and publicity and advertisements will
move a certain number of people to purchase a
specialty at any given time. But volume sales
in specialty lines are only secured by personal
sales effort. In many cases it even requires an
interview to get people to admit they could
use the article. This is the work of canvassing.
After the desire has been expressed, it re-
quires persuasion to secure action now and pre-
vent delay. This is true of that great class of
commodities known as specialties, to which
class the piano belongs.
"So my plan to increase piano sales in 1926
is to increase the selling power by bringing
into piano selling work men from other lines
of endeavor and men entering a business
career. A good salesman will average a mini-
mum of fifty pianos a year. If each dealer in
the United States would increase his sales
force by just one good salesman, it would more
than double the sale of pianos in the United
States in the next year; nor is this at all im-
possible to do.
Better Conditions To-day
"Think of the attractiveness of the piano busi-
ness to the man of selling ability to-day as com-
pared with the day when J. H. Troup, of Har-
risburg, Pa., or the president of our own com-
pany entered the business. When they started
there were few concerts, few music teachers, no
music in the schools, no music articles in the
magazines or newspapers, no musical clubs, no
player pianos that the parents could play by roll
while the children were learning to play
manually. They had none of the interest in
music to help them which we accept today as a
matter of course and which has been so largely
due to the able work of the Bureau for the Ad-
vancement of Music. In their early days, sales
units were small; compensation was low, and
means of travel were tedious, and they suffered
genuine hardships, particularly when working
rural trade. Yet think of all the real men who
were attracted to the piano business and dig-
nified it with their efforts.
"To-day we have sales units running into
thousands of dollars to give any salesman a
thrill .and enable him to make good earnings.
Music has assumed such a prominent place in
the activities of the people that piano selling
brings the salesmen in contact with the pub-
lic under the most favorable circumstances.
There is no other sales activity that will create
a wider circle of friendships for a man in his
community than piano selling. Good roads and
the automobile have even taken away most of
the inconvenience of rural work.
Good Men Available
"Good men are available to-day just as they
always were but there is competition for their
services and we must be alert to see that our
business is given consideration by those with
selling ability or inclination to develop such
ability. Think of it, twenty-five years ago the
automobile was a new industry.
"Practically all the able men now engaged in
the many ramifications of that great business
have been recruited within these twenty-five
years. When the industry was in its infancy,
our own was a fully developed, healthy busi-
ness. They have far surpassed us and have
used some of the men we should have and
could have had if we had been more alert.
Best Salesmen Dealer Trained
"I know most of us have had bitter disap-
pointments in breaking men into this business
of piano selling. We have taken promising
material and spent time and effort lavishing
only to find some unforeseen characteristic that
made it impossible for the man' to succeed.
Some of us have also trained in men only to
have them join a competitor after all the train-
ing was finished. Those are real disappoint-
ments and discouragements. Taking a page
from the experience of such outstanding suc-
cesses as M. V. DeForest, of Sharon, Pa., and
T. H. Troup, of Harrisburg, Pa., however, they
have both told me within a few weeks that their
best salesmen have almost without exception
been the men they trained into the piano busi-
ness themselves and not the men imported from
other localities. Of course they had disap-
pointments but perseverance, good judgment
and patience enabled them to build up sales
(Continued on page 22)