Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
JANUARY 16,
1926
THE MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
Canvassing Brings Radio Sales to a
New York Music Merchant
International Co. Uses Truck and Several Crews, Finding This One of the Most Direct Means to Increase
the Volume of Sales in Its Radio Department—The Method Which Is Used and the Way in Which
It Works Out—Firm Covers a Very Wide Extent of Territory With This Plan
HE belief that radio merchandising is rap-
idly being converted from a drop-in propo-
sition to a type of selling corresponding
to piano or phonograph merchandising is being
accepted by music merchants in both large and
small communities, who are taking definite steps
to meet the situation. By experience, most
dealers have determined that the introduction
of a new model of radio receiving set in their
windows can no longer be counted on to draw
real prospects into the store. Here and there,
of course, there still persists a "gyp" radio mer-
chant or accessory dealer who crowds his win-
dow with streamers proclaiming bargain prices,
but the experienced music merchant is no longer
misled by this kind of competition, knowing that
cutting prices means proportionately low profits
in ordinary retail turnover.
The Business Is in. the Field
With the failure of the show window auto-
matically to develop new business, as it did at
the beginning of the period of radio popularity,
the dealer is forced to draw the same conclu-
sions he has accepted for his other departments,
viz., that the live prospects are in the field. A
few years ago canvassing for radio buyers was
considered a failure by those attempting it. Dur-
ing the past Fall, however, opinion has begun
to shift on the proposition and it is now held
by many that canvassing for radio prospects is
becoming a necessity if one is to make this de-
partment pay. Fortunately, most successful mu-
sic merchants are equipped to accomplish this
outside selling, and it is logical to expect them
to get the bulk of the retail radio trade of the
future.
Some remarkable results have been obtained
by the radio department of the International
Phonograph Co., 103 Essex street, New York,
of which Joseph H. Mayers is proprietor. This
establishment has been situated in the heart of
the lower East Side of the city for the past
twenty-two years and has enjoyed a consistently
good business in pianos and phonographs during
this period. One of the contributing factors to
its success has been the organization by Mr.
Mayers of a competent outside selling staff, with
a crew manager who retained only producers
for the job.
A short time ago, when the concern entered
the radio business in earnest, it was decided to
send canvassers out by automobile, and a spe-
cial light motor truck, in addition to the two
regular delivery trucks, was purchased for this
purpose. For a period the only "leads" devel-
oped by the canvasser were for phonographs
and pianos, but, strangely enough, during the
past Summer, when radio sales dropped off in
most metropolitan music stores, the business
began to came in.
T
Canvassing by Crew
The truck, with driver, crew manager and
three canvassers, left the store about 10 o'clock
each morning, heading for a certain suburban
section, which would be worked daily until all
the possible business had been combed out. By
10:45 or 11 a. m. the truck arrived at the neigh-
borhood decided upon and the men started out
on different streets to-ring door bells and talk
nothing but radio and phonographs. The crew
manager did his share, too, and by 4 in the
afternoon began to collect the men at appointed
places in order to get them back to their homes.
It was not a long day in actual working hours,
but in the five hours' time much was accom-
plished in the way of reaching out into the sub-
urbs after business. Every hour or two, the
canvasser came upon a "red-hot" prospect and
appointments for a store demonstration within a
few days were always made. These live pros-
pects were listed by the crew manager, who
managed to call on them weekly until they
bought a radio of some kind.
This system of canvassing by truck was
worked out by George Sklar, manager of the
radio department of the International Phono-
graph Co., who had faith in the practicability of
such a scheme in the suburban districts of New
York, in spite of the increased overhead expense.
Mr. Mayers, however, went into the proposition
with his eyes open, figured out the initial cost
and upkeep of the car, the weekly salaries of
the men and then set a weekly quota which
would meet these items and show a consistent
profit for the house.
It was seen by Mr. Sklar at the start that
little could be accomplished by using a squad-
ron of "professional" canvassers, who would
kill time with the firm only long enough to get
a position elsewhere. He wanted no "floaters"
or "water treaders" and determined to keep the
outside department small enough so that each
man's record could be satisfactorily observed.
The four men, with crew manager, who had
been identified with the phonograph department
for two or three years, were therefore coached
for the job and sent out.
Older Canvassers
It is significant that these men were older
than the average $25-a-week kind of canvassers,
most of them being married men. When neces-
sary, they closed deals in the field themselves
by using sample sets, which were set up in the
prospect's home. They were, in fact, outside
salesmen, who happened to be canvassing, and
not merely bell ringers. They stayed with the
company because there was money in the work
and they were interested in their job.
Mr. Sklar and his assistant, Jack Friedman,
knew the men so well that they concluded that
each man worked in a slightly different manner.
One man might ring ten door bells an hour and
get two interviews, while another spent half an
hour talking to the first party he called on. An-
other man stated that he preferred canvassing
entirely by himself, and this man was not taken
on the truck. The results of all of the men av-
eraged up nearly the same in the course of a
month, and as long as the gross sales mounted
consistently there was little worry about the
individual canvasser's tactics. This point is
mentioned merely to show that much of the
difficulty expressed by certain music merchants
concerning canvassers can be overcome if one
succeeds in hiring individuals and not automa-
tons.
Mr. Friedman, who is at present in charge of
the radio department during Mr. Sklar's ab-
sence through illness, states that the use of a
semi-portable receiver is of exceptional value in
selling a live prospect on the idea of radio.
Several of these sets are carried on the light
truck and frequently arrangements are made by
the canvassers to have one brought to the pros-
pect's house on the day of the call. This is
done by calling the office on the telephone and
the chauffeur, who phones in each hour, learns of
the address and meets the salesman there.
Anyone who has canvassed for radio soon
realizes that there still persists in the minds of
many the idea that there is something quite
technical and even mystic about proper radio
reception. In demonstrating in the home it is
found most advantageous to show that the in-
strument has been simplified by its develop-
ment; any set with a B battery and aerial elimi-
nator is, therefore, of inestimable value in mak-
ing this point. Larger and more expensive sets,
such as the Atwater Kent, are also carried into
the field by truck, to be installed for demonstra-
tion in homes and apartments visited the day
before. These are frequently sold, when it is
determined that the prospect prefers not to wait
for a duplicate instrument from the warehouse.
Wide Territory
So successful has the canvassing program of
the International Co. been that several jumps
have been made with the truck far out of the
metropolitan territory. During the past Sum-
mer, for instance, canvassing campaigns were
waged in Connecticut and New Jersey territory,
eighty or ninety miles from the store. This move
was made in preferencce to working Brooklyn
territory, where many of the residents were away
for the Summer. The International concern has
done more than run a successful radio depart-
ment. It has shown by its ingenuity and man-
agement that canvassing for radio can pay.
Second Radio Concert of
Victor Series for 1926
Mme. Frances Alda, Tito Ruffo and the Flonza-
ley Quartet Present Most Interesting Pro-
gram Through WJZ and Other Stations
The second broadcast concert for the 1926
season offered under the auspices of the Victor
Talking Machine Co. was given on Thursday
evening of January 14 through Station WJZ,
New York, of the Radio Corp. of America, and
five other associated stations in Schenectady,
N. Y., Springfield, Mass., Washington, D. C,
and Chicago, by an unusually important group
of artists, namely, Mme. Frances Alda, Metro-
politan Opera Company soprano; Tito Ruffo,
baritone of the Metropolitan, and the famous
Flonzaley Quartet.
The privilege of hearing these great artists on
the air in itself proves a tremendous attraction
for radio fans generally, and the program offered
was of the sort to arouse and maintain general
interest. Mme. Alda sang Micaela's aria from
"Carmen," Behrend's "Daddy," together with
"Somewhere a Voice is Calling," "Bells of St.
Mary's" and Franck's "Panis Angelicus."
Mr. Ruffo provided a real test for radio trans-
mission reception in his singing of Largo Al
Factotum from "The Barber of Seville," which
he followed with the serenade "Yolita," the pro-
logue from "Pagliacci," and "Visione Vene-
ziana." As their part of the program the mem-
bers of the Flonzaley Quartet played Dvorak's
quartet in F major, Mendelssohn's "Canzon-
etta," Grainger's "Molly on the Shore," and the
Schumann quartet in A minor.
Suffers Fire Loss
The music store of B. L. Rich & Co., of
Fitchburg, Mass., was one of the firms suffering
a moderate fire loss recently when a blaze
started in the basement of the Myer Dana Build-
ing, which the music house occupies.