Music Trade Review

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REVIEW
THE
VOL. LXXXI1I. No, 20
Published Every Saturday. Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., 383 Madison Ave., New York, N. Y., Nov. 13, 1926
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Woman, Lovely Woman—and Her
Habits When Buying a Piano
The Piano Salesman, in His Chase of the Illusive Prospect, Runs Across All Types and Each of Them Has
to Be Treated Differently—Woman Shops in a Different Frame of Mind From the Male Pros-
pective Customer—Some of the Ways of Meeting Some of the Types Salesmen Meet
T
H E statement is made by certain New
York salesmen, prepared to back it up,
that 90 per cent of the piano buyers com-
ing into metropolitan music stores are women.
If this be true or even an approximate guess
it would seem that occasional bits of instruction
to the floor .staff by the sales manager, touching
on the sales psychology of women, if he ad-
mits that there is such a thing, are in order.
To the mere observer, the sales manager who
does not admit that selling women is different
than selling men and that it requires funda-
mentally different tactics, is hardly fit to hold
his job.
Before going into that, one grants that any
such figure as 90 per cent of store customers
being women applies chiefly to the larger cities.
In the smaller cities and towns, where the shop-
ping centers are within easy walking distance
of the residential sections, it is to be expected
that "friend husband" will find time to accom-
pany his wife to the piano store and at least
get one look at the instrument before making
out his check. In the metropolitan centers,
however, where the husband's office or place of
employment is often many miles from the music
store, lie will not only find it inconvenient but
may even dodge the ordeal of making the de-
cision on a piano purchase in the presence of
his wife. "Go down yourself and pick out a
piano, but don't let them 'stick' you," will
probably be his only admonition to his music-
hungry spouse.
So down she comes into the store, sometimes
with mother or sister, or even the lady down
the street who has a piano she admires or can
perhaps play a little bit to the satisfaction of
her neighborhood. As they come into the store,
the salesman's problem begins. It is up to him
to play host to one or two of the opposite sex,
and by just this ability will he be rewarded
in sales as he ends each interview. No matter
how early in the morning the ladies call or how
gloomy the day, it is his job to make the ware-
rooms as attractive as possible and keep interest
centered on him and on his instruments. Ladies,
he knows, if he has any retail experience, are
different from men in that they love to shop,
to make the rounds. As quickly as possible he
must bring about their realization that here in
his warerooms is a complete selection of all
grades of pianos, the atmosphere is pleasant
and his manner is cordial—to go elsewhere were
a waste of time.
Some salesmen make the mistake of imagin-
* * r l 1 HE female of the species is more
J- deadly than the male," wrote an
English poet some years ago, and got him-
self into a peck of trouble. A good many
piano salesmen would heartily agree with
him sotto nice, if they were to go on their
own experience with the feminine prospect.
Some put the female customer at 90 per
cent of all buyers for pianos, so she consti-
tutes a no small problem in retail piano
selling. Here are some of the experiences
of piano salesmen and managers in dealing
with her, and they are of value to every
salesman.
ing that all women are much alike and that
the same fundamental tactics can be applied
in selling any of them. Somewhere in the back
of these salesmen's heads will be the premise of
Kipling that "the governor's lady and Judy
O'Grady are sisters under the skin," or words
to that effect. There is, however, no record that
Kipling ever sold a piano, so it is safe enough
to disregard him as an authority on women
outside of the drawing-room and the British
Orient. He also said a good cigar is a smoke
and we never remember him specifying a single
brand.
"Women are by no means all alike as piano
buyers," said John Yarborough recently, man-
ager of the Sterling Piano Corp. warerooms at
81 Court street, Brooklyn. "They most certainly
must be handled differently, although I admit
that there are not as many kinds of women
buyers as there are men. Certain things you
do will appeal to all women and certain things
you fail to do will offend them, but there are
all kinds of women and all kinds of combina-
tions that you have to be prepared to meet if
you want to make a sale.
"Young women, either unmarried daughters
or brides," continued Mr. Yarborough, "are un-
questionably the easiest types to sell and they
will buy right up to the limit of their, father's
or husband's pocketbook. These are the types,
for instance, that come into the store as the
result of an advertisement of a small grand
piano. If the price does not daunt them, they
will confine their selection to this style of in-
strument and not bother to look at uprights or
players. I am always glad to see this type of
woman come into the store. An instrument
will appeal to her and she will assist the sales-
man in selling her family on it, if it becomes
necessary to make a call at her apartment in the
evening."
Mr. Yarborough stated that ladies more ad-
vanced in years are harder to handle. Even if
the piano is to« be their first, they are not un-
acquainted with the troubles of making large
instalments fit into a limited budget. The con-
fidence of youth has been supplanted by a cer-
tain hard-headed judgment that has come with
living and suffering, as they say. The price is
an important item, but quality will be appre-
ciated by them if they have children who are
to begin music study. The salesman must
diagnose their need and impress them of his
willingness to find just the right thing for them.
"Of course there are many types of women
buyers," said another New York salesman,
whose name will not be mentioned here. "There
are the 'snippy' ones, the 'clinging vines,' the
beautiful-but-dumb ones, the 'climbers' with
little love of music, who desire chiefly to have
a beautiful piano for the impression it will make,
and dozens of others. There is a piano in our
warerooms for each of them, but that is not
saying that every salesman would sell them the
same piano. I might sell a 'snippy' young thing
a player-piano, where another salesman might
sell her a reproducing grand. He might be
better than I am. He might be able to meet hei
snippiness with the right kind of patter to make
her smile, and by winning her interest sell her
whatever instrument he wanted to. But there
is a danger here.
"Women are much easier to oversell than
men," he continued, "partly because they are
attracted to quality in pianos more than men
and partly—and I know that it is mean to say
(Continued on page 7)