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How Dealers Encourage Salesmen to
Increase Cash Payments
Second of a Series of Articles, Covering the Leading Cities of the Country, on the Ways and Means That
Retail Piano Merchants Successfully Use to Raise the Average of Cash Payments Made on Instal-
ment Sales- -Making It Worth the While of the Salesman to Get the Cash
L J EADS and managers of St. Louis piano
houses and departments are doing their
best to have their salesmen obtain larger down
payments and better terms. Some of them are
content with constantly urging this upon their
men. Others offer special incentives.
Aeolian Co. of Missouri
W. P. Chrisler, president of the Aeolian Co.
of Missouri, does not find it necessary to offer
special inducements because of the large per-
centage of the Aeolian Co.'s business that is
cash and the high level of down and deferred
payments when time sales are made. It is Mr.
Chrisler's conviction that there is as large a
percentage of cash sales at his store as at any
in the country. It is the rule of the house not
to accept a down payment of less than 10 per
cent, but the average, he says, is away above
that, frequently going as high as half. He
urges his salesmen, however, to get as much
cash as possible on all sales.
Scruggs, Vandervoort & Barney
There is never a sales meeting at the piano
department of the Scruggs, Vandervoort &
Barney store that H. A. Brown, the manager,
does not impress the importance of holding up
the down payments and the terms. The busi-
ness of the Vandervoort department is peculiar
in that 50 per cent of the sales are to regular
charge customers. The credits are all passed
upon by the credit department before delivery
is made and repossessions are very rare. In
1925, Mr. Brown says, there were only eight
or nine and so far this year the record is less.
The contract form calls for a down payment of
not less than 10 per cent, but salesmen are
urged to raise it as much as possible. It is not
an unusual experience at the Vandervoort de-
partment for a regular customer to call up and
ask to have a Chickering or Estey or Brambach
sent out and charged. If the credit department
says all right the delivery is made, and usually
the customers who order that way are all right.
The head of an Olive street house who does
not wish to be quoted says it is the rule of the
house to allow the salesman $5 extra if he gets
$100 or more as the initial payment. The mini-
mum is 10 per cent. Once in a while a prize
is offered for the most volume and for the
largest cash payments obtained by salesmen
during a month.
The head of another house is just about in
despair over the futility of his efforts to get
salesmen to improve the down payments and
the terms. He says he has tried everything
known to the human mind. He has jawed his
salesmen and cajoled them, threatened to fire
them and offered them bonuses, premiums,
prizes and other playthings, all to no effect.
It is the nature of a salesman, he has con-
cluded, to follow the line of least resistance,
which means offering the lowest-priced instru-
ment at the lowest terms, and nothing can
change them. They cannot be weaned away from
the talk about a little down and a little a month.
They would rather do it that way than get
more money for the house and for themselves
by starting on the terms cash idea.
Charge Back System on Commissions
Widely Used in the Kansas City Trade
down payments, not only for the good of the
company but in their own interest as well.
Knabe Studios and Nederman
The Knabe Studios, and the Nederman Piano
Co., the two companies being managed by the
same persons, cater to a slightly different trade
from the larger down-town stores, being located
in residence sections of the city. The plan of
these stores is to assume that all customers want
to pay cash, and they quote cash prices to all
prospects. Then if the customer desires terms,
a different arrangement is made. They do not
use the commission system with their sales-
men.
{Continued next week)
Piano Editorial Indicates
a Change in Attitude
Washington, Pa., Newspaper, in Editorial, Em-
phasizes the Fact That Despite Changes in
Styles and Customs the Piano Still Stays
Those who expect quick results to come from
the campaign being carried on for the purpose
of promoting greater public interest in the
piano should find great encouragement in the
changed attitude that is already evidenced by
various newspapers throughout the country. An
outstanding example of this changed attitude on
the part of the press is found in an editorial
which recently appeared in the Washington, Pa.,
Reporter under the caption: "The Piano Stays,"
and a few hundred editorials along similar lines
should prove of great value to the basic instru-
ment. The editorial read:
"Amusements may come and amusements
may go, but music goes on forever. The sav-
age found it half his life. He delighted in the
war dance, the beating of the tom-toms, and
the singing of the tribal songs. When he went
forth to war he envisioned the triumphal home-
coming, when music would soothe his savage
breast and render his triumph wholly satisfying.
"It is a far cry from those savage days. Is
music waning? New inventions in other fields
have been matched in the realm of music. Many
regard the perfection of the piano as an out-
standing feature of all musical invention. Its
charm does not take one by storm, but once a
lover of piano music, always a lover. It does
not throw the soul into an immediate ecstasy,
to be sure. But the piano has staying qualities
as a minister to the human spirit, and its
stimulating and strengthening powers distin-
guish it from concord of those sweet sounds
which may, in the case of other instruments,
prove enervating.
"Styles, customs and fashions change from
year to year. But it is always in style for daugh-
ter, and the boy too, to become adept upon
the piano. If our girls and boys only knew
how much the ability to play the piano means
when they go away to college they would not
mind the practice sessions. When a young
chap enters a fraternity the question is implicit
in the very atmosphere, 'What can he do?'
If he can't do anything he is put down in 'the
back of the book.' If he can step out and play
the ditties for his comrades, that is enough to
make the other fellows want him around."
T/~ ANSAS City piano dealers do not find any W. W. Kimball Co.'s store, commissions on
special means necessary for encouraging p.ano sales with their store are not proportion-
their salesmen to secure large down payments. ate to the amount of the down payment. How-
On piano sales the systems used in most of the ever, all pianos which are returned are charged
stores work automatically, making it as much back, with the amount due, to the account of
to the advantage of the salesman as to the com- the salesman, deducting that much from his
pany to secure large cash payments. In most volume during the month in which the instru-
cases the commissions, although-the same on ment is returned. It is therefore to the interest
all sales, whether cash or instalment, are held of the salesman to prevent chargebacks, and
up until a certain amount of money has been the surest way to insure a sale is to secure a
paid on the instrument. When a piano is turned large down payment, as an evidence of the good
back before it has been completely paid for, intentions of the customer. Mr. Mahaffey finds
most houses in Kansas City charge the amount that the salesmen are as anxious to get good
of the difference between the sales price and terms as the company itself. He says that he
the instalments paid to the salesman, thus re- has occasionally given cash prizes for big down
ducing his volume by that much, and conse- payments, but has only done this as a special
quently lowering his commissions for the month. inducement to inject interest and has never con-
All the dealers find that they have little trou- sidered it as a regular thing.
ble with the practice of salesmen taking sales
Rudolph Wurlitzer Co.
on minimum down payments. Most stores fol-
The Wurlitzer salesmen work on a commis-
low the plan that no sale can be recorded until sion basis, and although their commission is in
at least 10 per cent of the amount is received. no way affected by the size of the down pay-
Then if the commission to the salesman is 10 ment, the promptness with which they receive
per cent they do not pay him his whole com- it depends directly on the size of the initial
mission out of this first 10 per cent, but retain payment. They follow the plan of holding back
at least 40 per cent of the amount to protect part of the commissions until a certain amount
themselves from the possibility of return. Thus, has been paid on the instrument, and thus, with
in order to get prompt payment of his commis- this system, a large down payment is of direct
sions, the salesman finds selling on larger down advantage to the salesman. Returns are de-
payments to his advantage.
ducted from the surplus fund of the salesman,
A plan of cash prizes has been used occasion- to the amount yet due on the piano. They
ally in some instances, but only as a special fea- believe that to work their salesmen on the
commission basis is the secret of solving this
ture.
question. The Kansas City branch say that
W. W. Kimball Co.
Consult the Universal Want Directory of
\ccording to J. D. Mahaffey, manager of the their salesmen make every attempt to get large The Review.
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