Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
The Music Trade Review
AUGUST 21, 1926
The Why of Successful Collections
and Efficient Credit Men
(Continued from page 9)
account on the books. This is to continue until
the customer has demonstrated by his payments
what his habits of payment may be. When he
has established himself in this regard, it is then
time to decide upon the manner in which the
accounts are to be handled and governed by
the decision. For myself, I believe at least once
in ten days every account should pass under
the eye of the collector, just so long as any-
thing is payable on the account and as long as
there is anything due on the account.
Following Them Up
Then this matter of the follow up. 1 be-
lieve that routine should bear all the earmarks
of routine. That is, form letters should be form
letters and nothing else. The real ability of the
collection department is shown by personal re-
sourcefulness which must be thrown into the
problem when routine has failed. Collection
work is to commerce what diplomacy is to in-
ternational affairs. The work of the collector
and diplomat is to adjust tactfully without em-
ploying extreme measures. To resort to force
is always costly, unless the collector be so tact-
ful as to persuade the customer that his loss is
inevitable. In handling the instalment account
the best collector puts compulsion in the back-
ground, while keeping it in sight and always
within reach.
Promptness is the great essential in dealing
with retail debtors. All classes of retail de-
linquents are tempted to transfer their trade
when their accounts get formidable. Educate
your customers to pay promptly, which is an
advantage to themselves; sell them the peace of
mind, the good standing in their community, or
the credit extensions they will enjoy when the>
pay their bills as they come due. Keep your
debtors paying promptly.
This is very important in instalment selling.
Slow pay demands treatment at the first
symptom. It grows worse every day it runs.
Get on the trail quickly. Use every effort to
keep customers from getting more than one or
two instalments behind.
I can see no royal road to the collector's
success. This is achieved more as a result of
perspiration than inspiration. Hard work, care-
fully thought-out plans, persistent, intelligent
letters, an occasional personal interview, all
these are a part of the tools of the collector,
and without which he is pretty sure to lack the
measure of achievment desired.
The successful collection man should have
that most precious of all characteristics—human
sympathy. He must not be, as some believe, a
born pessimist and skeptic. In dealing with
men he should be fair and meet them on their
own ground. He should make customers be-
lieve in the fairness and liberality of the house.
Foster & Waldo Uses Ten Pages in
Newspapers to Announce Annex Sales
Firm Utilizes Wide Publicity to Announce Closing of Old Building on Which Lease Expires
October 15—Prospects for Fall Trade Good in the Twin Cities
n T . PAUL AND MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.,
^ August 16.—Dickens might have written
"Great Expectations" as a commentary on Au-
gust and the local merchants' state of mind.
Most of the Twin City men say that the month
is a little quiet but that prospects are good.
E. R. Dyer, of the Metropolitan Music Co.,
has just returned from a most satisfactory
vacation in northern Minnesota. He says things
are picking up and the Fall season bids fair to
be the best in some time. Many beautiful pianos
are arriving at the Metropolitan store for the
Autumn display. These were ordered at the
time of the convention.
A. L. Jewett, of the Starr Piano Co., has
been a visitor in the cities the past few days.
It is not a case of "coming back" with Foster
& Waldo, but a continuous performance of as'
tounding business. After their remarkable re-
moval sale and the excellent business enjoyed
since, one would hardly expect a repetition of
the former. And yet that is just what they have
done. The old Foster & Waldo building is be-
ing closed and the firm has made it the occasion
for "closing the annex" sale, which is proving
just as great a success as the one that ran into
record-breaking proportions last year.
What is considered the high mark for music
firm advertising was put on by Foster & Waldo
announcing the sale. They took ten full pages
in the Twin City press. All the St. Paul papers
and the four Minneapolis papers ran full-page
advertisements on the eve of the sale and the
company continues to use a great deal of space
daily. The lease on the old building expires
October 15.
R. K. Settergren, of Bluffton, Ind., was a
visitor at Foster & Waldo this week.
At the Cammack Piano Co. there have been
a number of music men from other cities. Mr.
Hausner, who has the musical merchandise de-
partment, had a call from Vescey Walker, of
the Walker Music Exchange, well-known firm
of Milwaukee. Charles A. Fairchild, of the
Conn Co. of Elkhart, Ind., also dropped in here.
P. J. Hanley, of the piano firm of that name,
has just returned from a 500-mile motor trip into
northern Wisconsin. He reports sales satis-
factory, all working hard and prospects excel-
lent.
E. W. Furbush, representing the Bush &
Gerts Piano Co., visited with Mr. Hanley this
week.
M. L. McGinnis combined business and pleas-
ure on his recent trip to Wilawiben and looked
in on the trade in the Range territory. Mr.
McGinnis found business picking up in a very
promising way in northern Minnesota and
states that it is much better here. Pianos are
going well and phonographs fairly so.
George Benson, whose music store is always
interesting because it does such a large business
and is out of the downtown district, says that
July was the biggest month in the thirty-five
years of the firm's business. August is also
good, both in pianos and phonographs.
Webb R. Raudenbush is one of the late vaca-
tioners and is at Burnside Lodge, near Ely,
Minn.
Prominent Tradesmen in
New Youngstown Music Go.
G. C. Lydrickson, President, Dan J. Nolan,
Vice-president, and H. V. Metzel, Secretary of
Recently Organized Concern
YOUNGSTOWN, O., August 16.—The Youngs-
town Music Co., Youngstown's newest music
establishment, opened for business this week.
The new concern recently purchased the busi-
ness of the McMahon Piano Co.
G. C. Lydrickson, president of the company,
was for a number of years assistant to the
general manager of the Rudolph Wurlitzer Co;,
of Cleveland. He has moved his family here
and will make Youngstown his permanent home.
Dan J. Nolan, one of the best-known music
men in the Middle West, is vice-president of the
11
company. Mr. Nolan, in 1918, served as presi-
dent of the National Association of Music
Merchants. H. V. Metzel, who has spent all
his life in the music business, is secretary.
The Youngstown Music Co. has taken a ten
years' lease from Philip Wick on the property
occupied by the McMahon Music Co. The store
will be refurnished and redecorated throughout
and a complete line of everything in music will
be carried.
"The Music Store of Service" has been
adopted as a slogan by the Youngstown Music
Co.
New Series of Jesse French
& Sons Co. Advertisements
Company Issuec S:me Attractive Pieces of
Copy for Free Distribution Among Its Deal-
ers—Thrill of Personal Performance Stressed
The Jesse French & Sons Piano Co., New
Castle, Ind., has just sent to its dealers a new
folio showing a new series of advertisement
cuts featuring Jesse French & Sons piano and
the company's reproducing grand. The copy
in the advertisement measures up fully to the
high standard set by the company in all pub-
licity and features specially the argument that
there is a genuine thrill in the playing of music
either manually or through the medium of a
mechanism that can be perfectly controlled.
Electrotypes and mats of the new advertise-
ments are supplied to Jesse French & Sons'
dealers without charge upon request.
Herschel Faber and Earl A. Slack have pur-
chased Van's Music Store on West Main street,
Ashland, O.
Pratt Read
Products
P i a n o Ivory
Piano Keys
P i a n o Actions
Player Actions
Established in
1806
at Deep River, Conn.
Still There
Standard Service and Highest
Quality
Special Repair Departments
Maintained for Convenience
of Dealers
PRATT, READ & CO.
THE PRATT READ
PLAYER ACTION CO.
Oldest and Best