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REVIEW
THE
VOL. LXXXIV. No. 23 Published Every Saturday. Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., 420 Lexington Ave., New York, N.Y., June 4,1927
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The Direct Way to Sales
Old and Tried Method of Door-bell Ringing and Canvassing Salesmen
Still Found by Many Retail Music Merchants to Be the Most Direct
Method of Creating Sales Volume—How Some of the Best Do Canvassing
Second Article
ED DOUGLAS, proprietor of the Uni-
versity Music Store, in Seattle, believes in
nothing but women canvassers for his
piano department, and for the last year and a
half has kept four of them busy continuously in
the Seattle territory. He has a theory that he has
worked out for himself, that when it comes to
selling the idea of musical education, thorough
musical appreciation, to the mother of a family
of young children, there is nothing that can
touch a woman. He has proven his theory
by actual demonstration and actual sales and
profit back him up.
He also carefully studies the personalities
and education of his solicitors before taking
them on. Being adjacent to the University of
Washington places him in a position to obtain
university students who have majored in public
school music and musical appreciation. Such
a person reaches the mother much more readily
by being master of her subject. The canvassers
are given a territory of about five square blocks
at a time for a three-day period. The territory
is allotted by working on a large city map, the
canvasser, of course, making every house in
her district.
Findings and experiences are passed on each
day by the canvassers to the corps of five sales-
men, who immediately follow up all prospects.
Unique experiences that any canvassers have are
related in detail at the sales meetings held twice
a month, When traces of ill will to the store
are thus brought to light with someone who
has either a real or fancied grievance, a call is
paid by Mr. Douglas, himself. He invariably
leaves the house with a feeling of friendliness
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behind him, always adjusting the difficulty,
whatever it may be, to the satisfaction of the
injured party. In this way no cankers of dis-
trust or dissatisfaction are allowed to lie in a
prospect's mind to work evil. This is but one
of the many reasons for the phenomenal growth
of this concern in seven years.
Ground is often prepared for the work of
the canvassers themselves by the fact that Mr.
Douglas is one of the most popular public
school entertainers in the city. He has been
called upon by the music supervisors of many
Seattle schools to give his famous pianolog be-
fore assemblies of the children. From this piano-
log he launches into a talk on musical appre-
ciation. In one case, using the Victor Chart
of musical instruments, and with the intelligent
assistance of the children, he built up a large
orchestra on the blackboard with each instru-
ment in its proper location. He always finds
prospects good for the canvassers in that par-
ticular district following-one of these talks, as
the children are fired to know more music than
they did before.
He states that in the Fall he will have a
football man on the campus continually can-
vassing the sorority and fraternity houses. He
is picking a university student for two reasons:
First, that he already has the entree through
his daily connections, and second, that he will
enable some student to work his way through
college, as he will give him a checking account
on the store to be taken out of his commissions.
He is thus sure of hard and earnest endeavor
on the part of his canvasser, and therefore
good results.
Kesselman-O'Driscoll Uses Canvassing
Crews of From Eight to Ten Men Each
'"p^HE day when a customer entered a music
•*• store, demanded a piece of merchandise,
laid the money on the counter and retired until
lie was again ready to purchase some other
musical instrument is gone. All local music
merchants have agreed to that. In order to
get business it is necessary to go out after it,
and to go out after it in an energetic, sys-
tematic way.
Canvassing the trade is one of the most
popular methods and it is done by. many of
the largest music houses in the country. At
the Kesselman-O'Driscoll store, in Milwaukee,
for instance, the plan is used with great suc-
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cess and every home in the
city is covered. Henry M.
Steussy, vice-president and
general manager of the Kes-
s e l m a n - O'Driscoll store,
likens the work of his can-
vassers to that of the "bird
dog" who catches the quarry,
while the work of the sales-
man is compared with that
of the "hunter" who finally
"lands" the bird—or the prospect.
The canvassers, according to Mr. Steussy,
are divided into crews, with about eight or ten
men in a crew. Each canvassing crew has a
crew manager. A member of the crew can-
vasses a certain district. He often gains ad-
mission into the house by offering some special
bargain. At the present time free Melody Way
lessons are being offered and are proving to be
as fine an approach and interview getter as
anything that has ever been used, Mr. Steussy
states. "Call backs" are made by the crew
manager, and if there is a hopeful prospect
that is the time the salesman enters and the
sale is "clinched" by him.
"Unlike many other music houses," declared
Mr. Steussy, "who think they have finished a
city when they have canvassed it once, we
start a different crew in the same territory and
go right over it again. We have found that
in many cases the third and fourth canvasser
is more successful than the first, inasmuch as
the customer has by this time become interested
and has had time to think about the plan.
"In my opinion," continued Mr. Steussy, "any
music house in the United States who desires
to do a volume business must approach it on
the following basis: They must be able to
carry at least thirty-month paper, with, of
course, the regular carrying charge as adopted
by most of the large music houses throughout
the country to-day. Without this volume it is
impossible for any music house to exist profit-
ably for any length of time. Experience has
taught us that specializing canvassers is the
only paying way. That is to say, a canvasser
must sell one article or another. He cannot
cover every line and be successful, because in
(Continued on page 4)
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