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DEPRESSION
These Music
H
ERE'S a music
store w h o s e
business h a s
been
helped
HELPED
Dealers
the midst of them,
where they have re-
mained the past two
years.
"We now have prac-
D. WENZELL
..
tically all the band in-
strument business in
the state, and here's
how we managed it,"
Mr. Bean explained.
"Many people seem to
imagine that during
this time of dull busi-
ness it is an easy matter
to secure the services
of good salesmen. That
is all wrong. All the
business firms now em-
ploy salesmen, many of
them who have never
used them before, be-
cause salesmen are now
needed in those firms
to move the merchan-
dise. I find that the
salesmen who are not
WIN. BEAN
already employed by
some good concern cannot get the desired results. They are
not the type to give a selling job a fair trial, owing, no doubt,
to their lack of actual experience with a profitable selling
position. Their general tendency is to try a thing a few days
and if they do not make a cleaning they will inevitably
switch to something else. So / am selling for our firm. Be-
ing manager and salesman for the whole state is quite a job
for one man, but I am certainly getting the results."
Mr. Bean spends a portion of each month traveling over
the state, contacting prospects and selling. He is advertising
in fifteen country newspapers, and both he and his brother,
Art Bean, are very enthusiastic over the results from this kind
of advertising. A huge amount of business is gotten in his
tie-up with band and orchestra leaders, whom he pays an
agent's commission on all instruments they sell. Recently
he has mad'e the same arrangement with music teachers all
over the state.
Their having the only repair department in the state also
results in much added business. When a person brings in
or sends an instrument into the store to be repaired, the
person's name and the kind of instrument are recorded in the
books. This information is immediately added on to the
mailing list, and is followed up by a series of very nice,
friendly letters. The mailing list is worked monthly. Mr.
Bean says that it is surprising how very much business this
little stunt brings in.
(Continued on page 33)
When band instrument sales dwindled in Little Rock,
the Bean brothers went far afield for business and
got plenty of it. This article tells how they did it.
by the recent depres-
by A R M A N D
sion — Bean Brothers,
Little Rock, Ark.
Here in Arkansas,
the state that suffered
more from the general
depression than any
other state, with sever-
al of the leading banks
failing along w i t h
other financial institu-
tions, and the drought
that rendered the state
practically helpless, all
business seemed to be
at a dead standstill.
With h u n d r e d s of
people starving, do-
nations of food, cloth-
ing, and funds coming
from all over the'coun-
ART. BEAN
try and from the few
in Arkansas who had a
little money left, it seemed as if the business houses that
dealt in merchandise that made for the very necessities of
life would have only a bare chance for survival. Businesses
dealing with luxuries, such as moving picture theatres, beauty
parlors and music companies seemed doomed to close their
doors.
But not the Bean Bros. Music Co., Little Rock, Ark.
"Depression? Why, it is the greatest thing that could have
happened to us!" said Win Bean, when I approached the
subject to him recently. "Funny to say, and you may not
believe it, but this so-called depression has helped us more
than anything else that could possibly have happened to us.
Whereas before we depended entirely upon the city trade
for our business, we now get the majority of our business
from the country towns! The depression forced us to ex-
pand into a broader field, and we have found that, in ex-
panding, we are beginning to realize a dream that exceeds
all previous expectations."
Six years ago these musical brothers decided that they
would like to try some other field other than conducting and
playing in bands and orchestras and teaching music.
Not
wanting to get into anything that would, take them too far
away from the atmosphere of their beloved profession, they
decided upon a music store. For four years they were in the
busiest section of Little Rock, and when the more alert
business firms started to extend a few blocks further west,
these energetic brothers, not to be outdone, moved right into
THE
MUSIC
TRADE
REVIEW,
August,
1931