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during the sixty to ninety days, which
is the maximum for training purposes,
while he is learning the technique
of his special job, he should be guaran-
teed a minimum income sufficient to meet
the necessary expense of himself and
his family. This minimum guarantee
should be in the nature of a salary
against the commission that he is nor-
mally entitled to. As soon as possible,
a salesman should be placed on a
straight commission basis. In addition
to his commission, we pay all his car
expenses and his living expenses when
he is away from home. All of our
piano salesmen who are working out-
side are on a straight commission basis
with expenses paid while they are out
on the territory. They are all on a
uniform basis.
Should Know Product
I am a firm believer in training piano
salesmen so that they know what they
are talking about by having them com-
mit to memory the outstanding features
of the several pianos that they sell.
Frankly, this undoubtedly goes back
to my own personal experiences, thirty
years ago, when I first started selling
Wearever Aluminum house to house.
I recall the sales manual which was
sent to me which carried a detailed
verbatim story of the value of alumi-
num as cooking utensils. We were re-
quired to commit this story to memory
and I spent one whole winter studying
my manual and demonstrating to my
family and others in order that I be
letter-perfect. While the first day sales
amounted to 45c, nevertheless the re-
sults gave me a college education.
After that, I believed in memory sales
talks and when we had three hundred
salesmen soliciting house to house for
the Wurlitzer Company, we demanded
of them that they not only memorize
their sales talk, but the answers to
objections as well. It is particularly
desirable that we go back to some of
these earlier fundamentals of training
salesmen because the war has caused
a great deterioration among salesmen.
I believe that we must return to the
fundamentals of developing salesmen
the hard way. They must learn the
basic selling techniques and they must
practice applying them to the products
we sell and that requires a consider-
able amount of sales training and
supervision.
Salesman Equipment
We equip all of our outside sales-
men with a good catalog, in our piano
department. This catalog is made up
primarily of double cellophane leaves
under which are inserted beautiful
pictures of the instrument itself. They
all have retail prices and, in addition,
they carry sufficient literature with them
so that they can always leave it with
the prospect on whom they call. In
addition to this, they carry a piano
atlas giving the age of pianos by serial
number, and the manufacturers of the
various names of pianos which have
been sold. Since the old Chinese slo-
gan is unquestionably true that, "a
picture is worth a thousand words,"
I am a strong believer in the use of
visual aids to selling.
In our outside trucks, we like to
make it possible for the customer to
see the pianos quickly and easily and
we, therefore, trust our pianos to the
truck using a small piece of sheepskin
wherever the strap comes in contact
with the piano. One of the difficulties
that outside piano salesmen in trucks
frequently run into is that their pianos
must not be covered in such a way
that they cannot be quickly and easily
shown.
Advertising in Country Weeklies
In our field activities, especially in
piano selling on the outside, we do a
considerable amount of local advertise-
ing in the country weekly newspapers,
where they will carry it. We have dis-
covered that a number of the small
town telephone directories in our trad-
ing areas will permit us to list our
name in the classified section. The
field work is also carefully planned
ahead of time. The salesman has, at
all times, available the names of the
owners of pianos in the cities and com-
munities where he calls. These lists of
owners constitute the nuclei for circles
of influence that frequently leads to
other sales.
We try to cultivate the friendliest
relations of the teachers of piano in
these areas. Our salesmen are always
instructed to call on piano teachers
whenever in their city. They also call
on the pastors of the churches, the
organists, band leaders and music su-
pervisors of the schools, both public
and parochial. We have found it quite
productive if we offer books such as
"THE LITERATURE OF THE PI-
ANO" by Ernest Hutcheson, as a gift
for a list of prospects.
I have not spent a great deal of
time going into the field of selling
techniques, but I do wish to empha-
size the fact that the book, "MER-
CHANDISING MUSIC", "The Sales
Training Manual for Music Salesmen"
is, in my opinion, all that any music
salesman or sales manager needs to
become an exceptional salesman of
pianos and musical merchandise. There
is such a wealth of material in this
manual that it takes many readings
and much studies to assimilate what
is available. Chapter 5 on the "Tech-
nique of Salesmanship," together with
the reading lists at the end of the
chapter, contains sufficient training ma-
terial which, if intelligently used and
adequately supervised, the information
necessary. The trouble is, that most of
us do not make sufficient use of the
material on hand and, I plead just
as guilty to this accusation as anyone.
If anyone does not have this excep-
tional manual, they should secure it
immediately from the N. A. M. M.
headquarters.
Story by a Salesman
I am thankful that the situation has
developed like the one illustrated by
the story of the salesman that came
to me recently and said that he would
have to have a raise. I asked him why,
he told me that there were three com-
panies after him. When I inquired
what companies they were, he said,
"Light, Telephone and water.,,
This salesman can be made to real-
ize that the amount of money he could
make is entirely dependent on his in-
telligence, energy and industry. 80%
of our business comes from the outside
and all but two of our entire selling
force is outside selling today. The
whole trading area is their field of
operation^. Intelligently worked, or-
ganized and supervised, it should yield
a satisfactory following of business for
them and for us.
Wurlitzer Retail
Promotions Announced by
Vice-President Payton
Earl C. Payton, Vice-President of the
Rudolph Wurlitzer Co., Retail Division,
announces the promotion of Richard
F. Korte to Manager of the Musical
Instrument Department of the Wurlitzer
Chicago Store at 115 South Wabash
Avenue.
Mr. Korte has been a member of the
Wurlitzer Organization for many years
and was formerly Purchasing Agent for
the Retail Diviision.
Harry E. White, who has been assist-
ant Purchasing Agent has been promoted
to the position of Purchasing Agent for
the Retail Division.
Back from Florida
Howard B. Wood, Vice-President,
American Piano Co., and General Man-
ager of Win. Knabe & Co., New York,
has recently returned from his winter
vacation in Florida.
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, MARCH, 1949