Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
The Jfusic ^aaJe
Established 1879
REVIEW
VOL. 112-No. 1
THE
PIONEER
January, 1953
PUBLICATION
2,874fh Issue
O F T H E MUSIC
I N D U S T R Y
There Are New Sales In Your Own Back Yard
And Some Incidents Which Prove It
By VAUGHN VAN CLEVE
AMERICANS are a funny
bunch of people, most of us
thinking that we must go far away
for anything we want or need. If we
want to go fishing, it must be far
away in Canada. If we want to go
hunting for pheasants it must be far
away in South Dakota, even though
there may be excellent hunting and
fishing all around us here at home.
By the same token we think of new
piano sales as something that can only
be reached by extensive and prolonged
advertising sales, or some new sell-
ing technique, never realizing that
right in "OUR OWN BACK YARD"
are new sales, people wanting to buy,
who will be happier for our services,
friends who can and will be happy
to help us sell others, if we will but
ask them to do so. We all remember
the little story, "ACRES OF DIA-
MONDS" and what one man found in
his own backyard, but you say, "all my
prospects are either sold or have
bought elsewheres and I am out of
new prospects. Maybe you are like the
country fellow, who when asked if he
could play the fiddle, said "I don't
know, I have never tried." Maybe you
have never tried the rich fields that
are all around you right now. New
prospects that are yours for the ask-
ing. New ones practically without com-
petition. Let me give you a few true
examples.
Many years ago when the writer was
a cub salesman for a music company,
we might receive a new prospect from
a town about sixty miles from town.
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, JANUARY, 1953
If the prospect looked good, it was
the usual policy of the Boss, to first
ship the piano at once and then ship
me after it. He figured that you were
not likely to sell the piano unless you
had it there to sell and that if you
did have it there, you were then likely
to sell it either to your prospect or
someone else..
At any rate, once the piano was
shipped it became my problem. In one
instance when I got there, the pros-
pect said that he had bought a piano
and was much concerned about all the
trouble and expense, he had put us
to, cost of freight on the piano and
my own expenses, etc. I said, "Don't
you worry as I know that you can
help me sell this piano to somebody
you know." "Wait a minute," he cried,
almost excitedly, "when I was talking
about buying a piano, my neighbor
across the street said that he was some
time going to buy a piano also for
his little daughter." So the upshot of
it all was that in a couple of hours,
I was on my way back to my home
town with a deal for some $560 in
my pocket. Nothing so very startling
about that except that if I had not
asked him to help me, I would have
probably passed up that sale, "RIGHT
IN MY OWN BACK YARD." He also
felt better and the buyer was happy
so it was a good deal all around.
Don't Forget Old Customers
There is a never ending source of
sales, first from old customers and I
mention them first because I consider
them the most promising of all. They
are your friends and have your own
piano on display in their homes and
about the first thing a new piano
owner does is to call in the neigh-
bors to see the new piano. These same
neighbors might hesitate to tell you
that they were in the market for a
piano, but they will tell your new
owner at once. It is a question of
"KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES"
and the feeling that if your new owner
can afford a piano for her home,
then they can also buy one for little
Alice. Here is a ready made sale,
practically without competition, who
has seen your product and admired
it, all yours for the asking, but you
have to ask for it. Your new owner
will gladly help you but she will not
drop her household duties and take
the time to call you, you must con-
tact her. Also don't forget that the
sale you lose is a rich field for other
sales.. The customer who has bought
from your competitor is at once em-
barrassed and feels sorry that she
could not have purchased from you
also. She will go a long way to get
even with you by helping you to sell
another piano. Sales made or lost are
a gold mine of new sales, try them
out. The next most important source
of sales is the music teacher. Every
teacher has at most any time some
prospect who can be sold. They will
help you if and I said "IF" you cul-
tivate them and make them your
friends and helpers.
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