Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
Established 1879
Vol. 112-No. 12
The (jM
REVIEW
December, 1953
2,885th Issue
THE PIONEER PUBLICATION OF THE MUSIC
INDUSTRY
Some Suggestions Based on Experience on
What To Do When Your Buyer Stalls on Price
By VAUGHN VAN CLEVE
I '
said the sales manager
W ELL,"
of a fine and large Eastern
piano house, "I see that you have just
sold a grand piano." "No," said the
salesman, I did not." "Unless I am
badly mistaken, the sale is laying on
my desk now waiting for my OK," said
the sales manager. "I don't consider
that a sale," said the salesman, "sell-
ing a little cripple at $295. is not a
sale to me," said the salesman. "Mr.
Dykes." said the manager, "you have
the same disease that so many piano
salesmen have. You have been quoting
prices on pianos in the hundreds of dol-
lars, even in thousands, so that you have
lost the appreciation for the customers
pocket book. I'll bet if you and your
Wife were about to spend $295, for a
new refrigerator or gas range, it would
assume enormous proportions and that
you would consider it most carefully
before you spent the money. It is only
because you have been dealing in pianos
and their expensive costs so long that
you fail to consider, first that the cost
of any piano is a very large purchase
for the average customer, that he con-
siders it for months, before he finally
makes the purchase, that it usually
mean? the sacrificing of other things
that his family needs and wants, so he
can buy a piano, sometimes even the
cutting down of the food bill and giv-
ing up of needed clothing.
I have known families where the
father had to give up smoking for three
years and the wife made over old
dresses for a like period, because they
were buying a piano for their home.
You also are overlooking completely
the fact, that what is a small amount of
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW. DECEMBER, 1953
money to one buyer is a prohibitive
amount to another buyer. It probably
will be harder for this buyer of the
$295 grand to pay for it, than it is for
the buyer of a $2,000 instrument, fur-
thermore because it is not your own
money that is being spent. In other
words you have little consideration for
your buyers pocket book."
A Pointed Example
Here is a short example: Into the
salesroom of a magnificent new auto-
mobile sales room stepped the vice
president of an auto financing company.
He was a young man about thirty-two
years of age. He then had a salary of
around some $10,000 a year and later
became the President of a very large
corp'n. He asked for the owner of this
new business, and was informed that
the owner had not arrived as yet but
would in about an hour or so. The
young executive had just been recently
married, and had been furnishing a new
home, at considerable expense, never-
the-less he wanted a new car and fig-
ured that he might spend as much as
$2000 for it. While waiting for the
owner, he spied a brand new roadster
and walked over to it and was admir-
ing it, when a salesman approached him
and said, "Do you like i t ? " "Yes,"
said the executive, I think it is beauti-
ful, how much does it cost?" "$3,650,"
replied the salesman. "PHEW," said
the young executive, "that's a lot of
money." "That isn't any money for an
automobile." replied the salesman.
"No," said the young executive, What
car do you drive?" The salesman looked
rather sheepish as he replied, "I just
have a little Ford roadster that I run
around in." "Well, it seems that the
question as to what is a lot of money
then is whether it is your money or my
money," said the young executive. He
shortly bought a new car, but not from
that salesman, who had so little respect
for his pocket book.
You as a piano salesman get so used
to saying that one is $1250 and that
one is $975, that you do not realize
that you are dealing in an article of
such expense that it assumes enormous
proportions to your buyer. Stop just a
minute and figure it is your own money
that is being spent and maybe you will
then have a little more respect for your
buyers feelings and his pocket book.
A Sound Talk on Price
But. are we not so far, handling this
matter of price all wrong? That great
maker of salesmen, John H. Patterson,
the founder of the National Cash Reg-
ister Co. and recognized "Daddy" of
modern selling methods, can help us.
He'd proceed in this fashion; .
"Let's See;" This $1000 piano will
with reasonable care render real service
for some forty years. Even then you
will trade it in for $200. That means
that your outlay is only $800—$20.00
a year.—$1.66 per week or less than 24
cents a day. Now isn't it worth that
small amount to have the beauty of a
piano in your home, an education for
your children, it's entertainment culture
and eharm? One thousand dollars
seems a lot of money, but 24 cents a
day seems very little so from that angle
let's approach the price question, it no
longer becomes such a booge boo. Like-