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ORGAN GROWING PAINS
(Continued from Page 9)
ing on organs although, of course, con-
siderable salesmanship will be applied
to convincing them that this or that
organ is definitely the best one on the
market. This group either knows al-
ready, or doesn't care about the sizzle
—they want to know about the steak,
and this phase of the selling job is by
no means unimportant. But the brutal
facts are that the organ business in
total is already too large to subsist on
the ready-made market. You get the
picture, I think, of three or four organ
dealers, representing as many differ-
ent makes of organs, all working hard
to sell the same Baptist Church, or the
same Mrs. Jones who has finally de-
cided to buy that organ she's always
wanted to have in her home. Now com-
petition is a valuable force in business
but in this particular situation I think
there is probably too much of it. Re-
liance on the existent market means
all too few prospects on the fire, and
in such cases the hotly contested deal
takes on too much importance; lose it
and you may not sell any organs this
month. This leads to two practices
which I would still describe as grow-
ing pains because I don't think they're
permanent, but which, while they last,
certainly give this organ business a
suspicion of poor health.
Price Cutting
First is price cutting. I'm not going
to pin the "Public Enemy No. 1" label
on the price-cutting organ dealer, for
like the old song says he is "More to
Be Pitied Than Censored." He truly
believes he is getting away with some-
thing. Because of short-range thinking
he has failed to realize that the one
dollar profit he grasped today (it
should have been tw« dollars ) is going
to stop him from making that five
dollar profit tomorrow. But at the bot-
tom of the pie of reasons is the fact
the he needed t/uit sale even if he didn't
come out with the full margin of prof-
it that the manufacturer has intended
for him to make. In other words, it
was almost a distress sale and all be-
cause through the failure to promote
and expand the organ market, his list
of prospects—ready-made prospects, is
pitifully small.
I feel that all of you agree in prin-
ciple as to the merits of price mainte-
nance. I know that I am by no means
the first to regale you on this subject,
but the manufacturer's concern in this
matter is quite sincere. This contra-
dicts an all too widespread suspicion
12
that the manufacturer or his represen-
tative preaches against price-cutting
since it is the expected pose, though in
reality he cares little as long as the
dealer continues to sell, and as long
as he, the manufacturer, continues to
get his money. But this is completely
a misconception unless of course the
manufacturer is also guilty of short-
range thinking. Manufacturers as a
group know that the dealer who shaves
his organ prices by 10, 20, or 30% is
really only kidding himself. At best
there are break-even deals with nothing
left in the kitty to promote more or-
gan sales; our dealer is forced to wait
for the ready-made type of prospect,
be they ever so few. Oh, he hopes to
catch a "sleeper" occasionally and get
the full price, but this hope is also
doomed to disappointment for the rep-
utation of "making a good deal"
spreads like the measles. The real
tragedy then is that the dealer after a
couple profit-less years judges the or-
gan business on the basis of his own
experience and concludes that he's bet-
ter off to stick to selling pianos. Here
the manufacturer loses; he'll have to
start from scratch with a new dealer
and of course there's no way of calcu-
lating the business which was lost dur-
ing the period of this unsuccessful ex-
periment. The dealer of course lost
too—if he got out of the organ busi-
ness with a whole skin he certainly has
nothing to show for the time spent
even though he did make several deals.
And finally, if this is a typical case
history, the organ business has lost too.
The sure expansion of the organ busi-
ness indicates that organs will ulti-
mately be sold in as many stores as
pianos. The dealer who is soured on
the organ business may sweeten up at
a later date, but his success will be
proportionately reduced. Actually this
thumbnail history goes one step too
far: dealers do not quickly drop fran-
chises, and manufacturers generally are
both hopeful and patient. Yet the his-
tory on today's inactive account all
too often began with "a real good deal"
to that first organ customer. The
harmful practice of price-cutting will
I think gradually decline as dealers
. foresee the eventualities of the prac-
tice, and more important as dealers be-
come convinced that Mrs. Jones, or the
Baptist Church will pay the full price
for the organ he's trying to sell.
Misrepresentation
There is another practice, another
growing pain, which accompanies the
over-anxiety to close that all-too-rare
prospect. Bight off we must in many
cases excuse this (tin- on the grounds
of misinformation or just carelessness.
But whatever the causes, misrepresenta-
tion of the merchandise we sell is
surely not going to help the growth of
the electronic organ business. As we
know, much of the misrepresentation
practiced in the organ business today
is purely unintentional. This does not
mean that it is forgiveable however.
The manufacturer of electronic organs
is frankly eager to equip his dealers
and their salesmen with facts and sell-
ing points for the organ he makes.
After all, knowledge of the product is
the big"must" in all successful selling.
But unquestionably, the sales manuals
and even the consumer literature are
not being given the proper attention by
those who are trying to sell the mer-
chandise with which this material is
concerned. But this situation is genu-
inely hopeful: today's organ dealers
and their salesmen are trying to learn
more about the merchandise they sell
and this one growing pain is fast dis-
appearing.
Misrepresentation which is intention-
al is all the more pernicious, but it's
important to understand why it oc-
curs. Obviously it's based on the as-
sumption that it will get by, and will
at least stand up long enough to get
the customer's signature on the dotted
line. But how does the customer's en-
thusiasm stand up after he learns the
truth? If the organ you sell has to be
tuned once in a while, why not admit
it? Its no disgrace! Or if the organ
you sell really can't make a good Dia-
pason tone— and you know it—surely
it has a lot of other good points to
talk about. It is my sure belief that to-
day's electronic organs can best be sold
by telling the truth about them. The
several makes of organs available to-
day are each quite discernably differ-
ent from all the other. This is a con-
venient situation since it thus becomes
possible to develop many "exclusive"
selling points for whatever brand you
may sell. Considering the fundamental
mystery of electronics, and the new-
ness of the electronic organ market, it
is not at all surprising that we know
too little about our own as well as our
competitor's instruments. With this
condition it is very easy to work up a
large inferiority complex for the in-
strument we sell as compared with the
one sold by the dealer down the street.
Of course if we knew about all the
worries and problems connected with
our competitor's instrument, we'd feel
re-assured about our own. But not
knowing the whole story we tend to
fear that our organ is not quite good
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, APRIL. 1954