PRESTO
June 12. 1920.
THE TEST FOR
PIANO SALESMEN
Will I. Wood, Pacific Coast Piano Traveler,
Discourses on the Prevailing or
Played-Out Methods of Catch-
ing Good Ones.
"The salesman thou hast in thine adoption tried,
bind him to the firm with a good salary or gener-
ous commissions or both," said Will I. Wood, para-
phrasing Shakespeare. It was enunciated in a pleas-
ant conversation recently in the Seattle, Wash., head-
quarters of Mr. Wood, who is Pacific Coast repre-
sentative of the Price & Teeple Piano Co., Chicago.
Among-those present were a dealer from an Oregon
town, a sales manager of a music house in a lively
Washington city and a trade paper man with an ear
for shop talk. The scarcity of real salesmen, the
kind that can open the deal, nurse 'em and close 'em,
was a grave topic discussed by three participants
with the scribe a good listener.
"The piano dealer is fortunate when he has an
efficient staff of salesmen and it is a wise dealer
who knows when he has the good ones and appre-
ciates them accordingly," continued Mr. Wood.
"There are dealers who never seem to be able to find
or keep an efficient salesman and there are dealers
who are never without them. It is unfortunately
true that some dealers will kill initiative in a man. It
is equally true that other dealers will develop a
promising salesman to the highest degree.
"Sometimes a dealer misses a find by mistaken
methods of testing the applicant. It is a mistake to
shoo an applicant out of the store because he seems
to lack the expected requirements in the once-over.
What is technically known as 'front,' a good appear-
ance, is an important requirement in a salesman. It
isn't so much how a man is tailored as how he is
valeted, especially in those days of eighty-five-dollar
hand-me-downs.
"I knew a lady sales manager once who in her
early days of manageressing applied what you might
call the comeliness test to applicants for a salesman's
job. That way, essential with the movie director
seeking film star material, was a mistake in selecting
piano salesmen. She got together a flock of pretty
boys, perfect thirty-sixes, but all but one were beau-
tiful dubs. She had fired all the pretty ones but the
fair to middling one on a certain distressing day when
an old-timer from Kansas City stomped into the
store looking for a job. He was so homely that he
was interesting, but she forgot her ideals, closed her
eyes and employed. He sold more pianos the first
week than the pulchritudinous bunch did in a month.
Of course he stuck. He's manager in that house
now and his name is in the corporate title.
The Wise One.
"I know a dealer who always M has an efficient staff
cf salesmen. When one drops out to better himself
this dealer soon replaces him with another good one.
There arc no details in his tests. When the applicant
presents himself the dealer is governed by his first
impression of the man. It is what you call instinct
in women. I don't believe that dealer ever made a
mistake in a man.
"One of the most unfortunate dealers in the mat-
ter of help was a man I had occasion to know in my
THE BRAMBACH PIANO CO'S FACTORY
15
early days in the piano business. He never could
succeed in tying up to a good salesman. He had
his theories about what constituted a good salesman,
which were right in the main, but ne had a crazy
method of guessing his man. He believed if a man
had general intelligence he would prove a good man
for his job, even if he didn't know very much about
the intricacies of the piano game.
'So when a man presented himself for a job this
dealer applied his infallible intelligence test. He
drew the applicant into a discussion on some sub-
ject, usually one on which the dealer felt genuinely
warm. If the man agreed with him he considered
him sensible and hired him right away. There was
a sad succession of salesman failures in that store."
PLAYERPIANO BLESSINGS
ARE FOR EVERYBODY
Drost Brothers, Medford, Wis., Sing the Praises of
These Instruments.
Drost Brothers Music House, of Medford, Wis.,
sells the. instruments of the Cable-Nelson Piano
Company, the Apollo Piano Company and others.
Of the playerpiano the Medford house says in its
latest advertisement:
Who lives with heart so void of sentiment that
does not love music? Who lives whose soul has not
been stirred by the sweet melodies of selections that
raise the mind to higher thoughts and purer, better
efforts?
And how many of us men and women with souls
have regretted that our finger tips have not had the
training to make us capable of bringing out the in-
spiring music of the masters as played by them?
What a blessing it is then that the master minds
of men has created a means for our untrained fingers
to reproduce these wonderful melodies accurately on
the playerpiano.
Our rich heritage from the masters who spoke in
music is no longer hidden in printed notes. You
may enjoy them in your home always when you
have a playerpiano.
NEW EXPORT MANAGER FOR
THE KOHLER INDUSTRIES
Joseph B. Schwarcz Appointed Manager of the Ex-
port Division of Great New York Industry.
Announcement has been made that Joseph B.
Schwarcz has recently joined the Kohler Industries
force and has assumed his duties as manager of
their export sales department.
Mr. Schwarcz is an experienced piano man who
has made a special study of the export field. Dur-
ing the last four years he has developed the export
business of Ricca & Company, New York. Previous
to that he was, for eight years, with the Aeolian
Company, spending part of his time in their foreign
department.
Mr. Schwarcz, therefore, brings to the Kohler In-
dustries a comprehensive knowledge of general for-
eign trade conditions. He is familiar not only with
the markets of Europe, but also that fast developing
continent, South America. Mr. Schwarcz has a
keen business faculty and is decidedly optimistic re-
garding future trade relations between domestic
manufacturers and foreign markets.
ALEDO, ILL., HAS A NEW,
AMBITIOUS MUSIC HOUSE
The Brambach Piano Co., New York, whose im-
mense factory on West 49th street is devoted exclu-
sively to the production of grand pianos, has found
it necessary to acquire additional floor space for
increased production.
The factory, previous to this latest addition, was
the largest exclusive producer of grand instruments
in the country, and the direct result of a remarkable
development in the demand for the popular Bram-
bach baby grand. Aside from increasing the Bram-
bach manufacturing space to over 120,000 square
feet, the new property offers the company consid-
erable additional yard space for the storage and sea-
soning of lumber.
The new building immediately adjoins the main
factory and is conveniently connected by bridges at
the second and third floors. The acquisition will do
much toward increasing Brambach production so
that it may supply the demands made by the in-
creasing popularity of this instrument.
Will Shaw, Having Deserted Journalism, Returns
to the Trade He Likes Best.
Aledo is one of the live cities in Central Illinois.
It is west of Chicago just about far enough to not
be bothered by the big city competition, and the
people there like music. And Aledo has a new
music house which will succeed. It is the Shaw
Music Company, of which Will Shaw is the pro-
prietor.
Mr. Shaw first entered the talking machine busi-
ness in Aledo in 1904, in a small way, later adding
pianos, sheet music and small instruments to the
line. He conducted the business, with a steady
growth, until July 1, 1915, when he purchased an
interest in one of the newspapers in his city and
became editor and manager of it. This position he
held until October, 1919, when he sold his interest
in the
paper.
W r ith his wife, Mr. Shaw spent the winter in San
Diego, California, and he has now re-entered the ^
music business in Aledo under the firm name of
Shaw Music Co. He will again represent the Stein-
way, Lyon & Healy and Washburn pianos—the
same line he sold before. The Aeolian-Vocalion
is the phonograph he will sell and he will also han-
dle sheet music and small instruments.
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