Presto

PRESTO
PRESTO
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY AT 407 SOUTH DEAR-
BORN STREET, OLD COLONY BUILDING, CHICAGO, ILL.
C. A. DANIELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT
Editors
Telephones, Local and Long Distance, Harrison 234. Private Phones to all De-
partments. Cable Address (Commercial Cable Co.'s Code), "PRESTO," Chicago.
Entered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 1896, at the Post Office, Chicago, Illinois,
under Act of March 3, 1879.
Subscription, $2 a year; 6 months, $1; Foreign, $4. Payable in advance. No extra
charge in U. S. possessions, Canada, Cuba and Mexico.
Address all communications for the editorial or business departments to PRESTO
PUBLISHING CO., 407 So. Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
Advertising Rates:—Five dollars per inch (13 ems pica) for single insertions.
Complete schedule of rates for standing cards and special displays will be furnished
on request. The Presto does not sell its editorial space. Payment is not accepted for
articles of descriptive character or other matter appearing in the news columns. Busi-
ness notices will be indicated by the word "advertisement" In accordance with the
Act of August 24, 1912.
Rates for advertising in Presto Year Book Issue and Export. Supplements of
Presto will be made known upon application. Presto Year Book and Export issues
have the most extensive circulation of any periodicals devoted to the musical in-
strument trades and industries in all parts of the world, and reach completely and
effectually all the houses handling musical instruments of both the Eastern and West-
ern hemispheres.
Presto Buyers' Guide is the only reliable index to the American Pianos and
Player-Pianos, it analyzes all instruments, classifies them, gives accurate estimates
of their value and contains a directory of their manufacturers.
Items of news and other matter of general interest to the music trades are in-
vited and when accepted will be paid for. All communications should be addressed to
Presto Publishing Co., 407 So. Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
SATURDAY, J U L Y 24, 1920.
TO CORRESPONDENTS.
PRESTO IS ALWAYS GLAD TO RECEIVE NEWS OF THE
TRADE—ALL KINDS OF NEWS EXCEPT PERSONAL SLANDER
AND STORIES OF PETTY MISDEEDS BY INDIVIDUALS. PRESTO
WILL PRINT THE NAMES OF CORRESPONDENTS WHO SEND IN
"GOOD STUFF" OR ARE ON THE REGULAR STAFF. DON'T SEND
ANY PRETTY SKETCHES, LITERARY ARTICLES OR "PEN-PIC-
TURES." JUST PLAIN NEWS ABOUT THE TRADE—NOT ABOUT
CONCERTS OR AMATEUR MUSICAL ENTERTAINMENTS, BUT
ABOUT THE MEN WHO MAKE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AND
THOSE WHO SELL THEM. REPORTS OF NEW STORES AND
THE MEN WHO MAKE RECORDS AS SALESMEN ARE GOOD. OF-
TEN THE PIANO SALESMEN ARE THE BEST CORRESPONDENTS
BECAUSE THEY KNOW WHAT THEY LIKE TO READ AND HAVE
THE OPPORTUNITIES FOR FINDING OUT WHAT IS "DOING" IN
THE TRADE IN THEIR VICINITY. SEND IN THE N E W S -
ALL YOU CAN GET OF IT—ESPECIALLY ABOUT YOUR OWN
BUSINESS.
PLAYER MUSIC ROLLS
Selling pianos now means selling player-pianos. The proportion
of player-pianos manufactured is so great that the word "piano" is
fast coming to mean player-pianos. And no piano dealer can afford
to overlook the profit of the music roll.
Without the music roll the player mechanism is mute. The
instrument becomes again, and with emphasis, the "silent piano."
With the music roll there is no composition the player-piano can not
perform, with all the power and beauty of a master at the keyboard.
So that the music roll has become an absolutely essential feature in
the wares of every piano store—in fact every music store.
It is therefore not so much a question of the desirability of the
music dealer handling player music rolls, but the matter of how he
keeps his stock, and of what his stock of music rolls consists. Today
there are a number of first-class player-roll industries. Some of them
are so enterprising and up-to-date that they seem ready to supply
the most popular music as quickly as it appears in sheet music form—
sometimes even before. And the profit to the energetic music dealer
is larger than in most of the other lines which he may carry in
stock.
There are piano stores, and also many general music stores, in
which the manner of keeping the music roll stock is so admirable
that the department is at once a delight to the eye and an inspiration
to the customer. On the other hand, there are stores so carelessly con-
ducted, and so slip-shod in their methods, that there is no place for
the music rolls, and small evidence that the roll is regarded as an
article of sale at all. The rolls are scattered about upon the tops of
instruments, or they are hidden away behind counters, or other
places, where they are seldom in fit condition to demonstrate, and
less to offer to a customer of refinement. Such stores have no syste-
matic plan for keeping the music roll stock, and the assortment is
seldom of a kind to attract even the people who want to buy. And
in that condition any music store makes a vital mistake.
There are rules which all music dealers should adopt, and with-
July 24, 1920.
out the application of which there can be little profit in one of the
most productive departments of the trade today.
The music roll stock should be systematically arranged, and the
shelves, or other conveniences for carrying and displaying the rolls,
should be kept neat, clean and intelligently classified. The box ends,
showing titles, should be plainly in view, so that the customer or
clerk can instantly tell whether the piece wanted is in stock and
where it is.
The prices indicated by the music roll industry should be ad-
hered to unless otherwise instructed.
The rolls of different manufacturers should be kept separately,
if the stock consist of more than one line.
Rolls should not be permitted to remain in the player-pianos
after the demonstration, but should be taken out and placed in stock
where they belong.
Special rolls for demonstration purposes should be provided and
kept in a separate place. Some manufacturers produce special rolls
for the purpose of "showing off" the player. Dealers should have
them.
An instrument should be provided for the purpose of "trying"
the roll for customers, and that piano should be kept in its place in
proximity to the music roll department.
Special order blanks should be used in making out orders for the
music roll manufacturers.
It is often well to vary the demonstration, or trial, rolls so that
the instrument may not wear too long upon the same hammers.
Rolls that are popular and frequently called for should be always
in stock, and re-orders sent before stock is exhausted.
It is always wise for the dealer to select a first class line of
music rolls and to commend the pieces in that line even if, for the
accommodation of customers, more than one manufacturer's produc-
tions are carried in stock.
In local advertising make a feature of music rolls in connection
with piano advertising—and all other publicity matter.
From this time forward the music roll department is certain to
be the most active and, if properly conducted, the most profitable, of
the "small goods" departments. It is a quick moving line and one
that no successful music dealer can afford to neglect.
SELECTING A SALESMAN
There is an endless stream of printed matter designed to define
salesmanship. Some of it is fairly reasonable, but most of it is a
combination of platitude and word picture.
Selling pianos is not unlike selling other things. The principles
of salesmanship are the same in whatever line the energy and in-
telligence are applied. There are commodities of common and con-
stant sale, in the disposition of which no salesmanship at all is neces-
sary. The articles sell themselves in the commonest meaning of the
word.
Selling pianos requires a kind of intelligence which belongs to
refinement. It is more nearly an art than some other lines of busi-
ness. It demands a better understanding of human nature, and it
calls for a nicer balance of argument, and a better command and
control of speech. Whether a piano salesman is a musician or not,
he must impress the purchaser with the idea that he at least under-
stands what music is, and has some knowledge of its means of
interpretation.
The piano salesman need not be a mechanic in any sense. He
need not have dissected the instrument, or to have looked closely
into either the dry kiln or glue box. But he must know that those
essential features exist in the piano factory, and that they have done
their share in the production of the finished instrument. And, even
more, he must be able to discriminate between music and noise. He
must not take it for granted that his customer is seeking all the
sound possible with no preference for musical tone. And he must
be able to so regulate his use of superlatives as to avoid starting a
train of doubt in his questioning customer's mind. He must be
plausible as well as assertive. And he must never lose sight of
values, as applied to the instrument he is trying to sell. People
often know more about pianos than may at first appear. For a piano
salesman to wisely discourse on jazz music to a customer who wor-
ships Beethoven and Schubert is as bad as if he talked the Gotter-
dammerung to a "professor" of rag time in ten lessons. Be natural
at all times, and make your arguments bear upon the sale in view,
and not upon matters that only vaguely apply to the work in hand.
In a few words, the first requisites of a piano salesman are:
Appearance—neat, inspiring confidence, and natural.
Character—the kind that commends itself and may be seen in
face and demeanor.
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