Classic Mode

Presto

Issue: 1923 1929

PRESTO
July 14, 1923
The
Dominant
Line
J.P.SEEBUR6 PIANO GO.
A full and complete
line of better coin
operated pianos and
orchestrions.
14 Styles
from the smallest to the largest
14 Styles
from the largest to the smallest
Sold on a protected
territory system that
will interest you.
Write for Details
J. P. SEEBURG PIANO CO.
1510 Dayton Street
CHICAGO
INFLUENCING PIANO
PROSPECT'S MIND
Theory and Fact About Talking Points Set
Forth and a Few Instances of Expedient
Action in the Sales Field
Are Told.
The talking point is the means to sales in the piano
business. In setting out on the prospect conquest
the salesman carries the offensive into the fortress
of his friend the enemy, the prospective buyer. His
biggest and best gun is his talking point. It is the
continuous firing of.this that wears down opposition.
The form of the talking point is not rigidly fixed
by theory. In devising his talking point the piano
salesman is a law unto himself. Like Gen. Sheridan,
he shapes the campaign to suit the circumstances
and drat the printed rules of war.
Every talking
point is different from the others, and its nature is a
matter of selection, depending on the intelligence and
perspicacity of the salesman. Piano selling is a game
of war, and, like all games appealing to the thinking
man, its progress is governed by circumstances, and
durn your hoary theories.
Necessity of Drilling.
But, as in the science of war, the recruit in the
piano sales army is in the need of preliminary drill-
ing. It is well for the piano salesman to inform him-
self with every feature of the piano he sells. It is a
good thing to fill his thought storage with all the
admirable features of the piano he daily talks about.
Then possibly if he is very new to the game he will
provide himself with handy mouthfuls of wareroom
dope to put the spell on the prospects on his rural
route. Perhaps he will absorb some of the sales
pointers, theories repeated and reprinted since the
year of the big wind. But in time he will forget the
theories or ignore them and nose out his own spon-
taneous talking points. Then he will be on the way
to success at piano selling.
Everything and everybody is a source of talking
points for the piano salesman. A most important
talking point and by many considered the most valu-
able material of all is the customer himself. It may
be laid down as a general proposition that the more
the salesman senses about his prospect the better
argument he can put forth and the stronger and more
effective talk he can make.
How Does He Do It?
What, do you think, is the talking point of the
young salesman in a certain midwest city who has
made a record for selling the highest type of repro-
ducing piano to the most musically cultured people
in his city? According to the theories he has noth-
ing in his make-up to warrant success of that kind.
He doesn't know the first thing about music. A
cantata to him might mean a new Ford part. He
knows nothing about Richard Wagner, music com-
poser, but everything about Hans Wagner, baseball
player. In fact, he is frankly ignorant about every-
thing you'd think he ought to know to find a medium
of conversation with his musically highbrow
customers.
"He just dopes 'em," is the humorous explanation
of his friends. And it is about as exact an explana-
tion as any. This Philistine leaves the store non-
chalantly remarking that he is "going up to sell Mrs.
Van Uppish a repro. for her swell music function
tomorrow night." Just like that. And the boys in
the store no longer wonder when he returns and
orders the tuner to "ping up" a reproducing grand
and be darn snappy about it.
Can't Feaze Him.
The good piano salesman can make his talking
point translatable into any language. The linguistic
variety at the Tower of Babel wouldn't have feazed
a good salesman who would have sold jewsharps and
timbrels to every mason and hod carrier on the job.
A young man who had always sold pianos got an as-
signment from the musical merchandise department
of a big Chicago music house a few months ago. He
was sent to Mclrose Park, a western suburb of the
city to sell accordions to citizens of Italian birth or
ancestry.
"It looks like a pipe," he said, knowing the attrac-
tion of accordion for this music-loving people. But
he was disillusioned. He found the old-timers more
interested in the banana industry or the manufacture
of light and not so light wines than in the supposedly
national musical instrument. The second generation,
he was surprised to find, gave him the laugh. It got
its music per the jazz band at the dance halls.
Did that young salesman assume a vanquished and
lowly mien and vacate the field? Not so. In the
cause of sales he became a reformer. In good Mel-
rose Park English he said, "Why leta da boys and
girls spenda da mon' in da dance halls? Buya da
playerpian' and make da jazz at home." Next day
he brought out a good but cheap playerpiano and a
suitable collection of rolls and gave a party at the
home of a leading citizen.
Everybody There.
There was never such a jazzy dance in that suburb,
and when the old folks and young folks realized what
a splendid aid and a quick one for the dance they
were easy to talk to. The price and the terms inter-
ested them, and nine sales resulted from the first
week's work following his memorable party. You
can't blind a good salesman to his talking point.
No correct statistics can be compiled of talking
points. Every piano has its talking point of course,
but the point of view of the prospect is also impor-
tant. In some pianos the talking points are con-
vincing; in others not so much so, and in others again
the talking points are faint whispers. A talking point
is a fact with emphasis. The degree of emphasis is
in proportion to the quality of the conviction. But
every salesman worth his salt has his own conception
of what constitutes the quality of conviction.
Set in His Ways.
The piano's virtues suggest talking points to some
salesmen and do so at all times. They conceive only
one angle at which the piano may be viewed and only
from that angle will they present it. They are hon-
est, but they would make the Melrose Park hero
laugh. If they can't make the customer's mind focus
on the virtues of the piano as they conceive them it
is all off. They do not know there are other ways
to make the prospect react. There are not many of
that kind, however.
The piano salesman who gets the greatest joy out
of his profession is the kind who finds a problem in
every sale. He views each customer with the in-
telligent eye of expediency. Any old angle is good
enough to view the piano from so long as the talking
point gets under the skin. The good salesman does
not necessarily have to be inspired. The mortal
mind is capable of some very fancy divining when
the salesman of the expedient order owns it.
SALEM, OREGON, HAS LARGEST
PIAN0=0RGAN IN THEATRE
Inventor of the Big Movie Instrument Is a Resident
of Seattle, Wash.
The second largest organ in the state of Oregon
is in a theater at Salem, the largest being in Port-
land. The instrument is of the piano-organ com-
bination kind, the piano being played either from its
own keys or from the keys of the pipe organ.
B. C. DaShiell, organ builder of Seattle, who con-
structed and installed the piano mechanism in its
entirety, states that there are more than three miles
of 25-gauge B. & S. wire used to operate the piano
as well as approximately 80 feet of solid coined silver
wire used in the make-and-break contacts.
The piano installation is to be considered in no
manner as an ordinary "player-piano," the same de-
gree of skill being required were the player seated
at the piano bench, and the mechanism only enabling
the player to render piano numbers from the organ
console at the same time being able to play the
piano with the organ. Similar instruments are to be
seen and heard in the large city cinema theaters.
The instrument at Salem is one of seven in the
United States and was built under the direction of
Mr. DaShiell, who owns patents covering its con-
struction.
OPENS IN CLAIRETON, PA.
Joe B. Kelly has opened a new music store on St.
Claire avenue, Claireton, Pa., representing the line of
Boggs & Buhl, Pittsburgh, Pa., and by the attendance
at the formal opening recently it is clear Mr. Kelly
is a first class advertiser. The firm of Boggs &
Buhl is the exclusive representative in western Penn-
sylvania for the Henry F. Miller, Poole, Janssen,
Behr Bros, and Solo-Concerto playerpiano, made by
the H. C. Bay Co., Chicago. A special feature of the
opening will be the presentation to every adult visi-
tor of a souvenir booklet of old-fashioned songs,
containing both words and music of famous old
favorites.
SUPER-GRAND SELLS EASILY.
Secretary-TreasurerL. B. Jones, of the Schiller
Piano Co., is still in the East visiting the trade. He
is having continuous success in placing the new
Super-Grand Schiller, which is meeting with the ap-
proval of dealers wherever introduced. The only
trouble at the office at Oregon, 111., is that supplies
are not coming forward as fast as is desirable. But a
steady output of better than a Super-Grand every
day is the present ratio, and soon it will be many
times that.
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/
PRESTO
power of printer's ink. Achievements in page
displays and in inserts are frequent, and
"spreads," and even whole editions, are fre-
quent in some trade paper lines.
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY
The automobile industry has shown how,
Published Every Saturday at 407 South Dearborn and other industries have followed suit. But,
Street, Old Colony Building, Chicago, 111.
with a few exceptions, the piano industries
C. A. DANIELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT -
- Editors
continue to be content with what satisfied
them in the years long past. The trade paper
Telephones. Local and Long Distance, Harrison 234.
Private Phones to all Departments. Cable Address (Com-
service departments do not arouse them. They
mercial Cable Co.'s Code), "PRESTO," Chicago.
are satisfied. Perhaps they are right. But
Entered as second-class matter Jan. 29. 1896, at the
Post Office, Chicago, Illinois, under Act of March 3, 1879. it is certain that there are pianos, among the
Subscription, $2 a year; 6 months, $1; Foreign, $4. ones that have acquired the years in business
Payable in advance. No extra charge in United States which represent almost inconceivable value,
possessions, Cuba and Mexico. Rates for advertising on
application.
which, with a suitable advertising investment
to stimulate the dealers, might sweep to the
Items of news and other matter are solicited and if
of general interest to the music trade will be paid for
front quickly and stay there. Is it opportunity
at space rates. Usually piano merchants or salesmen
in the smaller cities are the best occasional corre- lost, or not ?
spondents, and their assistance is invited.
Forms close at noon every Thursday. News mat-
ter should be in not later than eleven o'clock on the
same day. Advertising copy should be in hand before
Tuesday, five p. m., to insure preferred position. Full
page display copy should
be in hand by Monday noon
preceding publicat : on day. Want advs. for current
week, to insure classification, must not be later than
Wednesday noon.
TOO CHEAP
About the best way in the world to kill the
piano is to try to see how cheap you can make
it—how very cheap you can sell it. The great-
est enemy of music itself in any community
is the man who thinks he is a great business
Address all communications for the editorial or business
departments to PRESTO PUBLISHING CO., 407 So. winner when he is advertising pianos at the
Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
price of a bass-drum, and telling the world
he doesn't care how small the first payment,
SATURDAY, JULY 14, 1923.
or how far toward eternity the final one.
The demand for pianos is primarily based
ARE PIANOS ADVERTISED
upon their refining influences in the home.
Do the ambitious piano manufacturers, busy
It has no place in the factory or workshop.
with their factory, office and sales depart-
It is a home adornment and an article of ele-
ments, ever look through the trade papers in
gance—or it isn't, as you choose to make it,
other lines of business? If they do, has it
present it and sell it. You can make it of
ever seemed to them that the piano is about
no more educational or cultural importance
the smallest advertiser of all the things de-
than an ice box and of less home distinction
signed to attract the particu!ar notice of dis-
than the cook-stove if you feel that way.
criminating people ?
But to any family where ambition of the
All lines of industry recognize the fact that head and heart overtops desire of the stom-
to win business the special interests of the ach and love of the dollar, the piano is more
merchants, in any particular line, must be than a polished box of noise, with which to
won and held. The piano manufacturers are fill the best room and impress vulgar visitors.
consistent advertisers in the publications de- It is in a sense above price, and it means more
voted to their specialty. Some of them have than what it cost on long time payments.
been represented in Presto from the first is-
When the piano was an article of large in-
sue of this paper, nearly forty years ago. vestment, when in its humblest form it cost
Many of them have carried their cards in from $700 to $1,000, the people longed for it
Presto for twenty-five years, or more, and and made real sacrifices for the household
practically all of the live ones are with us treasure. When the cheap piano arrived and
today.
"commercialism" began to challenge art, the
To every one of the advertisers whose demand broke all bounds and prices fell in
names have been so consistently kept before proportion to fecundity of output. In time
the readers of this paper, there is, on Presto's the atmosphere of the commonplace threat-
part, a feeling ( >f more than average appreci- ened the upright and the playerpiano filled the
ation. In all the years we have tried to serve breach.
the purposes of the manufacturers who have
And now the baby grand is foremost. The
sustained trade journalism, and we have mads manufacturers have re'duced the beautiful in-
a few losses in advertising business by refus- strument in size until it fits the average home.
ing to play the game in the interest of any Of course, the cheaps have also intruded, and
influences which have seemed to be inimical to there are piano dealers who pass up the first
the smaller but possibly more representative purposes of their business in the search for
—in the quality sense—pianos. And we be- the lowest priced instrument, and cut their
lieve that no other trade paper has kept up profits, and the interests of their customers,
so consistent an effort to reach and influence in proportion.
the piano dealers in the interest of good pianos
You can sell almost endless "repeats" of
—both artistic and "commercial"—as this one. some things. But you can deliver only a lim-
But, aside from all that, are the piano man- ited number of pianos, even if you sell to ev-
ufacturers advertisers in the same sensL 1 as ery family in your town—we are talking to
manufacturers in other lines? A glance the average small town dealer now, but it
through any of the trade papers in other lines applies as well, relatively, to the larger places.
will answer. If the industrial ambitions and You can not hope for more than one profit
energy in any line manifest themselves in the from each customer, if you stay in business
trade paper advertising—both in quantity and for a quarter-century.
kind—it can hardly be said that pianos are well
When you have a baby grand prospect con-
advertised. The advertising in many other sider this. You can't possibly sell without
lines displays flashes of color, of novelty, or profit without making a loss, probably loss of
strength, and of a generous appreciation of the a friend as well as of your own money. Cul-
July 14, 1923
tivate a kind of baby grand business that will
pay you financially, and pay your prospects in
the intrinsic, permanent and musical value of
what you sell them. Don't try to make a
record as the "cheapest" in the world.
How can anyone say that the demand for
reed organs is "dead" when Geo. P. Bent is
searching the world over for a "Crown,"
chapel style? The man who made the Crown
and sold it at reasonable prices on easy terms,
would give a premium for a good one if he
could find it. But who among the thousands
that "sent a cent to Bent" for particulars
would part with his "Crown" today, however
shaky and worn it may be by time and use?
* * *
There are not enough pianos made just now
to go 'round. There are dealers who want
pianos and can't get them. Of course, usu-
ally this means that there are not pianos
enough that are cheap enough. In that sense
it is well that there are not enough. It gives
the better pianos a chance and enables the
dealers who like to sell good pianos—fine pi-
anos—a better opportunity to make a profit.
* * *
The dealer who buys pianos at the lowest
notch is almost sure to sell pianos at a similar
notch. And so he makes no money and stead-
ily absorbs the market until his local terri-
tory is exhausted and he swears that the
piano business is "no good." The real trouble
with him are his salesman. They are no good,
in that they are killing the piano business.
EDUCATORS USE CABLE
MIDGET ON SPECIAL TRAIN
Little Upright Piano Supplied Music in Observation
Car to Frsco and Back.
In the observation car of the long, special
chartered by the National Educators' Association
Cable Midget upright was placed for use on the 1
entire trip. This special train, which left June 23rd,
from the Northwestern Station, Chicago, has an elab-
orate itinerary to and from the National Convention
at Oakland, California. This train is not due hack
in Chicago until the latter part of July.
It is significant that these leading educators from
all over the United States should select a Cable
Midget upright for their trip.
This piano was the ideal instrument for the ob-
servation car and both the convention committees and
railroad officials expressed their approval after this
neat little instrument was installed.
The convention is held the first week in July after
which members on the special train will have the
pleasure of stopping on the way home at Santa Bar-
bara, Los Angeles, Catalina Islands, Salt Lake City,
Denver, and other points.
WHAT'S IN A NAME?
"And what style do you ca'l that?" a visitor asked
George Cor'ey at the A. J. Johnson & Sons Furniture
Co.'s showrooms. "That?" said George, "that's
Grecian.'' "Well, now what the devil can I do with
anything like 'Grecian' in my store?" "Well," says
George, "we'll call it Colonial then." "All right.
Colonial it is then. You may put me down for two
of 'em. It's a damned pretty thing."—Furniture
Journal.
COMPLETES THE LINE.
To the A. B. Chase piano, which the Kieselhorst
Piano Co., St. Louis, has carried for a good many
years, the company recently added the Lindeman &
Sons and the Emerson and the Celco reproducing
medium, all inc'uded in the line of the United Piano
Corporation. It is the plan of the active St. Louis
house to feature the Celco reproducing medium in a
particularly strong way.
A NEW YORK FAILURE.
Secular's Music Shop, Inc.. dealing in phonographs
and records at 931 Eighth avenue, New York, has as-
signed to Isador Goetz, of 15 Park row. James Secu-
lar is treasurer of the company.
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/

Download Page 7: PDF File | Image

Download Page 8 PDF File | Image

Future scanning projects are planned by the International Arcade Museum Library (IAML).

Pro Tip: You can flip pages on the issue easily by using the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard.