Presto

PRESTO
12
ASSURES MORE
PLAYER SALES
System Employed by Wise Mid-west Dealer
Shows Belief in Vital Necessity of Well-
Established Bond Between Player-
piano Seller and Buyer.
HIS PROCESS DESCRIBED
Every Customer Periodically Visited by Representa-
tive With Excellent Results in Collection, Good
Will and Sales.
The dealer's sales of playerpianos are in equal ratio
to the measure of his interest in the instruments al-
ready sold. The success of his collection department
and the volume of music roll sales are also dependent
on his enthusiasm for the interests of his playerpiano
patrons. Veteran dealers who analyze the causes
and effects in the piano business admit that the cus-
tomers provide a most fertile source of new business.
Keeping in touch with the player customers is easy
and comparatively inexpensive if a proper system be
followed, and the work assures a big return on the
time and money invested.
One successful dealer in a small but prosperous
town close enough to Chicago to be affected by the
big city's piano advertising allurements goes happily
on the way to more customers by a system continu-
ously followed year in and year out. He employs
a young woman canvasser who calls at regular inter-
vals on those who have purchased playerpianos from
him. The ostensible object of the visit is to dis-
cover if anything is wrong with the instrument and
to take steps to rectify any dissatisfaction if found.
Owners Like It.
According to the dealer it is surprising how much
the player owners appreciate this periodic attention.
The general custom of dealers is to let the player
customers alone except when they have fallen behind
in their monthly installments. And this plan of the
progressive dealer in question is continued long after
Schaff Bros.
Players and Pianos have won their stand-
ing with trade and public by 54 years of
steadfast striving to excel. They repre-
sent the
LARGEST COMPETITIVE VALUE
because of their beauty, reliability, tone
and moderate price. They are profitable
to sell and satisfactory when sold.
Brighten Your Line with the
SCHAFF BROS.
The Schaff Bros. Co.
Established 1868
Huntington, Ind.
S. W. MILLER PIANO CO.
Makers of
S. W. MILLER
PIANOS and PLAYERS
Dealers who Sell Them are
Satisfied with Results and
are Profit-makers.
Do not confuse our Pianos
with the Boston Miller.
New Catalog Ready
S. W. MILLER PIANO CO.
SHEBOYGAN, WIS.
the instrument is paid for. In fact a customer is
always considered on the ,list for the periodic visit of
the observant young woman.
The value of these visits is obvious. They are
made social and cultural events and in them the
bright young lady does not forget the main object
of every function where music is involved. She car-
ries with her a portfolio of the latest roll releases and
plays them in a spirited way that shows their great-
est merits and the musical possibilities of the instru-
ment. Although the rule is not to force the sales of
rolls, the instances are rare in which she leaves a
house without an order.
Facts Discovered.
One thing this dealer has discovered through the
operations of his clever young assistant and that is
that the average player owner is indifferent to the
new music until aroused. The new music perpetu-
ates the zest for the playerpiano which continues to
be the most delightful means of entertaining the fam-
ily and company. But selling rolls is a minor action
in the activities of the young woman. She makes
sure that every player sold by the house which she
encounters in her round of visits, is in good shape
for operation and is in proper tune.
This small town dealer with the best piano trade
wisdom knows that the playerpiano when properly
handled is its own best salesman. To every visitor
to the house it suggests its value to provide recrea-
tion. Its name becomes associated with a pleasure-
able time and every occasion on which it is heard
makes easier the subsequent talks of the salesman.
Knocking Sales.
It is a sad fact that some playerpianos are the
greatest detriment to sales of other playerpianos. It
is a fact too that the dealers who sold them are
largely to blame. The player is a closed incident
when it leaves the wareroom for the customer's
house. What happens subsequently is natural. A
minor defect, easily remedied, is not understood. The
playing of the rolls becomes unsatisfactory and un-
pleasing. Visitors hear the dissatisfied comments of
the owners and the particular player and players in
general get a black eye.
In the first place the customers are never instructed
in the proper handling of the instrument. Or at best
they get a perfunctory course in the handling. Some
catch on and by practice become proficient, but the
bulk of buyers think pedaling is the only thing to
be considered, ignore' the means to give the com-
poser's character to the numbers and in time lose the
little enthusiasm they had to start with. Every own-
er of that kind is a hindrance to sales of playerpianos
and it is to prevent the existence of such a hindrance
that the enterprising dealer alluded to employs his
clever house-to-house caller. Where the player is
kept in good order and the owners kept enthused by
proper manipulation of the instrument and kept up-
to-date in music desire by use of new rolls, neighbors
and friends are pleased and the player is a continu-
ous salesman for the dealer.
The Opportunity.
It is surprising what can be accomplished by an
observant person on a mission similar to that of the
young lady alluded to. It is seen that the player
is in proper order and functioning as a first class
salesman for other playerpianos. Every visit is one
of instruction of greater or lesser duration, rolls are
sold and the interest in them kept stimulated. But
nearly every visit results in some pointer or at least
suggestion that may lead to other sales of player-
pianos.
And a good feature in the system is that the ex-
pense is comparatively small. The young lady work-
ing for the dealer told about in the foregoing gets a
small salary, a commission of roll sales, and a definite
sum for the name of a prospect to which a player is
eventually sold. Sometimes she closes a sale herself
and gets the regular commission. But it is under-
stood she is not a saleswoman in the real sense of the
word but a bond between the dealer and his clientele;
in reality a good-will missionary.
Seeing the Light.
When the dealer realizes that the completion of a
playerpiano sale does not mark the end of his inter-
est in the customer he will be on the way to grow.
The player, unfortunately, has been too long sold on
the belief that anybody can play it; that there is noth-
ing to learn in its operation. Sold with the under-
standing that the instrument requires understanding
evokes enthusiasm and takes the edge off disappoint-
ment when anything goes wrong with the works.
But it is easy to see the value of the periodic visits
from somebody representing the dealer to the home
of the playerpiano owner.
GIVES UP MUSIC DEPARTMENT.
The Bellis Co., a music business, Cushing, Okla.,
was sold recently by the Oklahoma City Credit Men's
Association to J. H. Bellis, who has given up the
music goods department.
v
September 15, 1923
MANY WINDOWS FEATURE
MILTON PIANO STYLES
Wiley B. Allen Co., San Francisco, Makes
Striking and Effective Display
of Instruments.
The Wiley B. Allen Co., San Francisco, which
operates a chain of eight music stores covering the
principal cities of the North Pacific Coast, recently
devoted three large windows of its San Francisco
store to a striking and effective display of Milton
pianos.
From left to right, the instruments displayed were
a Milton playerpiano, the Milton Petite Grand, and
the Milton Petite Grand player. Each window was
developed as a unit to show off the piano it framed,
but the general treatment in all three windows was
the same, giving a pleasing and harmonious single-
ness of effect to the whole display. The instruments
were named and described on simple, dignified cards,
easily read from the street and an unobtrusive, but
effective, accessory display of benches, rolls, roll
cabinets, lamps and sheet music was developed
around the instruments.
It is a significant fact that at the very opening of
the season this important store should single out the
Milton for particular emphasis in such an unusually
large display. Evidently the Milton-will be among
the instruments to be strongly featured in the forth-
coming months by the progressive Pacific Coast
house.
GREAT INCREASE IN SALES
OF LYON & HEALY, INC.
Chicago "Market Letter" Tells of Prosperity of the
World's Greatest Music House.
The "market letter" of John Burnham & Co., Chi-
cago, for Sept. 1, contains an item of interest to the
music trade. It is as follows:
"Net sales for the six months ending June 30
showed an jncrease of over 20 per cent over the same
period last year. Net earnings also showed a very
substantial increase as compared with the first six
months of 1922."
It has not been many years since the big concerns
whose specialty it is to watch the markets, in all de-
partments of industry and commerce, have included
the music interests. The Burnham item helps to
show the importance of music in the sun of the
nation's comercial progress. And it even more
clearly indicates the steady progress and prosperity
of one of the greatest music houses of the world—a
house that has contributed vastly to the importance
of Chicago among the great cities of the world._
SOME VERY LATE OPENINGS
IN THE RETAIL MUSIC TRADE
A Few of the New Ventures in the Best Business in
the World.
C. C. Criswell is the proprietor of the new Redondo
phonograph shop that just opened in the Mathews
building, on Hermosa avenue and Thirteenth street,
Hermosa, Cal.
The Ehrlicker Music Store will soon commence
business at 420 Court street, Pekin, 111.
The Melody Music Shop has recently opened a
place at 48 South Main street, Memphis, Tenn.
Ernest J. Lavagnino has succeeded the Oakdale
Music Store in business in Oakdale, Cal.
The John Church Company, Chattanooga, Tenn.,
is having some remodeling done to the interior of
the store, which adds very much to the looks of this
popular music house.
The Wilbur Templin Music Store, in Goshen, Ind.,
at 206 S. Main street, was opened September 1.
Reinhardt's Music Store and the Vesey Piano
Company, Memphis, Tenn., have taken temporary
quarters at 160 Madison avenue, having been forced
to vacate the quarters in the Peabody hotel building.
MOW AT IS OUT.
Port Huron, Mich., September 8, 1923.
Editor Presto: Enclosed you will find the state-
ment of ad sent in by Thos. Mowat. We wish to in-
form you that Mr. Mowat has not been in our em-
ploy since March 15, 1923, and we have no knowl-
edge of this ad. At present we do not know his
whereabouts.
Yours very truly,
BUSH & LANE PIANO COMPANY.
Harry S. Maxon, Manager.
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