PRESTO
Presto
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY.
Published Every Saturday at 407 South Dearborn
Street, Old Colony Building, Chicago, 111.
C. A. DANIELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT
• Editors
Telephones, Local and Long Distance, Harrison 234.
Private Phones to all Departments. Cable Address (Com-
mercial 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 United States
possessions, Cuba and Mexico. Rates for advertising on
application.
Items of news and other matter are solicited and if
of general interest to the music trade will be paid for
at space rates. Usually piano merchants or salesmen
in the smaller cities are the best occasional corre-
spondents, and their assistance is invited.
chant, who asked for a book pointing to the
sure road to success, was to study human
nature; to talk with established piano dealers
and salesmen; to employ a good salesman to
assist him at the start; try to trust to his own
common sense and take a look inside his own
consciousness; try to feel the way almost ev-
ery prospective piano buyer must feel and
treat his customers just as he would want to
be treated himself. Then, if he knows some-
thing about music and the things that make
music, he will be safe enough.
All that remains is to read a good trade
paper—this trade paper, for instance, modesty
permits us to suggest—and he will make head-
way. That's all there is to the subject, and
the books, with long chapters about hyp-
notism, psychology and "dope," are "flat, stale
and unprofitable."
WHY A TRADE PAPER?
Should a music trade paper be something
else?
Should it be a funny paper, a political
Forms close at noon every Thursday. News mat-
ter should be in not later than eleven o'clock on the paper, or just wrapping paper? There are
same day. Advertising copy should be in hand before
Tuesday, five p. m., to insure preferred position. Full too many kinds of paper to name them all.
page display copy should be in hand by Monday noon The subject is suggested by a Presto sub-
preceding publication day. Want advs. for current
week, to insure classification, must not be later than scriber in Pittsburgh who thinks he has the
Wednesday noon.
gift of humor and would like to contribute a
weekly column of hilarious wit and sprightly
Address all communications for the editorial or business
departments to PRESTO PUBLISHING CO., 407 So.
wisdom.
Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
We are giving the matter some considera-
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1923.
tion and would like to have the advice of a
few old subscribers. Presto has conducted
funny columns in the past and they lost a few
SUCCESS IN SELLING
A correspondent who says that he contem- subscribers in the far West because of their
plates embarking in the retail piano business painful humor. And we have tried to have
in a large city, asks for some succinct rules occasional articles, by famous writers, on poli-
or instructions in the "selling game." He tics and law. But they, too, seemed calcu-
wants to learn just how to sell pianos, to un- lated to cut off a few readers in the East.
One of the music trade papers makes a spe-
derstand why some salesmen win and others
cialty
of articles by heads of government de-
lose. He believes that, by means of some
partments
at Washington. The portraits are
book, he may be enabled to blossom at once
dignified
and
impressive. The articles are
into a winner of salesmanship laurels, with
funereal
in
their
heaviness. Another contem-
the attendant fruitage of the tree of wealth.
porary
has
articles
on piano tuning which are
While there are many books on the subject
so
incomprehensible
that our own writing
of salesmanship, we do not know of any so
"harmonizer"
refused
to continue his own
lucid in expression, and so hypnotic in effect,
technical
writings
because
he thought that if
as to respond accurately to the correspondent's
one
paper
could
present
such
tedious matter
expectations. There have been a number of
that
would
about
be
enough.
Another ex-
leaflets on the subject, any of which is better
change
sets
forth
the
mysteries
of piano
than the labored and abyssmal volumes on
salesmanship
in
elongated
links.
An old
salesmanship which have come from good
dealer-subscriber
wrote
saying
that
if we
writers but doubtful skill. And, after all, it
tried
anything
like
that
he
would
stop
his
is the man and not the methods that will win.
subscription.
It
interfered
too
much
with
the
If a man is a "natural born" salesman he
can sell almost anything but blue-sky stock. efficiency of his employes!
What, then, to do? Wit and humor, tech-
That he won't sell, because the really suc-
nicalities
and politics—all taboo! The only
cessful salesman must be honest. The piano
conclusion
is that Presto's own way of tell-
salesman must possess some attributes above
ing
what
is
doing in the business, and of point-
and beyond the man whose business it is to
ing
the
way
for the merchants as to what to
sell the ordinary commodities of every day
sell,
together
with giving advice when wanted
traffic.
and
sustaining
effort that is worth while, is
Not long ago a refined young man applied
the
best
way.
Therefore—well,
therefore.
to Presto for work as an advertising sales-
man. He had been in the employ of a large
music house, and was sure that he possessed
OPENS IN KANSAS CITY.
the requisite qualifications. He was employed,
A new music store was opened last week at 1103
but he didn't grasp the opportunities. He Walnut street, Kansas City, Mo., known as the
dreamed, and he was visionary. A piano house Paul Store, Inc., and managed by Mrs. M. M. Paul,
who closed a four-year lease covering the location
seeing that he was intelligent, and a linguist, through the Moseley-Comstock Realty Company re-
engaged him to sell pianos. He failed in that. cently. The storeroom is in the Altman building.
He lacked the perseverance and could not ap- Something entirely new to Kansas City music stores
will be in use in the Paul store, and consists of de-
ply himself to the work. Today he is in a vices which permit the demonstration of two or more
haberdashery selling neckties and sox. He talking machines side by side without an inter-
will probably succeed there. For there are sox mingling of sound.
salesmen and piano salesmen. But they are
A rise of 8 cents in cotton in less than two months
different.
means the adding of $432,000,000 to the income of the
Our advice to the prospective piano mer- South this year.
September 29, 1923
IMPROVED PUBLICITY
IN PEORIA MUSIC TRADE
Better Business Bureau in Lively Illinois City
Brings About Cleaner Conditions in
Advertising Affairs There.
AN EFFECTIVE MOVEMENT
Dealers Concur in Standards of Practice for Selling
of Musical Instruments There.
Roscoe Herget, manager-counsel of the Better
Business Bureau of Peoria, 111., sends this week page
4 of the current bulletin concerning the adoption of
standards of practice by the music dealers of that
city. "Some time ago the situation in Peoria was
desperate in regard to the advertising by the local
music dealers whereby confidence was being de-
stroyed in all musical advertising," writes Mr. Herget.
"There was jealousy between the dealers to such an
extent that the newspapers refused to accept the copy
of several dealers.
Improvement Inaugurated.
"The Better Business Bureau of this city was called
in to assist and relieve the situation, and with the
assistance of C. L. Dennis, manager of the Better
Business Bureau of the Music Industries Chamber
of Commerce, and the standards of practice pre-
pared by him some years ago, we devolved the en-
closed standards which were subscribed to by all the
music dealers of Peoria. Since this time the news-
papers are accepting copy from all dealers, adver-
tising is cleaner, business conditions are improving
and the music dealers organized themselves in an
organization and made the writer an honorary mem-
ber thereof. They meet monthly, discuss trade prob-
lems and submit the advertising of each dealer that
appears to be questionable and corrections are always
made. Dealers who heretofore did not speak to one
another are now meeting at the round table in har-
mony to help one another and increase music busi-
ness in Peoria and vicinity.
"We believe we have done a bit of constructive
work in the truth-in-advertising movement and
thought you might be interested in our activities."
The Better Business Bureau of Peoria, Illinois,
Inc., has been co-operating with the music dealers
of that city for the past six months, working with
them to adopt Standards of Practice for advertising
and selling pianos and musical instruments, as a
result of which the following standards were adopted
and which, for want of space, are merely abstracted
in the Bulletin. The dealers all subscribed to the
following:
The Pledge.
Subscribing to the objects of the Better Business
Bureau. Objecting to the advertising of instruments
not regularly carried unless offered and sold in good
faith. Objecting to the breaking of sales with an-
other dealers' customer. Objecting to the use of
the word "free" as including bench, scarf, rolls, de-
livering, lessons, etc. Advertising used instruments
so as not to be confusing with new instruments so
that the public will not be misled. Objecting to the
abuse and misuse of comparative prices and values.
Objecting to untruthful cuts. Objecting to "blind
ads" or residence or private ads in the guise of deal-
ers. Objecting to ability to sell cheaper because of
"low rent," "no middleman's profit," "buying direct
from factory," etc. Objecting to the use of "manu-
facturer's sales" (unless such is the fact) "F. O. B.,"
"factory prices," "must be sold regardless of cost or
value," "direct from factory," "factory to home" and
other misleading phrases. Objecting to "puzzle con-
tests," "guessing contests" or "purchasing coupons."
Objecting to the indiscriminate advertising of high-
grade instruments with cheaper grades with the low-
est prices appearing to pertain to all. Agreeing to
co-operate with the Better Business Bureau and the
newspapers in the enforcement of the above.
As a result the music dealers formed an organiza-
tion through which good will has resulted and many
benefits to their trade has developed, learning to
know one another intimately and realizing that co-
operation and truthful advertising are business build-
ing principles.
CHANGE IN MUSIC WEEK DATES.
A change of dates from those previously announced
has been made for National Music Week by the Na-
tional Music W r eck Committee. The event will be
observed in the days between May 4 and 10, instead
of the period between April 27 and May 3. The
latter period was discarded because it had been
chosen for Boys' Week. Music trade associations
and individuals in the music trade are associated with
the plans for the events in all the important cities.
An honorary committee of governors is composed of
the governors of nearly all the states, according to
the latest publication of the names.
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