EVERY SALESMAN
UNIQUE IN TYPE
The Kinds of Men Who Sell Pianos Are as
Varied as Humanity, So Baffled Psycho-
analysts Are Reduced to Describing
Characteristics.
METHODS AND MOTIVES
Men on the Wareroom Forces Are Distinguished One
from Another by Some Peculiar Method in
Reaching Their Objectives.
The more you study individual piano salesmen the
bigger appears the job of classifying the types. Every
type is in a class by itself and every one is interesting.
The men who sell with enthusiasm and those whose
efforts to effect the sales are perfunctory; the ones
who strive to build a business and those whose in-
terest in the customers ends with the closing of every
deal, are all subjects for study by the psycho-analyst
who types the result of his casual observations.
In the previous studies printed in this paper no
attempt at the analytical was made. The idiosyn-
crasies, appearances, and methods of salesmen were
briefly treated and the types little more than sug-
gested. It was leaving a lot to the imagination of
the Presto reader and actually forcing the association
of the reader with the writer in the analysing job.
Herbert's Methods.
Herbert gives any roving psycho-analyst a tine
chance to study his poses and lounging attitudes and
nothing more. Nobody knows what is being hatched
on the inside of Herbert's head, and the most astute
sales manager never gets a wrinkle of his deep-laid
sales plans until the deals are closed. He may sit in
the midst of noisy conversational groups of salesmen
in the wareroom, but he might be a wooden image for
all the impression their badinage and bantering seems
to affect his broodings.
He may sit wordless for two whole days and then
suddenly jump up and disappear. "Heb's got a hen
WEBSTER PIANOS
Noted for Their Musical Beauty
of Tone and Artistic Style
ATTRACTIVE
Factory
Leominster,
Mass.
17
PRESTO
March 8, 1924.
PRICES
Executive Offices
138th St. and Walton Ave.
New York
Division W. P. HAINES & CO., Inc.
Schumann
PIANOS and PLAYER PIANOS
GRANDS and UPRIGHTS
Have no superiors in appearance, tone
power or other essentials of strictly
leaders in the trade.
Warning to Infringers
This Trade Mark Is cast
in the plate and also ap-
pears upon the fall board
of all genuine Schumann
Pianos, and all infringers
will be prosecuted. Beware
of imitations such as Schu-
mann & Company, Schu-
mann & Son, and also
Shuman, as all stencil
shops, dealers and users of
pianos bearing a name in
imitation of the name
Schumann with the inten-
tion of deceiving the public
will be prosecuted to the
fullest extent of the law.
New Catalogue on Request.
Schumann Piano Co.
W. N. VAN MATRE, President
Rockford, 111.
on," is the word that's passed along to anybody in
the house who notices the vacant "brooding chair."
When Herbert again appears he will be full of ani-
mation, preferring to walk up and down than to sit
in his favorite brooding perch and the restless mood
will continue until the appearance of the expected
customer.
Herbert's Motives.
That is Herbert's way. His motive is to always
sell the latest and best in the line. His purpose now
is to sell reproducing pianos and he carries it out
with great success. He never carries a scrap of
paper or notebook with names of prospects thereon.
He files them away in his brain. Nor arc all the
customers he sells expensive reproducing pianos to
people in the easiest circumstances. Some are of the
kind another salesman might tackle for the sale of
a medium-priced player.
And the wonder in the store is how he picks cus-
tomers able to pay cash or able and willing to pay
unusually big first payments. No repossession ever
followed a Herbert sale.
Man and Circumstance.
What a man will do in a circumstance of an un-
usual kind is indicative of his character of mind.
What he does and his quickness or slowness in doing
it shows the degree of mental alertness he possesses.
The ability to take advantage of the unforeseen hap-
pening has made many a man a successful piano
salesman.
The statement suggests Kenneth, the sales man-
ager, who frankly admits his life as a piano salesman
has been a succession of fortuitous circumstances.
Kenneth went to work as an outside prospect chaser
when he was graduated from high school, which was
also the day he got his first bicycle. You can ap-
proximate the remoteness of the date and Kenneth's
age when it is said the bike was one of the ancient
type with the saddle perched on a high wheel with a
little wheel trailing behind.
A Kenneth Episode.
On his first day of piano prospect chasing he was
blithely pedaling along a country road when he ran
smack into a big herd of cattle being driven some-
where by two excited boys. The road was narrow
and to get quickly past the herd he turned into the
narrow footpath. The road .had been cut down to
lessen the grade, but the footpath followed the orig-
inal slope of the hill. As he came abreast of the
cattle in front one of the herd got scared and went
scampering down the hill to be joined by another
and another until the whole flock was pounding along
the road.
The Thrill.
Then from out some low bushes in front darted a
yellow kitten and close after it toddled a mite of
a baby girl about three years old. When she became
aware of the galloping cows she stood still in the
middle of the road, clapping her little hands and
laughing. From his perch on the high wheel on the
elevated footpath Kenneth saw the horrible possi-
bilities of the occasion. There was no time to think
but an opportunity for Kenneth to act. He jumped
his wheel to the road in front of the herd and the
next moment gathered up the baby and threw it to
the safety of the higher level. Then he was bowled
over by the first of the cows, fortunately falling at
the extreme edge of the road.
His First Customer.
When he again opened his eyes, a big grey-bearded
man was busy over him with basins of water, towels
and bandages. It was first aid from the baby's
grandfather but soon a doctor appeared who declared
the injuries limited to a sprained right wrist and a
few abrasions and scratches. Kenneth soon felt well
enough to go to the scene of his hero stunt and find
the extent of damage to his wheel. The old gentle-
man accompanied him and what they found was a
twisted heap of junk. The knapsack strapped to the
wheel was in flitters and the piano catalogs intended
to allure Kenneth's prospects were scattered around,
trampled and dirty.
"Salesman, eh?" said the old gentleman picking
up one.
"Supposed to be but you can hardly call me that
until T've sold something," was the rueful reply of
Kenneth as he proceeded to estimate the value of his
wheel as junk.
Too Easy.
"Pianos!" exclaimed the old gentleman, seated at
the roadside turning over the pages of the catalog.
"Now isn't that fortunate. That house is my sum-
mer home and I've been there all season without a
scrap of music. Why here's a piano I could use.
Where's your order book?"
Awkwardly Kenneth drew it from his breast
pocket. Shyly he handed it over. Tt was a blank-
as it came from the stationers.
"You can't write with a maimed wrist, so I'll do
the needful,'' said the self nominated customer, who
with a stump of a pencil filled out the first page in
FIRST MADE ELECTRICS
AND NOW TOGETHER AGAIN
Originators of the Marquette Instruments Are Estab-
lishing a New Industry of Same Kind.
Something like twenty years ago tlie Marquette
Piano Co. was established in Chicago. It prospered
and has made a reputation for its product. One of
the organizers of the industry was M. V. Larson, who
came from the Superior country in Michigan and in-
vested in the automatic piano business. Early in the
career of the Marquette, R. C. Waters joined the in-
dustry and remained for some time. Later he en-
tered the retail business, making the sale of automatic
pianos a specialty.
By one of the strange whirligigs of time, Mr. Lar-
son and Mr. Waters have joined hands again, and the
new Western Electric Piano Company will be the
object of their combined labors. A new factory has
been secured, on Superior street, Chicago, where a
large output of the new electric playcrpianos will be
possible in the near future. The plant will be occu-
pied in the near future, when the Western Electric
Piano Co. will embark in an aggressive sales
campaign.
The Sherman-Thompson Music House recently
opened for business at 313 F street, Eureka, Cal. The
lines of the Starr Piano Co. will be handled. S. H.
rind G. \V. Thompson are the proprietors.
the maiden order book. '"You can fill in the price
yourself."
But That Wasn't All.
The signature to an order for the most expensive
grand in the line and that to an order for a new
bicycle was that of a big lumberman well known in
that section of the country.
"Cal! on me in the city after Nov. 1. I believe I
know where you can sell a church organ if you
have a good one at say about $20,000. You and I
are going to do lots of business together," were the
cheerful words at parting.
"Good work," said Kenneth's boss next day as he
read the name to the piano order. "How'd you get
it? Fight for it? he added observing the scratched
and plastered countenance.
"No, just tumbled into it," was the reply.
The episode was fortuitous and perhaps the succes-
sion of sales that followed from the help of the lum-
berman whose grandchild Kenneth had saved had a
determining effect in making the piano business his
life work. Nothing so spectacular as the incident
related has led to subsequent sales for Kenneth but
the ability to a think and act quickly in piano selling
emergencies has been the means to holding down one
of the best jobs in the retail trade.
The LEADING LINE
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Finest and most artistic
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construction that can be
made.
YORK PIANOS
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A high grade piano of great
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A popular piano at a popular price.
Over 70,000 instruments made by this company are sing-
ing their own praises in all parts of the civilized world.
Write for catalogues and state on what terms you would
like to deal, and we will make you a proposition if yt a are
located in open territory.
WEAVER PIANO CO., Inc.
Factory: YORK, P \ .
Established 1870
PIANO TUNING
PLAYER PIANO REPAIRING
Taught by Men of Experience
IN 8 WEEKS
Complete Course $75.00
Salesmanship Included
Abo Night Courses
Piano merchants supplied with reliable
Tuners and Repairmen
Write for further information
ST. LOUIS PIANO AND PLAYER
REPAIR SCHOOL
1514 Franklin Avenue
ST. LOUIS, MO.
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