Presto

Presto Buyers' Guide
Analyzes and Classifies
All American P i a n o s
and in Detail Tells of
Fheir Makers.
PRESTO
Established 1884.
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY
Presto Year Book
The Only Complete
Annual Review of the
American Music In-
dustries and Trades.
10 Cent.; Sl.OO a Year
CHICAGO, SATURDAY, JUNE 28, 1924
TWO MEN WHO KNOW
TELL SALES PLAN
Trade Letter by Thos. M. Pletcher Draws At-
tention to Astounding Lack of Resourceful-
ness on the Part of Salesmen in Music
Roll Departments.
THE COMMISSION PLAN
System of Employing Salesmen in Special Branches
of the Business Is Indorsed by F. F. Story of
Story & Clark Piano Co.
Anything and everything that helps to brighten the
music store and to help the music dealer win better
profits, is of vital interest to Presto, the American
Music Trade Weekly. Something of that kind comes
in the form of a trade letter from President Thomas
M. Pletcher, of the Q R S Music Co., to the retail
dealers who know enough to push music rolls and
get the best there is out of their sales forces.
The letter needs no introductory. It speaks with
a clearness which is characteristic of Mr. Pletcher's
writings. And it emphasizes a point that is not famil-
iar to all music dealers. It is the plan of engaging
salesmen, or salesladies, on the commission plan,
especially to run special departments like that of sell-
ing music rolls. Read what Mr. Pletcher says and if
you are wise, you may gain something from it. It
follows:
Selling Music Rolls.
Have you figured out just how much business you
have to do to pay your overhead before you start to
make a net profit?
It is the plus sales that give you the net profit,
isn't it?
We have recently made an investigation and were
dumbfounded at the results.
We sent a man into several large and small cities
in different parts of the country. This gentleman
called upon 250 roll departments and asked for a
roll of a certain tune that was new and had never
been made into a roll, and out of the 250 salespeople
who waited upon him, only 27 made an effort to sell
him something else, or some other tune.
Following up this investigation, we found that
about 20 of the 27 salespeople who attempted to sell
something else were either interested in the store or
received a commission on sales.
Employing Salesmen.
MosJ dealers hire th.eir piano salesman on a com-
mission basis or a salary and commission, because it
is perfectly human for anyone to work a little harder
where there is a direct and substantial reward.
To encourage the plus sales is your best insurance
of net profits, and it would be well worth a trial to
offer the salespeople some small bonus or arrange on
a salary and percentage of the sales.
You will please understand we are not presuming
to tell you how you should run your business, but
we spent considerable money to get this information
and we are just passing it along for what it is
worth—but it surprised us to learn how few sales-
people really made an effort to make the plus sale.
The enclosed letter from the Story & Clark Piano
Co., shows one way of making the plus sale.
In three instances the saleslady told our investi-
gator that she would look to see whether the roll was
available; took him into a demonstration room and
handed him half a dozen rolls and told him to play
them over while she was looking up the other roll.
In other words, she started to sell the plus sale
before she actually gave an answer on the roll he
asked for.
Pushing S ; de Lines.
It seems incredible that a man could go into a
store and ask for a certain roll and because it was not
cut, or because it was not listed in the bulletin, no
effort would be made by the salespeople to sell that
party some other roll; because surely out of a cata-
log of 11,000 music rolls there is something else
that would appeal to a customer.
One can try to sell something—for instance, the
Kleernote Suction Pump is easy to sell the player
owners and profitable to you in many ways, other
than the direct profit you make on the sale.
We are featuring this pump in our July bulletin
that reaches over a million and a quarter player
owners.
Don't be afraid to order pumps. You'll get calls
for them and we'll take back all you can't sell at any
time, at our expense and return your money in full.
While the sale of a roll or a Kleernote pump may
mean very little to you on your gross receipts, yet
every little bit helps and in a year's time this plus
sale business means real net profit.
Player Roll Cabinets also can be sold with a little
extra effort. We are selling a wonderful line of them.
Have you ordered any*?
•
Sincerely yours,
T H E Q R S MUSIC COMPANY,
T. M. Pletcher, President.
Frank F. Story's Letter.
The letter from the Story & Clark Piano Co., to
which Mr. Pletcher refers, has to do with the Repro-
Phraso Player as operated by the Q R S music rolls.
The paragraphs of special application here follow and
their writer is F. F. Story:
"Am pleased to say that since we placed our sales-
lady in charge of our Music Roll Department, on a
commission basis, our roll sales have doubled, if not
more, and we are very much gratified at the results.
"If any of your dealers wish any information on
our roll department, you are at liberty to refer them
to us clirtct if you wish, and we will be very glad to.
outline to them the plan that helped us increase our
volume of music roll business."
Here are concise statements by two of the live men
of the piano industry and trade—a maker of pianos as
well known as any, and a maker of music rolls as
well known as any. He must be a dull music dealer
who can't find some source of trade nourishment and
stimulation in what the two letters say and suggest.
SERIOUS ILLNESS OF
CHARLES M. BENT
Geo.
P. Bent Called Back to Chicago by Report
From Bedside of Son.
Charles Bent of the "Music Shop," on Wabash
avenue, Chicago, was taken ill on Monday of this
week and sent to South Shore Hospital to be oper-
ated on for appendicitis. The operation was success-
ful, but it was also discovered that Mr. Bent was
suffering also from a ruptured tumor in the stomach,
which made the case a serious one. However, he is
doing well, and his case is under the most careful
observation.
George P. Bent, the patient's father, is expected to
arrive in Chicago from California on Saturday of this
week. He left for the west only last week Wednes-
day, going direct to Frisco to be present at the con-
vention of the Western Music Trade Association.
R. K. MAYNARD'S ACTIVITIES.
R. K. Maynard, Pacific Coast representative of the
M. Schulz Co., of Chicago, has recently made an ex-
tensive canvass of the great northwest territory,
where many substantial orders were taken and new
agencies established in sections where the demand
for pianos has not been up to normal for some time
past. Mr. Maynard had intended to go to the music
industries convention the first week in June, but,
rather than neglect the good work he had under way
out West, he passed up the New York trip.
A NASHVILLE SALES MANAGER.
G. W. Moore, who for the past year has been man-
ager of the Meridian, Miss., branch store of the
Southern Piano Company, has located in Nashville,
Tenn., and has become associated with the O. K.
Houck Company as general sales manager at that
place.
.
;
USED PIANO STORE A SUCCESS.
The Darrow Music Co., Denver, Colo., owns the
Denver Piano Exchange, where used pianos are car-
ried. The store is located at 1428 Champa street,
where lots of space is available. Where necessary
the pianos and players are reconditioned before being
placed on sale. The store has been a success from
the start.
HOW CONSIGNMENT
PLAN IS HELPFUL
It Is the Best Possible Opportunities for Suc-
cessful Financing of Beginners with Small
Capital in the Piano Business if
Properly Conducted.
VIEWS OF WEAVER PIANO CO.
As with Everything Else, the Consignment Plan Is
Just as Good, or as Bad, as Its Operators
Make It.
York, Pa., June 24, 1924.
Editor Presto: The comments you make on page
fifteen of your issue of June 14th regarding the "Con-
signment Plan" of doing business are exactly right
as far as they go. They do not cover the whole
field, however. All terms of doing business are
abused. If a man were to insist upon doing business
only on terms that are never abused, he would not
be able to do business. He must take the thorns
with the roses.
There are many successful businesses that have
been built up on the '"Consignment Plan." The
Singer sewing machine and Mazda lamps are two
articles. There are others also that have made big
successes for the salesman, the dealer and the man-
ufacturer—on consignment.
How It Should Work.
The best theory of credit is to make obligations
come due when the debtor collects his money. The
"Consignment Plan" meets this theory exactly.
Under it, the dealer does not owe anything until he
has first collected from his customer. Even then the
dealer retains a portion of each payment he collects
on account of his profit. It is the only system under
which the dealer's payments for his goods auto-
matically are reduced as collections decline.
Because of this elasticity in payments, the con-
signment plan offers the best—perhaps the only—way
in which a man of small capital can enter the retail
piano business. Many of the largest and most suc-
cessful merchants in the retail piano business made
their start on consignment. Among this number are
some of the largest distributors of pianos today. The
piano industry would suffer a very high percentage
of loss of sales if all the houses that were established
on consignment were eliminated now. It is amazing
and interesting to delve into the history of successful
piano merchants and learn how they started on con-
signment.
Plans of Financing.
The consignment plan costs the dealer less than
many of the newer forms of financing. Some of these
newer plans arc so subtle the dealer does not realize
how much he does pay for financing. These newer
plans do not accommodate the dealer by allowing
him to pay only as his customers pay. He is obliged
to make his payments regardless of the conditions
of his collections; whereas, on consignment, he may
even retain a portion of his collections.
However, it is a science to select customers to do
business with on the consignment plan and to guide
them and help them on to success.. It also requires
large capital. The plan does not work itself. To
successfully carry it on, the manufacturer must know
how to advise and co-operate with the dealer. The
manufacturer must be able to help the dealer handle
his business so that eventually the dealer will be able
to finance his own business through his local banks
en outright purchases. To do this the manufacturer
must have long experience and a clear vision of what
is necessary for the dealer's success.
Select Carefully.
When . the manufacturer selects his dealers with
care and co-operates properly with them, the results
are entirely satisfactory to both parties. Our own
company is very proud of the dealers we have—part
of them on a consignment basis. The success of these
dealers is perhaps best shown by their manner of
(Continued on page 10.)
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