Presto

December 17, 1927
P R E S T 0-T I M E S
SELLS WEAVER PIANOS
IN SOUTH CAROLINA
A. O'Daniel, in Letter to Weaver Piano Com-
pany, Tells of Beliefs Acquired in Many
Years of Experience.
THINGS SAID O R SUGGESTED
CINCHING IT.
"I guess we'll have to give Graftleigh, the teacher,
a commission for saying a good word for our piano,"
said the salesman who had just closed a sale.
"That won't be necessary," replied the boss.
"Graftleigh was so convinced of the merits of our
piano that he borrowed $20 from me yesterday."
* * *
GOT THE CONCESSION
One day recently a sedately dressed man of deco-
rous demeanor entered a music store on Wabash
avenue, Chicago, and asked for a look at a slot piano
that "will work seven days and nights a week," as
lie facetiously phrased it. The salesman focused his
attention on something good and after a period of
demonstration the customer expressed himself pleased
with the instrument and asked the price.
The house is rigidly one-price, but of course there
arc concessions to the deserving there. The salesman
looked at the customer's long black coat and white
string tie, which suggested the Church, and stated the
inflexible price. "I>ut we allow 5 per cent discount
to the clergy."
"In addition to the usual trade discount for cash?"
queried the customer. And when the salesman stam-
mered l 'Y—es," the clerical looking customer dnlim-
bered a fountain pen and filled out a check for the
full amount of the instrument, less the clerical con-
cession and the usual discount for cash. "There is
a perfectly good check if you cash it within reason-
able time. These are uncertain days, brother. And
deliver it here," he added. "It makes rattling good
music and I don't give a tinker's dam whether the
congregation likes it or not. Bless you, my son!"
As he walked out with flying skirts the salesman
looked at the card and learned that his clerical look-
ing customer was "Doc" Laux, owner of a not too
decorous roadhouse on the southern edge of the city,
where the prohibition law is honored in the breach
rather than the observance.
* * *
and in the effort to fill salesmen with enthusiasm they
forget that the whole truth may be a stick of dyna-
mite. Factory superintendents often do not realize
what the traveler early finds out—that modesty in
the piano claim is usually the best policy.
The superintendent of a certain western piano fac-
tory was induced by the house to attend the annual
convention of the music trades in Chicago last June
and adds his enthusiastic technical appeal to the
potent conversation of a battery of travelers brought
from all points for the event. The superintendent
had worked hard on a certain style of small piano
exhibited for the first time and he was extremely
proud of the result. He had bubbled with fervor all
the forenoon of opening day of the exhibit and when
time for luncheon came was loath to leave less able
talkers, as he considered the traveling men, to tell
about his prized product.
"You can tell the dealers and other visitors," he
exclaimed enthusiastically, "that the goods will be
twice as good as this sample."
"If 1 did do you know what they'd say to me?"
asked a veteran roadman in his growling bass.
'"They'd tell me to wipe off my chin."
The old-timer knew that the statement suggested
by the superintendent involved the spectacular proc-
ess of blowing oneself inside out.
DRAWBACKS.
How dear to my heart are the scenes of my child-
hood, when fond recollections present them to view.
But one of these memories ever will haunt me; it is
the most painful that ever T knew. How well I re-
member the scene in the schoolhouse when I sat
distressed with discomfort, by jing! The melodeon's
wheeze, with much pain I recall it, when teacher
in torturing accents would sing.
* * *
MUSIC WITH
WORK.
For heaven's sake will somebody make that office
boy stop whistling?" groaned the tortured book-
keeper.
UNSHRINKING
VIOLETS
"For the love o' Pete don't If you do he'll start
Modesty is the best policy in the piano business.
That is the stated belief of a clever, original and suc- to singing it, and the words are awful," warned the
bill clerk.
cessful piano house advertising man, but he enjoins
* * *
it with reservations and qualifications. The truth,
"If you feel like adding to the light on Broadway
the whole truth and nothing but the truth is the first
by igniting and burning up your money," said the
commandment flashed oh the field of unethical dark-
piano wareroom philosopher, "any amount of pleasant
ness by the better business movements. The results
people will hand you a match."
are daily in evidence. Some people in the piano trade
* * *
tell the truth and some tell nothing but the truth;
some tell the whole truth and some blow themselves
Many a love-match has been lighted over the key-
inside out and stand unrecognizable in their veracious
board of a piano. And yet no manufacturer has
nakedness. Long ago in piano salesmanship it came named a piano "The Cupid "
to be realized that one of its arts is to be entirely
* * *
truthful and yet know when to stop.
Of course, those gushing piano ads in the news-
The people in the piano factory are so close to papers are written with fountain pens.
their own affairs, the producing part of the business,
Impatience is the father of inefficiency.
that they are likely to lose their sense of proportion
*
• ; • •
*
BOWEN PIANO LOADER
A. O'Daniel, Clinton, S. C, who sells Weaver
pianos made by the Weaver Piano Co.. Inc., York,
Pa., in a wide territory, has beliefs acquired in his
years of experience. A few years ago he took on
some cheaper lines and sledding seemed easy for a
while, he said. Price appeal in selling is the course
of least resistance. Salesman and buyer alike are
tempted by this subtle appeal. When the goods
begin to give unsatisfactory service, complaints
mount up, collections are bad, then, and sometimes
too late, the salesman or dealer realizes the advisabil-
ity of building business on the Rock of Quality. Mr.
O'Daniel, in a recent letter to the Weaver Company,
said:
"It's a case of swim or sink on the idea that it is
better to sell high grade pianos over a larger area,
making much shorter terms, fewer repossessions,
more cash sales and larger deals. I have definitely
abandoned the idea of ever selling the cheap stuff."
When Mr. O'Daniel traveled through his territory
about twelve years ago, he sold Doctor Thornwell
Jacobs, president of Oglethorpe University, a
Weaver Grand, which has resulted in ten Weaver
pianos going into the Jacobs' family, one of the most
prominent and influential in the south.
CHRISTMAS NOVELTIES
ARE OF A MUSICAL KIND
Tastes of the Children Plainly Indicated by the
Musical Character of Gift Goods.
Christmas novelties of a musical kind are numerous
in the stores of Chicago at this time. Among them
are: Musical perfume atomizers; a stand for hot
dishes that plays a merry tune: musical nut cracker;
Christmas tree holders that revolve and play two
melodies; musical mirrors, standing about eight
inches high, in a gilt frame.
Musical clocks, teapots, powder boxes and cigarette
boxes; musical cigarette lighter, on a stand with
cigarette holder and ash receiver. For the children,
small elephants, bears, goats and lambs that play
tunes when their tails are twisted. A little wagon
holding a drummer boy and a flute player. When
the wagon is drawn the instruments play. A May-
pole music box, on which the figures dance as the
music plays. A music box, on which Mary dances
while her lambs frisk impetuously as the tune tinkles.
A miniature playerpiano that plays.
PRAISE FOR LOYAL DEALERS.
"A loyal dealer organization is like an endowment
policy as compared with term insurance; dealer busi-
ness is dependable." says M. S. Allen, advertising
manager of the Youngstown Pressed Steel Co., War-
ren, Ohio, in the December issue of Class & Indus-
trial Marketing, a Chicago trade paper. Presto-
Times agrees with Mr. Allen, having often declared
that piano dealers are in a position to know just
where and how to sell another piano to a customer
that the manufacturers "wot not of."
PS SALESMEN
Outside Salesmen must be equipped so as to "show the goods." The season for country piano selling is approaching. Help your sales-
men by furnishing them with the New Bowen Piano Loader, which serves as a wareroom far from the store. Tt is the only safe
delivery system for dealers, either in city or country. It costs little. Write for particulars.
BOWEN PIANO LOADER CO.,
Winston-Salem, N. C.
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