Classic Mode

Presto

Issue: 1928 2167

Page 6 Text:

PRESTO-TIMES
The American Miuic Trade Weekly
Published Every Saturday at 417 South Dearborn
Street, Chicago, Illinois.
PRESTO P U B L I S H I N G CO., Publishers.
F R A N K D. A B B O T T - - - - - - - - - -
(C. A. DANIELL—1904-1927.)
J. FERGUS O'RYAN
- - - - - Managing
Editor
Editor
Telephones, Local and Long Distance, Harrison 0234.
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, 111., under Act of March 3, 1879.
Subscription, $2 a year; 6 months, $1.25; Foreign, $4.
Payable in advance. No extra charge in United States
possessions, Cuba and Mexico. Rates for advertising on
application.
confidence and in that lies his ability as a good
salesman.
With most people a suggestive remark has
far more weight than a direct statement. The
average piano customer is a skeptic. And
where the skeptic is fortified against the flat
statement the apparently unconscious sugges-
tive remark creeps into his mind unawares and
scores its impression. It is true that most
customers purchase their pianos on the sug-
gestive effect of the pianos on themselves.
Rut the fact is that they purchase almost
wholly on the influence of the suggestion of
the bright salesman who waited on them.
THE TUNER'S EVIDENCE
A wise observer recently asserted that
"salesmanship at its best is suggestion pure
and simple." It is a view at variance with the
experts of the schools.
The odd thing about the schools and teach-
ers of salesmanship is that they dwell on the
importance of "strength of character" and
"force of appeal." The meaning of a good deal
of the instruction is that a man should be
equipped with a good "front" and possess the
ability to talk like a lawyer about the thing
he is selling. If you have the nerve to butt in
to the presence of a prospect and then the gift
of gab to talk him or her to a fare-you-well
you are up to standard as a salesman, accord-
ing to some of the make-you-by-mail pro-
fessors. It is wrong doctrine.
The real salesman is loth to assert in the
manner prescribed by the school of force. He
realizes that people are far more ready to ac-
cept incidental and apparently disinterested
evidence than evidence from the loud partisan.
The suggestion to buy a particular piano is
often more effective than the straight-out ver-
bal advice to do so.
This power to suggest is the all-important
one to be possessed by the salesman. It in-
volves what is commonly known as magnet-
ism. The salesman with the quality for sug-
gestion does not truckle, palaver or bully. He
makes the customer feel his ability. He is in
tune with the customer's nature. He suggests
in each case explains the functions of the in-
struments they play in band or orchestra. His
instructive talks are potent in creating greater
pleasures for the radio audiences and enables
them to dissect-each orchestra number on the
program and distinguish the various instru-
ments and their parts in the orchestration.
And in advocating the claims of the brass
and reed instruments his company makes, he
also gracefully draws attention to the power
of the piano in increasing the beauties of the
solos, quartets and full orchestra numbers.
Mr. Boyer, who is an all around musician,
plays the piano accompaniments which make
the program musically perfect.
SUPPORTING THE CHAMBER
One of the admirable results of the meeting
of the executive committee of the Music In-
Items of news and other matter are solicited and if of
general interest to the music trade will be paid for at
dustries Chamber of Commerce in New York
space rates. Usually piano merchants or salesmen in the
smaller cities are the best occasional correspondents, and
recently, was the assurance of the required
their assistance is invited.
amount of money to carry on the operation of
Payment is not accepted for matter printed in the edi-
the Chamber. The importance of the Chamber
torial or news columns of Presto-Times.
Where half-tones are made the actual cost of produc-
as a joint body in representing music trade
tion will be charged if of commercial character or other
than strictly news interest.
interests is so plain that any curtailment of its
When electrotypes are sent for publication it is re-
quested that their subjects and senders be carefully indi-
effectiveness through lack of finances seemed
cated.
unlikely when the possibility of such a thing
Forms close at noon on Thursday. Late news matter
should be in not later than 11 o'clock on that day. Ad-
was put before the various national associa-
vertising copy should be in hand before Tuesday, 5 p. m.,
tions.
to insure preferred position. Full page display copy
should be in hand by Tuesday noon preceding publication
day. Want advertisements for current week, to insure
The necessity of proper financial support this
classification, should be in by Wednesday noon.
year is particularly vital. The Chamber has a
Address all communications for the editorial or business
schedule of unusual activities for 1928, involv-
departments to PRESTO PUBLISHING CO., 417 South
Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
ing aid in an important way to the industrial
and commercial phases of the music business.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1928.
The problems confronting the Music Indus-
tries Chamber of Commerce for this year are
The last form of Presto-Times goes to press numerous and each one is of the highest im-
at 11 a. m. Thursday. Any news transpiring
after that hour cannot be expected in the cur- portance to some interest or other in the trade.
rent issue. Nothing received at the office that The Revenue Law, involving the tax on in-
is not strictly news of importance can have stallment collections, copyright legislation,
attention after 9 a. m. on Thursday. If they freight on music goods, the question of credits
concern the interests of manufacturers or and promotional activities are all matters the
dealers such items will appear the week follow-
ing. Copy for advertising designed for the Chamber purposes to attend to with its usual
current issue must reach the office not later vigor.
f:han Wednesday noon of each week.
SUGGESTION IN SELLING
&&ruary 11, 1928
A letter from a tuner to E. J. Radle, Inc..
New York, reproduced in the news pages of
Presto-Times this week, is one of many com-
munications which testify to the quality of
endurance in the F. Radle pianos. The letter
alluded to an F. Radle piano which left the
factory 29 years ago and in which had been
preserved for that period the essentials of a
good piano.
The spontaneous tribute to the F. Radle was
included in a communication requesting a bass
string, but its importance is obvious. It
naturally recalls the policy of the founder of
the F. Radle piano, who seventy-five years ago
established the purpose of continuous striving
toward perfection in the piano. "Radle Tone"
was made a stimulative phrase and the efforts
to effect a tone of a quality that would dis-
tinguish the instrument became the ambition
of the house.
PROMOTING MUSIC
The enthusiastic promoter of music usually
is broad in his plans for results. He believes
that the favor he accomplishes for one instru-
ment influences the display of favor for others.
That is the admirable attitude of Mr. J. F.
Boyer, secretary of C. G. Conn, Ltd., Elkhart,
Ind., who realizes the independence of all the
instruments in the scheme of music.
Mr. Boyer is director of a notable series of
Sunday radio concerts in which the artists are
furnished by his own band instrument manu-
facturing company. He introduces them and
THE OUTSIDE SALESMAN
Prospect finding systems depending on the
advertising and follow-up methods of a piano
house may be productive of good results, but
no dealer minimizes the importance of the out-
side salesman, both for finding prospects and
converting them into customers. Perhaps a
remark by a Chicago piano department man-
ager to the applicant for an inside salesman's
position may describe the dealers' attitude:
"We can get all the inside men we want. What
we are looking for in an eager way are men
who can go out and find prospects and close
sales."
The remark of the piano department head
epitomizes the position of the outside man in
the piano field as an actual creator of business.
The importance of the good inside salesman
is well understood. And when he combines
his work in the store with activities on the
outside, he materially adds to his worth to
the house. The inside salesman is a most valu-
able and altogether necessary adjunct to any
piano business, but it is the outside prospect-
finder and sales-closer who creates most of
the opportunities for building a better, bigger
and more substantial business in the piano
trade.
In the re-organization of Strich & Zeidler
(Inc.) of 740-742 East 136th street, New York,
the names of the new officers of the corpora-
tion point to the assurance of unusual po-
tentialities in all the phases in operation of
the company. \V. T. BrinkerhofT, president, is
an experienced piano manufacturer with the
gift of organization and with a charming per-
sonality that makes and keeps friends; F. E.
Edgar, vice-president, is a roadman with a
wide circle of friends and strong selling abil-
ities ; Charles Stanley, secretary, has a repu-
tation in the factory phase of the trade that
promises much for Strich & Zeidler, and L. D.
Berry, treasurer, has unique abilities for that
important position.
The first active steps toward making the
second annual Greater Chicago Children's
Piano Playing Tournament were taken this
week. In the Sunday edition of the Chicago
Herald and Examiner the announcement was
made and an outline of the plans printed.
Practically the same rules which governed the
last tournament will obtain in the new one.
In the new arrangement, however, the judges
will be screened so tliev cannot see the con-
testants.
* * *
If you need a boost in your business, try
advertising in Presto-Times ; it means the pro-
motional help involving the finding of a larger
market. To those who look forward to an
actual augmentation of return upon invest-
ment, it is a well of help.
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/

Page 7 Text:

February 11, 1928
PRESTO-TIMES
SCHUMANN SHOWROOMS
OPEN IN CHICAGO
Full Line of Uprights, Grands and Period
Models Appropriately Displayed in Room
500, Fine Arts Building.
The Schumann Piano Co.. Rockford, 111., has
opened an exhibit of its full line of quality-built
grands, uprights, and Period models, at Room 500 B,
Fine Arts Building, 410 South Michigan avenue, Chi-
cago. It is under direct personal supervision of V.
when he recalled that period this week in a visit to
V. Hrdlicka, midwestern states representative, who
Presto-Times offices that he could fail to see oppor- will cordially receive out-of-town visitors, local deal-
tunity in any disguise; that he never once suggested ers and their prospects. The display is but a step
the setting aside of the old reed instrument and the from the famous New Stevens Hotel, where last
substitution of a good piano like one of those he sold. year's national convention was staged and where
He never did. Perhaps it was because he forgot
numerous out-of-town dealers stop while passing
everything else when the dear performer was nigh.
through Chicago or visiting there.
But one evening the girl confided to Hazen that
The large and newly decorated room is especially
she had about persuaded her father to replace the adapted to the showing of pianos. Prior to Schu-
ancient and asthmatic instrument with a modern
mann's acquisition it was used by station KYW for
piano. And she also suggested that the amorous
radio broadcasting purposes. The formal opening ex-
salesman might mention the matter with good effect hibit will contain all Schumann grand and upright
in a special visit to papa's office.
models in both plain and period cases.
Papa was a self-made man, a barrel and box man-
A distinctive feature of the exhibit is a large char-
ufacturer, who clung to Spanish-American wartime acteristic figure of Iwantokno, the artful little spirit
grizzly mustache and a wartime gruffness acquired who exploits the exclusively built-in qualities of
in commanding a troop in Roosevelt's Rough Riders. Schumann craftsmanship each month to the trade
In making staves and barrels and selling them with through the columns of the interesting little house
profit against strong competition he considered time organ bearing the same name. Detailed samples of
was money. Hazen knew this when he appeared to construction which have time and again demonstrated
talk piano.
their immense value to Schumann dealers in talking
"Major, could I have a few seconds' talk with
to retail prospects will be shown.
you?" was the brisk request of Hazen as he entered
"Closer factory contact with an expanding clien-
the stave and hoop man's office.
tele of midwestern dealers is the chief reason for this
"You've got it. Now clear out!" snapped the Chicago display," said Willard Van Matre, president
major. Hazen got out. He knew the major. Next of the Schumann Piano Company. "It will be a big
day the salesman again appeared.
and much-needed improvement over the facilities we
"Major, I want to talk with you for about fifteen used to have in our old warerooms in the North
minutes."
American Building.
"Fire away," said the old soldier with a meaning
'•Repeatedly we have felt the need for a place like
glance at the clock.
this, but, perhaps, never more strongly than the pres-
"Well, it's about a
" bashfully stammered the ent which is due to the unusual changes which have
usually self-possessed piano salesman. "You see I been going on in the trade. These bring so many
was talking with Ethel a few nights ago and
"
interested wholesale buyers to Chicago and other
"Here, what do you want bothering me with this large centers that there is the necessity to keep up on
mushy affair. Fix it up and get married and let me the latest offerings, trade information, etc.
alone. The fifteen minutes are up. Get out!"
"We will also have comfortable facilities for con-
* * *
veying visitors to and from Rockford desirous of
Some men's credit is no good, even while their going through our factory and seeing the kind of
quality and workmanship that is being put into Schu-
money lasts.
mann instruments."
* * *
.
THINGS SAID O R SUGGESTED
DEAR OLD NUMBERS
Some of the oldest users of motor cars are in the
music trade and industry. The Comstocks and the
Cheneys of Comstock, Cheney & Co., Ivoryton, ;
Conn., for instance, have had cars from the very be-
ginning and many visitors to the plant will recall see-
ing the little old curved dashboard Oldsmobile road-
ster in which Crawford Cheney used to run to the
factory from his home at Essex, three miles away.
A. W Comstock and R. H. Comstock hold low Con-
necticut state license numbers, the former number 9
and the latter number 27. These numbers they have
had from year to year continuously a score or more
years.
'•
* * *
ALL RIGHT, BUT—
Thorwald E. Andresen, owner of Thors Music
Shop, Manistee, Mich., looks forward every year to
the educational and social allurements of the annual
conventions of the national music trades associations.
But while the cities of New York or Chicago have
thrills of their own outside of the conventions held
there, he would prefer to have the meeting this year
take place in his own town. In a letter to Presto-
Times he makes an attractive bid for them, citing
the fishing, scenic joys, enticing eyefuls of bathing
nymphs and other inducements.
He makes a good plea for Manistee's attractions as
a resort and a correspondingly poor one for the place
as a convention location. Luring small-mouth bass
is seductive, but only remotely suggests the pursuit-
of-piano-prospect problem. The broad, smooth high-
ways of Michigan would make a convention in Man-
istee a motoring joy instead of trade duty in the con-
vention hall and the one-piece bathing suit sylphs
of the Manistee beaches and bobbed-haired dryads
of the Manistee County woods are decoys too dan-
gerous to be risked by the discreet and grave officials
of the trade associations. He interests us strangely,
but there seems little hope for realizing Mr. Andre-
sen's proposition.
* * *
The road to success is studded with toll gates.
* * *
A
COUXTER-1RRITANT.
"Last Christmas eve we were working frantically
to get all the Santa Claus pianos delivered oppor-
tunely and all our moving forces were working man-
. / TIMED PROPOSAL.
fully except Dan Kennedy, our huskiest and best
In his piano selling activities through a group of
piano mover and general stockroom factotem," told
counties in the northwestern part of the state, for the
R. S. Smith of the Pacific Music Co., Modesto, Cal.,
Hollenberg Music Co., Little Rock, Ark., Gaines H. recently to a group of piano travelers at the St.
Hazen made his headquarters at week ends at the Francis Hotel in San Francisco.
Log Inn at Birdseye. It was a convenient arrange-
"Amidst all the excitement Dan lay around groan-
ment, inasmuch as the town was both central and the
home of the dearest girl in the world to Gaines H. ing and grunting from a toothache, with his jaw
swollen. At last one of our salesmen persuaded him
On tired evenings, after a day of piano prospect
chasing, it was restful to sit on the veranda of the to go to a dentist and have the troublesome molar
dear one's home or sit close to the organ in the yanked out. .
parlor while she played. Not that Hazen cared about
"Dan is as brave as a lion, but when he got into
organ music. He didn't like it a bit. But the organ
the dentist's chair and saw the gleaming forceps
music maker! Ah, well!
approaching his face, he positively refused to open
It seemed odd to the aggressive piano salesman his mouth. The dentist was resourceful and slyly
MICHIGAN STORE MOVES
The Fuller Music House, formerly of State street,
St. Joseph, Mich., has moved into new quarters
at 192 Pipestone street, Benton Harbor, in the same
state. The store opened last week with a full line
of musical supplies and instruments, it is announced.
instructed the salesman, who had gone along, to push
a pin into the patient's leg at the proper moment.
At the prick Dan opened his capacious mouth to yell.
Quick as a flash the forceps entered and the refrac-
tory tooth was yanked out.
" ' I t didn't hurt so much as you expected, eh?"
asked the smiling dentist.
" 'No,' admitted Dan. 'But,' he added, reaching
down to rub his leg, 'little did I think that damn root
went down so far.'"
BOWEN PIANO LOADER HELPS 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. It 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.
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/

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