Music Trade Review

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THE:
POINTERS ON SALESMANSHIP.
What Constitutes a Good Salesman—Truthful-
ness as an Asset—Steady Pushing Gets Best
Results—Importance of Maintaining One
Price—Selling Goods Means Selling Reputa-
tion—Smooth Tactics a Mistake.
MUSIC TRADE:
REVIEW
ler, Behr Bros., Farrand-Cecilian, McPhail, Bush
& Gerts, Kurtzmann, Sterling, Laffargue and
others. The balance of the prizes consisted of
organs, mandolins, violins and other small in-
struments, talking machines and scholarships for
business colleges and conservatories of music.
During the four months of the contest Stone's
Music House became a household word in a great
section of the vast Northwest, including North
and South Dakota, Montana and Minnesota.
The best salesman is distinguished by the fol-
lowing attributes: Truth, trustworthiness, and a
fine knowledge of the goods he is selling.
The man who sells goods must be prepared to MILLER ORGAN CO.'S 35TH ANNIVERSARY.
hear from nearly every man that his price is
too high. If the buyers would always tell the
This year marks the thirty-fifth anniversary
truth, then the salesman who sold the most of the founding of the Miller Organ & Piano Co.,
goods would simply be the one who actually of Lebanon, Pa., who first began business in
sold at the lowest price.
1873 under the direction of A. H. Miller, the
Price, however, does not mean anything. Price present head of the concern. The company con-
is high or low only when quality is taken into fine themselves wholly to the manufacture of
consideration. The man who sells merchandise organs, although organized to make pianos also,
must be thoroughly acquainted with the thing if desired, and turn out about 1,800 reed organs
he sells. He must be reliable, he must give annually, a large part of them being for export.
good measure, he must keep his word.
The members of the firm at the present time
The salesman who tells the truth, who moves are A. H. Miller, Grant L. Miller, Roy Miller and
quickly, who does what he agrees to and knows J. C. Borgner.
what he is talking about, who talks convincingly
and attends strictly to business, will eventually
BIHR JOINS WICK ORGAN CO.
succeed.
Wonder workers who start out with a burst
F. W. Bihr, salesman for the Estey Organ Co.,
of speed and smash records in the matter of
in St. Louis, Mo., has become one of the moving
selling can't go far. Those wonder workers
spirits in the Wick Pipe Organ Co., Highland,
change frequently. They flit from house to
Ill v organized about a year ago and incorporated
house. They work because they need the money
with a capital stock of $25,000. The plant has
to have a good time with, and as soon as they
been running in a small way and several organs
get the money they proceed to have a good time
have been turned out within the past year, while
until their little pile runs out, and then they
a considerable repair business has been car-
get another job. Business men know this won-
ried on.
der worker well. They are living in the past
and relating their conquests. They never speak
KNIGHT-BRINXERHOFFS CATALOG.
of the present, but always of the past. They
have done things they can't do again. The good
The Knight-Brinkerhoff Piano Co., Charlotte,
salesman is doing things better now than he has
Mich.,
have issued a new catalog illustrating and
done in the past. The customers he mingles
with have confidence in him. They know he describing the various styles made by them and
outlining the policy of the company. They state
will do what he promises.
Some buyers seem to think that it is neces- that, "Our efforts are to give the trade and the
sary for them to give the impression to the people an honest made piano, the best that money
salesmen that they are buying at lower prices and brains can secure.
than the salesman quotes. The wonder worker
A RATHER PECULIAR SUIT.
tries to make each customer believe that he is
buying at the lowest price. The common sense
A rather peculiar case has cropped up in the
salesman does not resort to such tactics.
In the matter of seeing there is no one thing suit of the Bennett Piano Co., Warren, Pa.,
that ultimately proves so successful as the one- against Roy Sease, a hotel proprietor of Scho-
price plan—the same price to all who purchase harie, N. Y. According to the affidavits, Sease
the same quantity or the same amount in a purchased a piano from an accredited agent of
given time. Let it be known that your prices the piano company and paid cash for it. The
are subject to reduction at the hand of a smooth agent, however, went wrong and did not turn in
buyer, and the news will travel fast. Let it the amount collected, so the Bennett Co. seek to
be known that you don't cut prices, and that recover $189 from the purchaser, though claim-
news will gain currency in the trade, and you ing the instrument to really be worth $300. The
outcome of the suit should be watched with in-
will not be asked to cut prices.
terest.
There is something in the matter of selling
beyond dollars and cents, and that is dollars and
ENTERPRISE OF EILERS PIANO HOUSE.
sense.
Remember this: when you sell goods you are
Upon the closing of the Capital State Bank
also selling reputation. If your goods are bad
your reputation will be bad, too. You can't have in Boise, Idaho, recently, the branch of the Eilers
a good reputation and sell bad goods and make Piano House in that city immediately advertised
a permanent success. Remember you can take to take the paper of the bank, in any piano sale,
advantage of the buyer once or twice, but if up to 50 per cent, of the value of the instrument,
you want to hold his trade you must be fair with the balance of the purchase price to be paid in
cash or on instalments. The statement published
him.
Smooth tactics that bring in present money by the piano house read as follows:
"We will accept orders and deposit certificates
react and lose trade later on. The square deal
on
the Capital State Bank on new contracts for
brings permanent success.—The Macey Monthly.
any of our high-grade pianos up to 50 per cent,
of the purchase, and the rest can be arranged in
STONE'S GREAT PIANO CONTEST.
convenient monthly payments.
"After reading over the statement issued this
One of the greatest contests ever conducted in
the music trade was that held by Stone's Music afternoon by the directors we have immediately
House, Fargo, N. D., and in which 125,000,000 come to the conclusion that we can safely take
votes were cast between September 1 and the the paper on this bank and will apply same as
time it ended, January 1. The contest was ad- part payment on any of our fine high-grade in-
vertised in over three hundred newspapers and struments.
periodicals and voting coupons were issued on
"The Boise business has been of the highest
every dollar paid on accounts during the contest, order and no hard times have been felt here.
thereby greatly increasing collections. One thou- Therefore we have the fullest confidence in the
sand prizes were distributed in all, fifteen of closed institution. But we do want to get rid of
them being pianos. The following makes were our surplus stock, and pianos are going to be
represented: Chickering, Everett, Sohmer, Gab- sold at the lowest ever in Boise."
Cabinet, San Domingo mahogany—light or dark
shade—piano finish. Contains albums for 150
records. Metal parts gold-plated.
Victor=Victrola
$200
Piano Dealers
and the
Victor=Victrola
Piano dealers everywhere are making big money
From the sale of the Vicior-Victrola. Why not
be one of them?
The Victrola appeals to people of means and
musical taste. It offers all the refined Victor mu-
sical entertainment in a new and specially attract-
ive setting—a handsome cabinet, with the horn
entirely concealed.
This superb instrument opens up a new and
highly profitable field to you. The Victrola is
almost irresistible to those who have the price—•
and they are many.
Right among your own customers are people
who will gladly buy the Victrola if you will only
show it to them and have them hear it.
The Victrola yields a good profit; and the sale
of the famous Red Seal operatic records that in-
variably follows every Victrola sale is of itself a
source of large and steady profit to you.
The Victrola is a fine drawing card; and by
bringing the best people to your establishment in-
creases sales in every department of your business.
The best selling season for the Victrola is now.
If you are not a Victor dealer, don't delay—be-
come one at once, and get the benefit of all this
profitable Victrola business.
Write to us for details about the Victrola, and
information about how to become a Victor dealer.
Victor Talking Machine Co.
Camden, N . J .
Use only Victor needles In playing Victor records.
Berliner
Gramophone
Company
of Montreal
Canadian
Distributors