Music Trade Review

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THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
THE SALESMAN'S ATTITUDE TOWARD THE PLAYER.
Conditions in Various Parts of the Country Indicate That the Attitude of Many Salesmen Is
Not Helpful—Lack of Faith in the Instrument Comes from Lack of Knowledge of Its Con-
struction and Possibilities—A Remedy Must Soon Be Considered—Dealers Will, in Self-de-
fense, Be Compelled to Insist on Salesmen Acquiring Practical Knowledge of the Player.
player proposition if he is to be valuable to his
Through a combination of somewhat unusual cir-
employer or to himself. Every intelligent dealer to-
cumstances the editor of the Player Section has
day knows that the piano trade has not been creat-
been enabled during the past year to study at first
ing the demand for player-pianos, even so far as
hand the conduct of retail piano and player selling
such a demand may be said to exist. The public
as practised in the Eastern, Middle and Middle
itself has created about all the demand there is at
Western States. The survey has been protracted,
the present time. And it has created that demand
the observations numerous and carefully made. As
a result much information of a most illuminating actually against the indifference, the cynicism, the
carelessness and the ignorance of the salesmen.
nature has been gained, some of which forms the
basis of the present remarks. Neither hearsay nor
Go into any average piano store and talk player-
.'guesswork is at the bottom of what follows. Ac-
piano to the salesman who waits on you. What
tual conversations with actual salesmen, the freest
do you find? He will tell you that such and such a
^interchange of views, and an absolutely unbiased
player is carried by them, that it is the best, and
personal investigation are responsible for the so on. Then he will proceed to demonstrate its
thoughts here set down. And if here or there they
musical capacity. And seven times in ten he will
seem to be too violent, too partisan, too condemna-
butcher whatever music he attempts to play for
tory, the answer can only be made that to the very
you. Almost as often you will find that his reper-
best of the writer's knowledge the facts justify the tory consists of the "William Tell Overture," the
opinions expressed.
"Poet and Peasant Overture," the "Second Hun-
garian Rhapsody" and "Old Black Joe with Varia-
If one were asked to describe in a word the
prevalent attitude of many of the retail salesmen tions." Not one of the pieces here named is really
throughout this country toward the player-piano, suitable for piano playing; not one of them can
one could do this no better than by saying that it possibly sound other than machine-like when played
is one of disrespect. There is a lack of sympathy, by an unskilled person on the player-piano. And
a lack of enthusiasm, a lack of deep-seated convic- yet we find that salesmen deliberately confess to
their customers that they are not good "operators"
t : on. Salesmen do not instinctively think of the
of the player-piano, thus at once admitting their
player-piano with respect. They take toward it an
own utter inefficiency in the duty they have taken
attitude of cynicism that is most harmful in its
on themselves.
direct effects upon them and equally so in its re-
active influence upon their customers.
Now it is not to be supposed that the piano
This is count number one in the indictment. trade is going to stand this kind of thing forever.
Surely, if only as a matter of self-preservation,
What is the reason for the existence of such a
there must come a reform. And if the salesmen
state of affairs? The most obvious answer is that
lack of respect comes from lack of real sincere themselves do not show the desire for reform, then
they must be taken in hand and changed around
belief, and that this lack of belief comes from lack
forcibly. This much at least may be taken for
of knowledge.
If you do not understand a new thing, the truth: that the player trade will amount to noth-
ing, relatively speaking, so long as the salesman
chances are that you will not even like it; that you
has neither respect for, nor knowledge of. the ob-
will not be enthusiastic about it is absolutely cer-
ject which he is proposing to sell.
tain. And here we lay our finger on the most
serious, as it is the most important, of the mat-
What has been said here about ignorance of the
ters which must form the basis of the present
musical side of the player-piano is equally applic-
article. Lack of understanding, superficiality, igno-
able to its mechanical side. Suppose the case of a
rance—these are the real evils.
salesman on the road, who finds a prospect for a
Now, the player-piano does not present a simple player sale somewhere far away from his home
office. The instrument is shipped to him, he puts it
but a very complex problem. It has to be consid-
ered from numerous viewpoints. There are a in the prospect's house, and then discovers that he
does not even know how to set about getting the
dozen d'fferent ways of looking at it. Plainly, if
thing ready for pneumatic playing! Just such a
it is to be sold successfully to a public which knows
little or nothing of its possibilities, the men who case as this came under the writer's notice only a
week or so ago. That player-piano remained un-
do the selling must be men who are enthusiastic
touched in the prospect's home for two days, while
and deeply convinced of the inherent merits it pos-
a salesman with some expert knowledge was sent
sesses. If they are not so, then they cannot be
down to the assistance of the road man to show
expected to make an indifferent public any more
excited than they are themselves.
And, as we remarked above, the only possible
recipe for making enthusiasm is to be found in
knowledge. Salesmen do not respect the player-
piano, simply because most of them know nothing
about it. They do not understand its mechanical
make-up, they do not know anything about its
To-day is moving day for this trade
musical possibilities. How, then, can they expect
to instill a desire for its possession in the minds
newspaper institution, and next Mon-
of the public, when that public knows even less
day we will open in our new quarters
than they do themselves?
at
2)72) Fourth avenue.
Silk purses arc not made out of sows' ears. You
Our
new location possesses many
cannot make men enthusiastic by telling them they
must be so. You cannot make men well informed
advantages over the present, and we
by commanding them to become so. More is needed
have
two or three times the amount of
than this. The impulse must come from within.
space
which we have occupied at No.
We must have a new spirit among our salesmen, a
new vision as to the influence which the player-
i Madison avenue.
piano will have upon future piano trade. We
It is on the surface and suhway
must have all this before the attitude now adopted
lines,
and the building, which is built
by them, and so much to be deplored, can be abol-
ished.
of concrete and steel, is equipped with
Let us face the facts squarely. No intelligent
all modern appliances.
piano dealer pretends that the trade at large is
making such an excellent example of itself in its
OUR NEW ADDRESS
relations with the player question as to be beyond
criticism. No intelligent dealer has failed to see
that the salesman must become a master of the
Notice of Removal
373 Fourth Avenue
the latter and the prospect how to insert a roll,
how to use the controlling device, and so on! Is
that not a lovely state of affairs?
Player-piano maintenance forms a troublesomelj
large item in the profit and loss account of any
house that does an extended retail business. A
goodly proportion of the complaints that arise from
those who have bought player-pianos would never
be heard of if the salesman had known enough to
give adequate instructions to his customer in the
first instance. It is no joke to be compelled to
send a high-priced expert a hundred miles into the
backwoods to attend to some silly little matter
which the customer does not understand and is
afraid to investigate. That sort of business costs
money and adds appreciably to the total on the
loss side of the ledger.
The remedy would seem obvious. Nothing
would appear to be simpler than that the dealer
should insist upon all his salesmen acquiring defi-
nite practical knowledge of the player on its musi-
cal and mechanical sides. With ^uch knowledge
will come a growing respect, with respect enthusi-
asm, and with enthusiasm success. So far, so good.
But there is something else to be said.
It is easy to tell salesmen that they must become
player experts. And it is true that there is a certain
amount of information to be picked up by personal
determination to get at the bottom of things. The
man who will persuade the local expect to tell him
all about the mechanism, who will practise the use
of control devices, who will do his best to acquire
a repertoire of well-understood and well-played
pieces may accomplish much. But in the end all
that sort of thing is absolutely unsystematic. More
than this is needed.
System is the keynote of success in everything.
If we are to change the attitude of salesmen to-
ward the player-piano we cannot expect to do this
either by denouncing these erring brethren or by
telling them that, if they really want to, they can
acquire player knowledge. That is all very well
to talk about, but it does not work out in practice.
Very few of us are persons of great persistence
or firm of purpose to the extent of beginning to
struggle with an entirely new, complex and per-
haps not agreeable proposition, after we have
reached years of discretion, unless the job is made
more or less easy for us. And this is just what
may be done. Whether the suggestion that follows
be considered practical or not, nothing is more
sure than that something of the sort will soon have
to be done generally.
It is suggested, then, that the dealers should
agree with the manufacturers of player mechanisms
upon a system of traveling experts, who, in har-
mony with the piano makers who supply the pianos
into which the actions are put, should visit every
store where those player actions are sold, at regular
intervals.; in the case of large dealers as often as
three or four times a year. It should be their
business to see that every salesman connected with
that store, as well as every tuner and repairman,
be given an opportunity to acquire a first-hand
knowledge of these things: (1) The mechanical
principles and details of the player action; (2)
the methods of regulation and repair, and (3) the
technic of playing.
This might be done through a system of in-
formal lectures, which everybody should be com-
pelled to attend. The writer has had recent oppor-
tunity to test out in a practical manner the possi-
bility of doing effective work in this way and can
say sincerely that, given the right sort of expert,
the system of bringing the facts about player
mechanism, demonstration, and so on, directly to
the men in the retail trade is the best possible
system for accomplishing the end sought for.
In the end we must have a better diffusion of
knowledge. Just compare the piano trade with any
other of a technical nature. Does anyone suppose
that automobile salesmen are not technically
equipped?
Does anyone suppose that automobiles could
be sold at all if the salesmen could not teach
the purchasers how to run and how to look after
their machines? Of course, no one supposes any-
thing of the sort. And what is true of the one
case is equally true of the other.