Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
The Principles of Salesmanship.
S
OME people have said that salesmanship is a science. Un-
doubtedly they are right. It is, however, first and primarily
a business. And, like every other business—and more than most—
it is hinged on an assortment of little things; tricks of trade, psy-
chology and bits of finesse. And it is because of those very things,
which lend interest to the business, that salesmanship is drawing its
recruits from every field of trade.
Roughly speaking, salesmanship, as now constituted, is divided
into three divisions.
First of these is the drummer, the man who sells the staples—
the necessities of life.
Second is the specialty salesman, who restricts his operations
to the selling of a given article or a given line of special articles.
And third is the man "who sells without samples"—the life in-
surance agent or the advertising, correspondence school, or stock
and bond agent.
A quarter of a century ago there were few specialties to' sell.
Most of to-day's conveniences were unknown, and those already
in existence had struggled up in local fields. The specialty sales-
man, therefore, was unknown—the business world had not learned
to set men to selling one article. And the same, in a large way,
holds good of the men who sell without samples—salesmanship, so
far as insurance, advertising and correspondence courses are con-
cerned, is a thing of modern invention.
To-day this old order is reversed. The specialty man, handling
as he does a given article of more or less revolutionary character,
finds it easy to put himself into his task. He backs his selling with
imagination, puts his own personal'enthusiasm into his work, knows
conditions and understands n1en. And, looking ahead, finds the in-
centive to make the most of the opportunities of each day and of
each sale.
Salesmanship has been defined by someone as nine-tenfhs man
and one-tenth territory and conditions. The man who can sell one
article can, under similar advantages, sell other articles, provided,
of course, he "knows the game"—in other words, that he possesses
a thorough knowledge of the construction of the goods he repre-
sents.
The first principle of selling is personal enthusiasm. The suc-
cessful sales agent must, by his own enthusiasm in his goods, be
able to compel the same enthusiasm in others. The second essential
is imagination. He must be able to imagine the importance of his
article to the particular customer upon whom he is working. Third,
he must understand human nature: he must be a student of men
and women. Fourth, he must be quick-witted and versatile, ready
at a moment's notice to change his method of attack. Fifth, he
must be analytical, capable of studying out the problems with which
he is confronted and able to get behind the surface to the hidden
cause itself. Sixth, he must be tactful. Seventh, he must be
courteous and honest. And eighth—and in some ways most im-
portant—he must possess in its highest form the requisite grit and
stick-to-itiveness necessary to success. These are, perhaps, the
eight fundamental principles of success in salesmanship. There
are others, of course. But, having those eight, it is a pretty safe
bet that the veriest amateur can develop quickly into a salesman.
Providing Professional Training for Business.
I
T is of general interest to note that a new departure in uni-
versity extension is to be undertaken at the University of
Minnesota in the fall. Twenty-five bankers and business men
are to form an advisory committee which .will direct 1,000 to
1,500 persons, men and women, in Minneapolis and an equal
number in St. Paul, or 2,500 in all, in acquiring knowledge that
will lead to greater efficiency and more rapid advancement. The
banks, manufacturing establishments and wholesale and retail
stores will be the laboratories for practical application of the
teaching in night classes. The practical business extension
course is patterned on those of the New York University School
of Commerce and Northwestern University, but is intended to
be more elaborate than either.
Prof. Charles H. Preston, of the economic department, has
sent out letters inviting various business men to take part in the
formation of the school and arrangement of courses. The courses
will lead to "certificates in commerce," showing that the student
has received the professional training which modern business
requires.
Accounting, commercial law, money, banking and finance,
stocks, bonds and investments, economic resources and foreign
trade, taxation and economic problems, public relation of busi-
ness, industrial organization and business administration, psy-
chology of business, advertising and salesmanship, fire and life
insurance, merchandising, transportation, publishing and real
estate are some of the courses contemplated. A special feature
of the course in merchandising will be a series of pictures by
experienced business men.
The accounting department will be under the direct super-
vision of the Minneapolis Society of Public Accounting. The
work in commercial law will be led by prominent attorneys.
The finance department, aside from banking, study of credits and
basis of valuations, involving a thorough course in the American
monetary system, will also give a course in corporation organi-
zation and marketing of securities.
Under the department of public relations of business the
field work will involve a consideration of the way in which busi-
ness comes in contact with the community and the Government.
Other topics under the department are the Government as
a regulator of business; the holding and transmission of prop-
erty; regulation of dangerous and offensive trades; regulation of
traffic in streets, of corporate organizations, finance and com-
merce; regulation of public service utilities and the effect of
public service industries on a city or State. A critical discussion,
by experts, will be offered on the object, efficiency and general
policy of public regulation. The psychology of business course
will provide for a comprehensive study of the human and per-
sonal elements in business.
Fixed Prices Preserve Real Competition.
T
H E R E are few who doubt that fixed prices tend to preserve
real competition in business, and in discussing this phase of
the situation in regard to recent decisions of the court on fixed
prices the New York Journal of Commerce pertinently remarked
that trade is not anxious to throttle competition, as is claimed in
most of these cases, but rather to protect itself against the opera-
tions of certain trade factors who, though they may be within their
rights, exercise them for the general destruction of legitimate trade
profits. Manufacturers contend that profits are essential to the free
movement of distribution and that more restraint of trade really
arises from the "piratical" work of price-cutters, who discourage
the general handling of products, than there ever could be from the
slight restraint involved in letting a manufacturer set his own price
and assume the risk of his product competing with similar products
instead of leaving it to his distributors to settle among themselves.
Jt was this logic which actuated the minority in a similar case
when justice Holmes expressed it as follows: "I cannot believe
that in the long run the public will profit by this court permitting
knaves to cut reasonable prices for some ulterior purpose of their
own and thus impair, if not destroy, the production and sale of
articles, which it is assumed to be desirable that the public should
be able to get."