Music Trade Review
Issue: 1916 Vol. 62 N. 7 - Page 13
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE
Doing One's Best One of
REVIEW
(Salesmanship)
13
the Greatest Secrets,
The Example of a Tuner in the Middle West that Might Be Followed with
Profit by the Salesman—Striving Towards the Ideal Against Difficulties.
T
HE present writer recently visited a city of the Middle West,
and while there spent some time in the shop of one of the
larger piano dealers of that city. During his visit he was introduced
to a tuner that came in and tarried but a few moments, then went
out to some church where the firm had sent a grand piano to be
used in concert by some local artist, to tune the piano. After the
tuner had departed the writer asked the shop foreman if he were
a very good tuner. "Why," replied the shop foreman, "it isn't
humanly possible for a man to tune pianos like that man! He tunes
so beautifully that it is simply beyond me; I have never known a
tuner like him/'
Further conversation brought out the fact that the tuner in
question did all the tuning for the world-famed artists and or-
chestras that visit that city, or, at least, all who do not carry their
own special tuners, and for all the local artists and aspiring musical
students who know enough to appreciate fine tuning.
It may be assumed that the writer was anxious to know more
about such a tuner, so it followed that an arrangement was made
whereby the writer could be with the tuner for a time during the
afternoon. In passing, let it be said that the tuner drives a very
handsome and expensive car—he can do this for the reason that he
is so good a tuner, and merit—real quality work—brings its reward
in any line of endeavor. So in the mid-afternoon the writer found
himself comfortably seated in that luxurious car, beside the tuner,
and rolling over the beautiful boulevards of the city.
Now x as a rule, it is rather hard to get a really good man to
talk much about himself. Hence the writer knew he had a job on
hand to get certain information he wanted from that tuner—the
thing he wished to know was why it was that tuner knew so much
about his work.
Finally, the opening came to ask certain questions, and the
writer got his information. The information may be given in a
few of the tuner's own words:
"Well, candidly, I don't think I am a very good tuner. I
simply do the best I can. I have never yet tuned a pian9^aFi x would
like to tune it. I simply work at the job, and work arid work at it
until I can spend no more time, then I have to let it go."
You men who sell pianos and feel satisfied with yourselves,
please read those words of that tuner again, and try to digest the
great fundamental principle underlying; if you can assimilate the
true spirit of the principle then it will do more to improve your
work than you have ever imagined possible.
Why is it that that tuner is so good a tuner? It is because he
is so conscientious in his work that he has never yet been satisfied
with any job.
Now, the same rule and practice that makes a good tuner will
also make a good salesman. "I simply do the best I can." What
a meaning there is in that sentence if it be an honest expression!
Boys, what do you suppose the result would be if everyone
of us engaged in selling pianos would take this idea to heart and
honestly strive to live up to it for one entire year? Please do not
misunderstand. There is no wish to infer that piano salesmen
are dishonest with themselves—intentionally—and natural slug-
gards, and all that; not by any means; but, as a general rule, there
are many piano salesmen who do not do their very best first, last
and all the time. This can be laid more to our system or custom
than to the salesmen themselves. We have developed the idea that
selling pianos is a rather easy task and that we are rather intelligent
fellows, and so on; therefore, do not need extend ourselves as men
must in cheaper callings.
Further, this feeling is abetted by the belief that there is an
abundant profit on piano sales, hence the human greed in us tugs
at us, begging us not to hurt ourselves to make the firm rich.
Can it even be supposed that this tuner in question ever gives
a thought to whether or not his work is helping make his firm rich?
We hardly think so. He only sees one thing when he is at work, and
that thing is an ideal. He strives and strives to accomplish a piece
of perfect work. What an ideal! Of course, he will never attain
perfection, nor may we, but by sincere, honest endeavor he has
builded for himself an enviable reputation, and a character that is
worth more than all the money in the world.
What this tuner has done in his line we may also do in our line,
but we must pay the same price. There is no short cut to true
success, nor is there any byway.
Enthusiasm Adds Weight to Selling Arguments.
An Enthusiastic Belief in the Quality of His Goods Will Always Enable the Sales-
man to Impart That Same Enthusiasm to His Customers, Says Frank Farrington.
OME salesmen have individual qualifications which make it
easy for them to suggest directly or indirectly the idea they
wish their customers to receive. The salesman with the right per-
sonality, what we may call a "selling personality," finds it easy to
direct the channels of thought of his customers. His whole atti-
tude and expression convey the idea he wishes absorbed, and the
customer unconsciously develops a favorable feeling.
In developing suggestive salesmanship, salesmanship which
shall act through the indirect expression as well as through the
direct, the salesman needs to know his customer's peculiarities.
The better you know the individuality of the prospective buyer, the
.better you can lead his mental processes. The better you can read
human nature, the better you can handle the individual buyer.
Unless you are able to read human nature in others they will get
the better of you. Your customers will prove too much for you.
It is necessary for you to keep the upper hand with the cus-
tomer if you are to do the leading. This does not mean that you
are going to browbeat him, but that you are going to understand
him better than he understands you. Yours should be the greater
mind if it is going to suggest to the other. Yours should be the
self-confident position, but not the over-confident.
If your suggestions of any kind are to carry weight they must
be made with enthusiasm. The customer will feel in a minute any
lack of faith in your own goods. If you are apathetic, apathy
will show in all you say and do about the goods. Competition is
too keen for a man to be a success in selling if he feels no en-
S
thusiasm over his goods. Buyers are apt to buy that over which
they themselves wax enthusiastic. But the buyer will not develop
much enthusiasm when the salesman cannot develop it. Enthusi-
asm suggests enthusiasm and apathy suggests apathy. Without
knowing why, the prospective customer who is met by an'unenthu-
siastic salesman will himself fail to continue even the enthusiasm
he felt when he came in.
You may talk in strongly favorable language of the article you
are trying to sell. The price and the quality may be all you claim,
and you perhaps claim enough, but along with your talk will go a
subconscious suggestion which will unconsciously be absorbed by
the buyer, and this suggestion will be one of apathy or of enthusiasm
about the goods, just according to your own inner feelings.
Every sale you make is a mental transaction rather than a
verbal or a financial one. In order to make the sale it is necessary
that you talk and it is necessary for money to change hands. But
the talk is merely the medium for the exchange of ideas. The ideas
themselves are existent only in the mind. The money end of the
deal is only the result of the mental transaction. It is your own
mental attitude and the mental attitude of the ,buyer that are to be
considered. The situation is controlled by these mental positions.
There is a great deal of talk about the psychology of sales-
manship. That is nothing but the mental side of buying and sell-
ing; and, after all, what is there about salesmanship that is impor-
tant in such a degree as the mental feature?
(Continued on page 14.)
THE MUSIC TRADE
Doing One's Best One of
REVIEW
(Salesmanship)
13
the Greatest Secrets,
The Example of a Tuner in the Middle West that Might Be Followed with
Profit by the Salesman—Striving Towards the Ideal Against Difficulties.
T
HE present writer recently visited a city of the Middle West,
and while there spent some time in the shop of one of the
larger piano dealers of that city. During his visit he was introduced
to a tuner that came in and tarried but a few moments, then went
out to some church where the firm had sent a grand piano to be
used in concert by some local artist, to tune the piano. After the
tuner had departed the writer asked the shop foreman if he were
a very good tuner. "Why," replied the shop foreman, "it isn't
humanly possible for a man to tune pianos like that man! He tunes
so beautifully that it is simply beyond me; I have never known a
tuner like him/'
Further conversation brought out the fact that the tuner in
question did all the tuning for the world-famed artists and or-
chestras that visit that city, or, at least, all who do not carry their
own special tuners, and for all the local artists and aspiring musical
students who know enough to appreciate fine tuning.
It may be assumed that the writer was anxious to know more
about such a tuner, so it followed that an arrangement was made
whereby the writer could be with the tuner for a time during the
afternoon. In passing, let it be said that the tuner drives a very
handsome and expensive car—he can do this for the reason that he
is so good a tuner, and merit—real quality work—brings its reward
in any line of endeavor. So in the mid-afternoon the writer found
himself comfortably seated in that luxurious car, beside the tuner,
and rolling over the beautiful boulevards of the city.
Now x as a rule, it is rather hard to get a really good man to
talk much about himself. Hence the writer knew he had a job on
hand to get certain information he wanted from that tuner—the
thing he wished to know was why it was that tuner knew so much
about his work.
Finally, the opening came to ask certain questions, and the
writer got his information. The information may be given in a
few of the tuner's own words:
"Well, candidly, I don't think I am a very good tuner. I
simply do the best I can. I have never yet tuned a pian9^aFi x would
like to tune it. I simply work at the job, and work arid work at it
until I can spend no more time, then I have to let it go."
You men who sell pianos and feel satisfied with yourselves,
please read those words of that tuner again, and try to digest the
great fundamental principle underlying; if you can assimilate the
true spirit of the principle then it will do more to improve your
work than you have ever imagined possible.
Why is it that that tuner is so good a tuner? It is because he
is so conscientious in his work that he has never yet been satisfied
with any job.
Now, the same rule and practice that makes a good tuner will
also make a good salesman. "I simply do the best I can." What
a meaning there is in that sentence if it be an honest expression!
Boys, what do you suppose the result would be if everyone
of us engaged in selling pianos would take this idea to heart and
honestly strive to live up to it for one entire year? Please do not
misunderstand. There is no wish to infer that piano salesmen
are dishonest with themselves—intentionally—and natural slug-
gards, and all that; not by any means; but, as a general rule, there
are many piano salesmen who do not do their very best first, last
and all the time. This can be laid more to our system or custom
than to the salesmen themselves. We have developed the idea that
selling pianos is a rather easy task and that we are rather intelligent
fellows, and so on; therefore, do not need extend ourselves as men
must in cheaper callings.
Further, this feeling is abetted by the belief that there is an
abundant profit on piano sales, hence the human greed in us tugs
at us, begging us not to hurt ourselves to make the firm rich.
Can it even be supposed that this tuner in question ever gives
a thought to whether or not his work is helping make his firm rich?
We hardly think so. He only sees one thing when he is at work, and
that thing is an ideal. He strives and strives to accomplish a piece
of perfect work. What an ideal! Of course, he will never attain
perfection, nor may we, but by sincere, honest endeavor he has
builded for himself an enviable reputation, and a character that is
worth more than all the money in the world.
What this tuner has done in his line we may also do in our line,
but we must pay the same price. There is no short cut to true
success, nor is there any byway.
Enthusiasm Adds Weight to Selling Arguments.
An Enthusiastic Belief in the Quality of His Goods Will Always Enable the Sales-
man to Impart That Same Enthusiasm to His Customers, Says Frank Farrington.
OME salesmen have individual qualifications which make it
easy for them to suggest directly or indirectly the idea they
wish their customers to receive. The salesman with the right per-
sonality, what we may call a "selling personality," finds it easy to
direct the channels of thought of his customers. His whole atti-
tude and expression convey the idea he wishes absorbed, and the
customer unconsciously develops a favorable feeling.
In developing suggestive salesmanship, salesmanship which
shall act through the indirect expression as well as through the
direct, the salesman needs to know his customer's peculiarities.
The better you know the individuality of the prospective buyer, the
.better you can lead his mental processes. The better you can read
human nature, the better you can handle the individual buyer.
Unless you are able to read human nature in others they will get
the better of you. Your customers will prove too much for you.
It is necessary for you to keep the upper hand with the cus-
tomer if you are to do the leading. This does not mean that you
are going to browbeat him, but that you are going to understand
him better than he understands you. Yours should be the greater
mind if it is going to suggest to the other. Yours should be the
self-confident position, but not the over-confident.
If your suggestions of any kind are to carry weight they must
be made with enthusiasm. The customer will feel in a minute any
lack of faith in your own goods. If you are apathetic, apathy
will show in all you say and do about the goods. Competition is
too keen for a man to be a success in selling if he feels no en-
S
thusiasm over his goods. Buyers are apt to buy that over which
they themselves wax enthusiastic. But the buyer will not develop
much enthusiasm when the salesman cannot develop it. Enthusi-
asm suggests enthusiasm and apathy suggests apathy. Without
knowing why, the prospective customer who is met by an'unenthu-
siastic salesman will himself fail to continue even the enthusiasm
he felt when he came in.
You may talk in strongly favorable language of the article you
are trying to sell. The price and the quality may be all you claim,
and you perhaps claim enough, but along with your talk will go a
subconscious suggestion which will unconsciously be absorbed by
the buyer, and this suggestion will be one of apathy or of enthusiasm
about the goods, just according to your own inner feelings.
Every sale you make is a mental transaction rather than a
verbal or a financial one. In order to make the sale it is necessary
that you talk and it is necessary for money to change hands. But
the talk is merely the medium for the exchange of ideas. The ideas
themselves are existent only in the mind. The money end of the
deal is only the result of the mental transaction. It is your own
mental attitude and the mental attitude of the ,buyer that are to be
considered. The situation is controlled by these mental positions.
There is a great deal of talk about the psychology of sales-
manship. That is nothing but the mental side of buying and sell-
ing; and, after all, what is there about salesmanship that is impor-
tant in such a degree as the mental feature?
(Continued on page 14.)
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