Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
The Entire Appeal of the Player-Piano Is to Those Who Are Musically
Inclined, But Who Cannot Play—Women Are Not as Interested in Players
as Are the Men—The Problem of Educating the Public.
It is an old story by this time that the entire
philosophy of piano salesmanship must be modi-
fied if one is to be a successful player salesman.
Those who have made the successes in retail
player selling have been forced to work out for
themselves an entire new plan of attack. The
reason, of course, lies in the radically different
nature of the appeal which the player-piano makes.
The straight piano can be sold only on price
and terms or on pure musical efficiency and
merit; or, in brief, on terms or on time. If a
salesman is arguing the case for a piano of high
grade against one of equal merit in public estima-
tion it is obvious that he must win his points by
demonstrating that his piano is technically and
tonally superior. This involves a certain degree
of appreciation on the part of the customer. Of
course, if the sale is to a family which only wants
the best name the argument will be modified.
But in most cases a person buys a high grade
piano with some attempt at judgment between
various makes of that grade. This judgment can-
not be exercised unless the customer plays the
piano more or less skilfully. The argument in
high grade piano selling, then, tends to become
more or less technical and to be decided on more
or less technical grounds.
Now, with the player-piano, the argument can-
not be confined to musical people, for it is obvious
that the entire appeal of the player is primarily to
those who cannot play, but want music. Such
people then are in the beginning less likely to be
tonally discriminating and more likely to be inter-
ested in superficial talking points. Moreover, it is
notorious that women as a whole are not much
interested in the player-piano. Women who come
from the richer classes can usually play more or
less, and only those who are very broad-minded
indeed can be made to see the educational value
of the player-piano, or to find in it anything more
than an Imperfect substitute for what they call
real playing. This is true wherever people can
play the piano manually, for it is plain that only
those who have a considerable knowledge of
music will appreciate the value of the player-piano
for study of concerted works in large forms. The
ordinary woman who has learned to play a little
is proud of her ability and looks down on the
player-piano as a poor trade for her fingers,
Educating the Uneducated,
The field for player-piano sales, then, comprises
primarily the uneducated music lovers, and to a
large extent excludes the general body of women
of the leisured classes. Now, seeing that the ob-
ject of salesmanship is profit, it follows that the
profit making sales, which are to be found among
the people of means, must be made by an appeal
to something vastly different than has sufficed for
the sale of straight pianos of parallel quality. In
fact, women must be eliminated to a considerable
extent.
The women, of course, do the shopping in the
first place, because it is not often that the ordinary
male takes the initiative in thinking of a musical
instrument. Sometimes a man will think the
whole thing out for himself, but probably more
often the suggestion comes from his wife or from
one of the children. Seeing, however, that the
price involved is always relatively large, the in-
come earner of the family is sure to be brought
into the deal sooner or later, and therefore sooner
or later finds himself personally inspecting the
player-piano which his wife after her shopping
has found herself to prefer. Up to this point the
procedure has been much what it was in the old
Straight piano days. The wife has made the pur-
chase, or at least arranged for it, and father has
been called in mainly to satisfy his natural desire
to see what he is buying before he pays out his
money.
From this point onward, however, the process
becomes radically different. The man realizes, as
soon as his attention is fixed for a moment on
the player-piano, that it can be used by anybody
who will pump it, and so he begins, perhaps for
the first time in his life, to think of himself as
a potential music producer. From this notion is
but a step to a desire to try the pedals for him-
self. In short, before the deal is concluded, either
at that wareroom or at some other, father has
begun to take a personal interest in the player so
strong that his voice becomes the deciding factor
and the sale is in the end made to him. The wife
in all probability will be lukewarm in the begin-
ning. The original request most likely came from
the children and the mother has very often only
looked into the matter to please her family. Even
when she has decided that the children's request
must be granted she is not likely to be enthusiastic
even if she herself does not play manually. If
she does play by hand she will probably be hostile,
or at most indifferent, except as concerns the fact
that the player-piano can also be used for hand
playing. Father, however, is a different case. He
does not want anything of the sort at first in all
likelihood, simply because the male of mature age
is usually opaque to any recreative suggestion that
does not appeal directly to his appetite or his
vanity. Still that same mature citizen has latent
powers of appreciation that can be waked up, and
the wise player salesman will most certainly con-
sider father not merely as the man who draws a
check or brings home the pay envelope out of
which the monthly payments are to be made, but
also as the man who can and will override
mother's hesitation if only he can be made inter-
ested in the proposition while the deal is on.
Interesting the Prospect in the Player.
The best salesmen are almost united in saying
that the secret lies in getting the prospect to the
player with his feet on the pedals as quickly as
possible. The normal man, no matter how little
interest he has seemed to take in musical matters,
will always take at least a passing interest in the
personal production of music even if he appears
to do no more than sit and pump. From this
passing interest to a permanent interest is an easy
transition if the guidance be wise; and this it is
the business of the salesman to provide.
Get a man pumping and then gradually work
him up to trying stunts with the pedals and you
have him. Take him then a step further and show
him how tempo can be modified. Let him know
that he cannot expect or care to try to do it all
in a minute, but that he can work things out to
suit himself and constantly improve the results
he gets till he has become a master of the player-
piano, all without any necessity for study or any
special process except the incidental result of his
musical recreations. Once get the man of the
family interested, moreover, and you will have the
payments made regularly, the instrument kept in
decent condition and the enthusiasm spread
around among the elders instead of being confined
to the children.
Importance of the Male Element.
Player salesmen have often debated the relative
importance of the man and the woman in retail
selling, and the weight of opinion, based on un-
disputed evidence, seems to rest on the assertion
that the male element is, if not the deciding factor,
at least extremely important. There is another
important point to be considered in the light of
this fact, and that is that the introduction of the
male element into piano selling means that the
salesman must be able and willing to base his
sales talk upon practical arguments. The male
prospect may simply call himself a business man,
but yet he may have risen from the ranks of some
mechanical craft to the presidency of a manufac-
turing business; and, in fact, be a man of me-
chanical training. Don't try to talk nonsense to
that man about features that have no real me-
chanical value. He may be taken in with this sort
of talk, but the chances are strongly against any
success here. It is the man who, in many if not
most cases, has the deciding vote in the purchase
of a player-piano. The wise salesman will do
well to direct his arguments accordingly and,
above all, to avoid talking piffle, lest he find that
he has been trying to instruct a man who knows
more about pneumatics than he ever supposed to
exist.
The entrance of the male element into retail
selling if it has no other advantage surely has this
one of clearing the atmosphere and reducing sales
talk to a basis of common sense.
SIMPLEX CO. WORKING OVERTIME.
The Simplex Player Action Co., of Worcester,
Mass., reports that all departments are working
overtime with two shifts of men. The increase in
the monthly business has amounted to 162 per cent.
during the past year, with prospects of still fur-
ther increase.
Compo-site
Music Roll Ends
are now being produced in their new home
124-126 Adams Street, Newark, N. J.
where with improved facilities and increased floor space,
the output will be doubled, and the quality of the ends
will even be better.
Write us for Samples and Prices
Geo. J. Crosman, Mfr.
Newark, N. J.