Music Trade Review
Issue: 1918 Vol. 66 N. 7 - Page 11
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
SALESMANSHIP
A Complete Section Devoted to Piano Salesmanship Published Each Month by The Music Trade Review
Changing Conditions the Piano Salesman Must Face
The Piano Industry Reflects the Changes Wrought in Our Economic Life by the
War, and the Salesman Must Accommodate Himself to These New Conditions
MOXCi the various blessings which the great war is grad-
ually bringing into being', disguised though they may often
be, it is sale to count the "growing seriousness manifested by busi-
ness men of all grades in connection with the present and future
conditions of business. It is not saying too much to state that
the American business man of the future will be a more thought-
ful man, and consequently a better business man, than ever be-
fore.
The piano business in the United States is to-day in a
peculiar condition. On the one hand we have a general disrup-
tion of the ordinary facilities and arrangements for the handling
of business, while on the other hand we have a public with
money to spend but with a tendency to caution, superinduced by
the campaign which has been conducted by semi-official agencies
for the promotion of a so-called "economy." The conditions are
not favorable to an easy and careless business. Yet they are
certainly the reverse of unfavorable to a well-conducted cam
paign. The salesmanship which will win during these war-
times and afterwards simply must be better, more thoughtful.
and more serious than it has ever been before.
Let us look at a few facts, briefly and sharply. The obser-
vation will do us good.
Costs of manufacture are steadily rising. They have doubled
within a "very short time, on many essential supplies, and every-
where, throughout the entire range of the items that go to make
up a piano or player-piano, the rise has been very sharp. Nor
is there any present hope of a change towards older and lower
price-levels.
Exactly for this reason, pianos and player-pianos must cost
the manufacturer a great deal more to make, and he must ask
more for his goods from the merchant.
At the same time the manufacturer must get his money from
the merchant more speedily and on better terms generally.
Naturally, then, the piano which is made so cheap that, at
the best, the margin of profit to the manufacturer was always
very small, is now in a condition, as to cost of making, where
the profit is down to the vanishing point. Naturally, also, the
manufacturers feel that their policy must be one of improve-
ment. They must make better grades of pianos, more player-
pianos and still more small grands. For on these latter there is
an opportunity to make a decent profit; and every day it becomes
clearer that such ah opportunity is already out of existence so
far as regards the cheap straight piano.
As a matter of truth, then, we are faced with the simple fact
that our piano salesmanship during the coming year, and for
perhaps the whole immediate future, must be concentrated upon
a much finer class of trade than has hitherto absorbed the greater
part of our effort. It is no longer to be considered enough to
make a sales record upon mere volume of business. The num-
bers of pianos sold may well be smaller during 1918 than they
were last year; but the quality of the instruments and the totals
of prices may be, and should be, higher than ever before. .
A
It is quite certain that the manufacturers will find it abso-
lutely necessary to push with the utmost vigor the sale of grands
and high-class players. This will be a matter of self-preserva-
tion with them. They must do it; for they cannot otherwise
stay in business. The retail salesman must, in turn, make up his
mind to precisely the same conditions, and must adjust himself
to them, lie must sell higher grade goods. That is all there
is to it.
Nor need one suppose for a moment that there is any special
difficulty to be apprehended in this respect. No one pretends
that it is as physically easy to sell a fifteen-hundred dollar re-
producing piano or a six-hundred dollar small grand, as to get the
signature of a twenty-dollar-a-week wage-earner to a contract to
buy a two hundred dollar upright stencil at eight dollars a month.
But the man who shrinks from the high-class salesmanship is
always doing so because—and only because—he does not, in his
heart, believe in himself or in his goods, does not understand
them, cannot demonstrate them and knows that the flash, brash
ways which may perhaps appeal to the rough-neck do not appeal
to the cultured man or woman of wealth and refinement.
Yet these reproducing pianos, these small grands, are being
sold. They are, in fact, being sold in larger quantities than ever
before. Moreover, the small grand of moderate price now in
the field, though more expensive than an ordinary upright, still
is cheap only in its price, and represents a perfectly wonderful
value in all respects.
On pianos like these, the efforts of the successful manufac-
turers will be move and more concentrated. The successful deal-
ers, therefore, must' themselves be able and willing to make the
sale of these the principal element of their business. This, after
all. only means that the retail salesman must go after the men
and women who have the money rather than after those who
have only the hope. The material prosperity of the American
people was never so great as it is now. In spite* of high cost of
foods and various sorts of war-time disorganizations, the in-
dustrial activity of the nation is simply huge, and the people are
finding themselves with more money than ever to spend, even
after buying Liberty Bonds and War Savings Certificates. There
was never another time, moreover, when the executive class, as
they may be called, the class of managers and administrators
particularly, were so well off. These folks have money. They
are waiting to be visited, interested, convinced, sold. One pro-
ducer of small grands made and sold 3,000 such instruments dur-
ing 1 ( )17. The manufacturing record of the greatest player action
manufacturers during last year was simply dazzling. One action
house is preparing to make 10,000 grand actions for 1918. All
must be sold. All can be sold.
H is the merest cowardice to shun the fact that the cheap
piano has seen its day and that dollar-a-week terms are obso-
lete. In war-times the piano business cannot be run that way.
Investments are greater, margins narrower. Terms must be
(Continued
on payc 13)
SALESMANSHIP
A Complete Section Devoted to Piano Salesmanship Published Each Month by The Music Trade Review
Changing Conditions the Piano Salesman Must Face
The Piano Industry Reflects the Changes Wrought in Our Economic Life by the
War, and the Salesman Must Accommodate Himself to These New Conditions
MOXCi the various blessings which the great war is grad-
ually bringing into being', disguised though they may often
be, it is sale to count the "growing seriousness manifested by busi-
ness men of all grades in connection with the present and future
conditions of business. It is not saying too much to state that
the American business man of the future will be a more thought-
ful man, and consequently a better business man, than ever be-
fore.
The piano business in the United States is to-day in a
peculiar condition. On the one hand we have a general disrup-
tion of the ordinary facilities and arrangements for the handling
of business, while on the other hand we have a public with
money to spend but with a tendency to caution, superinduced by
the campaign which has been conducted by semi-official agencies
for the promotion of a so-called "economy." The conditions are
not favorable to an easy and careless business. Yet they are
certainly the reverse of unfavorable to a well-conducted cam
paign. The salesmanship which will win during these war-
times and afterwards simply must be better, more thoughtful.
and more serious than it has ever been before.
Let us look at a few facts, briefly and sharply. The obser-
vation will do us good.
Costs of manufacture are steadily rising. They have doubled
within a "very short time, on many essential supplies, and every-
where, throughout the entire range of the items that go to make
up a piano or player-piano, the rise has been very sharp. Nor
is there any present hope of a change towards older and lower
price-levels.
Exactly for this reason, pianos and player-pianos must cost
the manufacturer a great deal more to make, and he must ask
more for his goods from the merchant.
At the same time the manufacturer must get his money from
the merchant more speedily and on better terms generally.
Naturally, then, the piano which is made so cheap that, at
the best, the margin of profit to the manufacturer was always
very small, is now in a condition, as to cost of making, where
the profit is down to the vanishing point. Naturally, also, the
manufacturers feel that their policy must be one of improve-
ment. They must make better grades of pianos, more player-
pianos and still more small grands. For on these latter there is
an opportunity to make a decent profit; and every day it becomes
clearer that such ah opportunity is already out of existence so
far as regards the cheap straight piano.
As a matter of truth, then, we are faced with the simple fact
that our piano salesmanship during the coming year, and for
perhaps the whole immediate future, must be concentrated upon
a much finer class of trade than has hitherto absorbed the greater
part of our effort. It is no longer to be considered enough to
make a sales record upon mere volume of business. The num-
bers of pianos sold may well be smaller during 1918 than they
were last year; but the quality of the instruments and the totals
of prices may be, and should be, higher than ever before. .
A
It is quite certain that the manufacturers will find it abso-
lutely necessary to push with the utmost vigor the sale of grands
and high-class players. This will be a matter of self-preserva-
tion with them. They must do it; for they cannot otherwise
stay in business. The retail salesman must, in turn, make up his
mind to precisely the same conditions, and must adjust himself
to them, lie must sell higher grade goods. That is all there
is to it.
Nor need one suppose for a moment that there is any special
difficulty to be apprehended in this respect. No one pretends
that it is as physically easy to sell a fifteen-hundred dollar re-
producing piano or a six-hundred dollar small grand, as to get the
signature of a twenty-dollar-a-week wage-earner to a contract to
buy a two hundred dollar upright stencil at eight dollars a month.
But the man who shrinks from the high-class salesmanship is
always doing so because—and only because—he does not, in his
heart, believe in himself or in his goods, does not understand
them, cannot demonstrate them and knows that the flash, brash
ways which may perhaps appeal to the rough-neck do not appeal
to the cultured man or woman of wealth and refinement.
Yet these reproducing pianos, these small grands, are being
sold. They are, in fact, being sold in larger quantities than ever
before. Moreover, the small grand of moderate price now in
the field, though more expensive than an ordinary upright, still
is cheap only in its price, and represents a perfectly wonderful
value in all respects.
On pianos like these, the efforts of the successful manufac-
turers will be move and more concentrated. The successful deal-
ers, therefore, must' themselves be able and willing to make the
sale of these the principal element of their business. This, after
all. only means that the retail salesman must go after the men
and women who have the money rather than after those who
have only the hope. The material prosperity of the American
people was never so great as it is now. In spite* of high cost of
foods and various sorts of war-time disorganizations, the in-
dustrial activity of the nation is simply huge, and the people are
finding themselves with more money than ever to spend, even
after buying Liberty Bonds and War Savings Certificates. There
was never another time, moreover, when the executive class, as
they may be called, the class of managers and administrators
particularly, were so well off. These folks have money. They
are waiting to be visited, interested, convinced, sold. One pro-
ducer of small grands made and sold 3,000 such instruments dur-
ing 1 ( )17. The manufacturing record of the greatest player action
manufacturers during last year was simply dazzling. One action
house is preparing to make 10,000 grand actions for 1918. All
must be sold. All can be sold.
H is the merest cowardice to shun the fact that the cheap
piano has seen its day and that dollar-a-week terms are obso-
lete. In war-times the piano business cannot be run that way.
Investments are greater, margins narrower. Terms must be
(Continued
on payc 13)
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