Music Trade Review
Issue: 1919 Vol. 69 N. 12 - Page 11
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
ESMANSHIP
A Complete Section Devoted to Piano Salesmanship Published Each Month by The Music Trade Review
The Salesman as a Factor in Obtaining Fair Prices
Higher Prices Must Be Obtained for Musical Instruments If the Industry Is to
Remain on a Stable Basis, and the Salesman Must Do His Part to Secure Them
VERY salesman well knows that the retail demand for pianos,
E
player-pianos and all other musical instruments is very intense,
and shows no signs of letting up. But every salesman knows also
that the conditions under which his house is obliged to transact busi-
ness are abnormal in more than one way. He knows, or should
know, that the cost of doing business is rising all the time just a
little faster than adjustments to meet the rise can be made. The
figures which represent the price of pianos or anything else in
themselves of course mean nothing. Their only meaning is in their
exchange value at any given moment. There is nothing alarming
in paying five hundred dollars for a piano which two years ago
would have cost at retail four hundred dollars, if the general level
of earnings has risen in the same proportion. In a word, to the
extent that variations in price can be adjusted to the earning power
of the individual mere figures mean nothing. This is a point to
be kept in mind.
Now in some industries such adjustments have been made with
fair precision. Unless, however, they can be made universally and
simultaneously, which is not yet a quite practical proposition, there
will always be sections of the community very much behind or even
somewhat ahead of their schedule. The one state is as bad for the
community, of course, as the other. The piano industry in all its
branches, and indeed the music industry generally also, is among
those which habitually are a little behind in adjusting their returns
to the general level of prevailing prices.
Why this should be so is not difficult to understand when we
realize that there is a very considerable difference between the in-
trinsic merits of an article and public recognition thereof. The
American people had to be educated up to the piano and the
process has been slow. Gradually there sprang up the practice of
advertising and selling the piano on the basis of how easily and at
how low a price it could be bought. The present piano-purchasing
public, or at least so much of them as are over thirty years old, have
been brought up to consider piano buying as a sort of game and to
think of the piano in any terms save terms of its intrinsic musical
value. The piano has never been sold on its straight musical merit;
which also explains why it has never been sold at its real value.
Now the economic situation of to-day is such that the sellers
of pianos are obliged to recognize these facts practically and take
steps towards getting in line with the other economic groups in the
nation. Piano prices must be put on a level which represents some-
thing like reality. That means higher prices than have prevailed.
The piano dollar, to use a simile which has often been pointed in
these columns, is a cheap dollar. A few months ago Colonel Con-
way, president of the W. W. Kimball Co. in Chicago, was saying
that the piano dollar at that time was worth about 65 cents. He
meant that the dollars which the maker or merchant gets for a piano
will not buy a fair equivalent in other goods, as measured by the
amount of brains, material and artistic value which go into a piano.
That is why piano prices must increase. The piano represents
a case of giving the purchaser at prevailing prices actually too much
for his money. This is not healthy for anyone.
The salesman who wishes to understand the situation in his
chosen field must realize these facts and make correct deductions
from them, if he is to succeed within the new conditions which are
imposed on us. The only way of safety lies in getting higher prices.
It is not the least use to apologize for any increases which may be
forced upon us. Too often all the influence of salesmen is thrown
against asking and obtaining fair price; mainly because the tradition
of door-bell ringing and special sales is very slowly shaken off. The
idea of treating the piano as a staple instrument which the world
needs and is demanding is one which professional salesmen grasp
imperfectly, despite the facts of the existing market. The time is
come to throw overboard the outworn concepts of an earlier day
and to realize that the process of educating the people to fair prices
and towards a cash basis can be initiated to-day with the certainty
of complete success. But if the present golden opportunity be per-
mitted to pass nothing will prevent the business as soon as produc-
tion approaches pre-war ratios from falling back into the old condi-
tion of huckstering and into the old atmosphere of semi-fakerism.
The piano salesman of to-day has a great opportunity before him.
Will he measure up to its demands? Will he see, in a word, that
the watchword of to-day must be fair prices, cash and "selling music,
not furniture?"
Securing Piano Prospects by Watching the Papers
The General News Columns of the Daily Papers Contain Many Items Which Will
Serve to Furnish the Live Piano Salesman With Leads for Future Customers
IANO dealers and salesmen are ever on the watch for new
ideas which may be used as sales arguments to induce prospec-
tive buyers to become owners of pianos and players. They are
constantly searching for new prospects, scanning the marriage and
obituary notices in the daily papers, working on the theory that a
newly married couple will want an instrument when they come to
furnish their home. In looking over the death notices to see if
money has been left they think that the widow will want a piano
P
in her home to help lessen the cares and sorrows of life after the
loss of her husband. To be sure this practice may be justified and
sometimes produces results, but it is too limited in its scope. Better
arguments are needed.
The daily papers in their news columns have many points of
interest which salesmen can turn into good sales arguments. The
lives of prominent men of wealth and social position almost invari-
(Continued on page 13)
ESMANSHIP
A Complete Section Devoted to Piano Salesmanship Published Each Month by The Music Trade Review
The Salesman as a Factor in Obtaining Fair Prices
Higher Prices Must Be Obtained for Musical Instruments If the Industry Is to
Remain on a Stable Basis, and the Salesman Must Do His Part to Secure Them
VERY salesman well knows that the retail demand for pianos,
E
player-pianos and all other musical instruments is very intense,
and shows no signs of letting up. But every salesman knows also
that the conditions under which his house is obliged to transact busi-
ness are abnormal in more than one way. He knows, or should
know, that the cost of doing business is rising all the time just a
little faster than adjustments to meet the rise can be made. The
figures which represent the price of pianos or anything else in
themselves of course mean nothing. Their only meaning is in their
exchange value at any given moment. There is nothing alarming
in paying five hundred dollars for a piano which two years ago
would have cost at retail four hundred dollars, if the general level
of earnings has risen in the same proportion. In a word, to the
extent that variations in price can be adjusted to the earning power
of the individual mere figures mean nothing. This is a point to
be kept in mind.
Now in some industries such adjustments have been made with
fair precision. Unless, however, they can be made universally and
simultaneously, which is not yet a quite practical proposition, there
will always be sections of the community very much behind or even
somewhat ahead of their schedule. The one state is as bad for the
community, of course, as the other. The piano industry in all its
branches, and indeed the music industry generally also, is among
those which habitually are a little behind in adjusting their returns
to the general level of prevailing prices.
Why this should be so is not difficult to understand when we
realize that there is a very considerable difference between the in-
trinsic merits of an article and public recognition thereof. The
American people had to be educated up to the piano and the
process has been slow. Gradually there sprang up the practice of
advertising and selling the piano on the basis of how easily and at
how low a price it could be bought. The present piano-purchasing
public, or at least so much of them as are over thirty years old, have
been brought up to consider piano buying as a sort of game and to
think of the piano in any terms save terms of its intrinsic musical
value. The piano has never been sold on its straight musical merit;
which also explains why it has never been sold at its real value.
Now the economic situation of to-day is such that the sellers
of pianos are obliged to recognize these facts practically and take
steps towards getting in line with the other economic groups in the
nation. Piano prices must be put on a level which represents some-
thing like reality. That means higher prices than have prevailed.
The piano dollar, to use a simile which has often been pointed in
these columns, is a cheap dollar. A few months ago Colonel Con-
way, president of the W. W. Kimball Co. in Chicago, was saying
that the piano dollar at that time was worth about 65 cents. He
meant that the dollars which the maker or merchant gets for a piano
will not buy a fair equivalent in other goods, as measured by the
amount of brains, material and artistic value which go into a piano.
That is why piano prices must increase. The piano represents
a case of giving the purchaser at prevailing prices actually too much
for his money. This is not healthy for anyone.
The salesman who wishes to understand the situation in his
chosen field must realize these facts and make correct deductions
from them, if he is to succeed within the new conditions which are
imposed on us. The only way of safety lies in getting higher prices.
It is not the least use to apologize for any increases which may be
forced upon us. Too often all the influence of salesmen is thrown
against asking and obtaining fair price; mainly because the tradition
of door-bell ringing and special sales is very slowly shaken off. The
idea of treating the piano as a staple instrument which the world
needs and is demanding is one which professional salesmen grasp
imperfectly, despite the facts of the existing market. The time is
come to throw overboard the outworn concepts of an earlier day
and to realize that the process of educating the people to fair prices
and towards a cash basis can be initiated to-day with the certainty
of complete success. But if the present golden opportunity be per-
mitted to pass nothing will prevent the business as soon as produc-
tion approaches pre-war ratios from falling back into the old condi-
tion of huckstering and into the old atmosphere of semi-fakerism.
The piano salesman of to-day has a great opportunity before him.
Will he measure up to its demands? Will he see, in a word, that
the watchword of to-day must be fair prices, cash and "selling music,
not furniture?"
Securing Piano Prospects by Watching the Papers
The General News Columns of the Daily Papers Contain Many Items Which Will
Serve to Furnish the Live Piano Salesman With Leads for Future Customers
IANO dealers and salesmen are ever on the watch for new
ideas which may be used as sales arguments to induce prospec-
tive buyers to become owners of pianos and players. They are
constantly searching for new prospects, scanning the marriage and
obituary notices in the daily papers, working on the theory that a
newly married couple will want an instrument when they come to
furnish their home. In looking over the death notices to see if
money has been left they think that the widow will want a piano
P
in her home to help lessen the cares and sorrows of life after the
loss of her husband. To be sure this practice may be justified and
sometimes produces results, but it is too limited in its scope. Better
arguments are needed.
The daily papers in their news columns have many points of
interest which salesmen can turn into good sales arguments. The
lives of prominent men of wealth and social position almost invari-
(Continued on page 13)
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