Music Trade Review

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SALESMANSHIP
A Complete Section Devoted to Piano Salesmanship Published Each Month by The Music Trade Review
The Dawning of a New Era in the Selling of Pianos
Now Is the Time for the Pijno Salesman to Discard Entirely All of the Old and
Questionable Methods, and to Begin to Sell on the Basis of Value and Merit
of The Music Trade Review, making
A REPRESENTATIVE
the rounds of the trade in a certain great city, was surprised to
hear the complaint from various salesmen that business had been
less prosperous than might have been expected during some recent
weeks. There seemed then, and seems now, to be not the slightest
reason for such a state of affairs. Inquiry, however, revealed a
general state of slackness or "summer sickness" amongst the retail
salesmen, and a general desire to believe in the mythical "vacation
let-up" which has always furnished so useful an excuse to the lazy
ones.
Now, as a matter of fact, the conditions in the piano market
have shown not the slightest change within the last six months, save
that demand has still further increased over supply. When, then,
we hear a complaint about slackness of business there must be some
determining local condition to account for the strange state of af-
fairs. In the case under consideration there was and is a determin-
ing condition. Salesmen had become slack and lazy.
The peculiar condition of the market during past months has
indeed been, in some respects, not for the good of the industry.
Although it killed—let us hope forever—the pernicious practice of
running special sales on outrageous terms, it has apparently not killed
the equally pernicious habit of regarding the sale of a piano as a
sort of game. The idea that a man or woman might want a piano
on really legitimate grounds, as a musical instrument, is not even
yet firmly grounded in the consciousness of piano salesmen. That is
why one finds that even to-day, when the public are demanding
pianos beyond our ability to provide them, salesmen are still using
every kind of salesmanship save the logical kind. That is why we
find that salesmen are still shy on taking up the study of piano
selling on logical lines.
Now it would seem to any ordinary person that the present
is the one best time of all possible times to go in for some real genu-
ine salesmanship in the piano game. Now, if ever, is the time when
the public are ready to talk value and merit. Now, if ever, is the
time for salesmen to realize that the piano game must, some time
or other, be put upon the basis of logic and truth. Now, if ever, is
the time to realize that the piano business is a real business and that
the demand for pianos is a real demand based upon the merit of
the instrument and the genuine desire of the public for music.
Salesmanship as an art has hardly been needed, to any extent,
during the last year or so in the selling of pianos at retail. But the
present abnormal conditions must neither be anticipated as continu-
ing permanently nor made an excuse for getting into slack ways.
When production has come nearer to touching demand, what kind
of salesmanship shall we have to use to sell pianos at the right prices
and on the right terms ? The old game will never work again. The
people know too much for one thing; and, for another thing, none
of us wants to go back to the days when the manufacturer banked
for the dealer and the dealer banked for the consumer, with no
profit for anybody in the deal. We want to continue to sell pianos
and player-pianos on a profitable basis. Of course we do; but when
we can no longer sell them at a nod to men and women only too
anxious to buy what sort of salesmanship will help us? Will it not
be a salesmanship based upon the truth that the people have at last
begun to wake up to the meaning of value and are asking for goods
in which value and merit are the predominating features?
It seems to the writer that, whatever else may be true in the
case, this one thing is plainly true, and that is that we need to take
a fresh grip on ourselves, get busy on the piano, begin to learn some
more about it and make a start towards getting ourselves into an in-
telligent frame of mind in respect to the construction, the tone and
the musical meaning of the piano. It seems to the writer that this
sort of knowledge—true knowledge of the piano and of the player-
piano as instruments of music and as mechanisms—affords the only
possible foundation whereon to build a salesmanship of the future;
a salesmanship which shall endure, because it will be based upon
truth and upon value. The saying that a sale is a failure unless
both parties to it make a profit embodies a great truth; the truth,
namely, that true business is fair exchange, built on value and trans-
acted on a mutual knowledge of the facts.
Great Selling Opportunities Offered by the Player
A. W. Johnston, in the Standard Player Monthly, Points Out the Opportunities
Which Await Progressive Salesmen Who Will Study the Selling of Player-Pianos
AS the player salesman been slighted in the past? W r e think
he has. Certainly the present-day tremendous demand for the
player-piano proves beyond a doubt that he is selling the instruments
as fast as the manufacturer can place them in the store. Yet we
have said little to encourage the salesman and show our appreciation
of his efforts. The majority of player-piano manufacturers have
been so engrossed in their efforts to increase production and thereby
keep pace with the salesmen that momentarily they have forgotten
who is responsible for the sales that are causing this unprecedented
era of good business. A few words of appreciation will work
wonders and the player salesmen are certainly entitled to them.
H
Now that we have mentioned the subject of increased produc-
tion, let us connect this fact with the salesman and see how it will
affect his future. At present, the salesman has the advantage over
the manufacturer because he can sell player-pianos faster than the
manufacturer can build them, but the manufacturer is working
earnestly in an endeavor to increase production and perhaps it will
only be a question of a short time when the tables will turn and Mr.
Manufacturer will again be on top and asking the salesman to dis-
pose of his product more rapidly.
It would seem that now is the time for Mr. Salesman to consider
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