Music Trade Review
Issue: 1922 Vol. 74 N. 18 - Page 3
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
MUJIC TIRADE
VOL.
LXXIV. No. 18
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., at 373 4th Ave., New York.
May 6, 1922
A School for Piano Salesmen
O
NE of the topics that have come to the front recently in the retail piano trade has been the question of
the advisability of establishing a school, or perhaps several schools, of piano salesmanship, under
proper auspices and operating through the co-operation of the trade at large, in order to build up
efficient selling organizations that will help to move the goods that are now inclined to remain too
long on the wareroom Moors.
For some years the question of vocational training received considerable attention from manufacturers,
especially when labor was scarce, and that question still persists to a certain degree although the majority of
factories manage to get most of the skilled workers they require under existing conditions.
The problem right now is not so much one of production as it is one of distribution, and from this
angle the selling question naturally stands uppermost. During the past few months several retail managers
have voiced their opinions concerning some sort of school, or series of schools, to take young men just start-
ing in the business world, or those at present employed in other fields and desiring to make a change, and to
train them to a point where they will be familiar with piano construction, with the practices of the trade and
with logical selling arguments, so that retailers may make use of their services without any great personal
training expense.
There are in the trade, of course, managers and salesmen of the old school who stick to the idea that
piano salesmen are born and not made—that they come close to representing a distinct race of their own, and
that the ordinary individual cannot hope to attain any great measure of success in the field. Such an idea is
naturally archaic, for piano dealers before now have taken men from other fields and developed them success-
fully to a point where they were real piano sales producers, earning incomes that compare favorably with sell-
ing rewards in other lines of business.
"
' *
Only recently an aggressive retail manager in the East advertised for salesmen, offering a very mod-
erate salary, even for normal times, but holding out commissions on sales as bait. The response to the adver-
tisement was surprising, coming from men of education and in many cases successful selling experience, who
appeared to be interested in entering a new field and who were impressed not so much by the amount of
money that was offered them as salary as by the opportunities offered for making substantial commissions as
a result of earnest effort.
Naturally, these new men must have some sort of training, and there is no question but that if there
were a selling school it would enable them to receive the benefit of the experience of several successful
piano merchandisers rather than the advice of only one man, no matter how good he might be. There could
be some good, permanent work done to the advantage of the industry as a whole.
There is nothing unique about salesmanship schools, for such schools have brought thousands of real
dollars into the coffers of talking machine dealers; have proven successful with the cash register people, and
have been put over in fields too numerous to mention. It is not a question, as some seem to suppose, of drill-
ing the salesman in a set speech to be delivered directly to the prospect, but rather of acquainting him with the
details of piano construction, of the factors that make for quality, and of the arguments with which he is most
likely to be confronted.
The question of some organized method of training in piano salesmanship will very likely come up at
the conventions in June. There are going to be many who will favor the move, and many more who, for one
reason or another, will oppose it; but before the idea is sidetracked entirely, however, there should be offered
for consideration some other definite plan that will mean more piano sales. That is the goal, regardless of what
steps may be taken for its accomplishment.
THE
MUJIC TIRADE
VOL.
LXXIV. No. 18
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., at 373 4th Ave., New York.
May 6, 1922
A School for Piano Salesmen
O
NE of the topics that have come to the front recently in the retail piano trade has been the question of
the advisability of establishing a school, or perhaps several schools, of piano salesmanship, under
proper auspices and operating through the co-operation of the trade at large, in order to build up
efficient selling organizations that will help to move the goods that are now inclined to remain too
long on the wareroom Moors.
For some years the question of vocational training received considerable attention from manufacturers,
especially when labor was scarce, and that question still persists to a certain degree although the majority of
factories manage to get most of the skilled workers they require under existing conditions.
The problem right now is not so much one of production as it is one of distribution, and from this
angle the selling question naturally stands uppermost. During the past few months several retail managers
have voiced their opinions concerning some sort of school, or series of schools, to take young men just start-
ing in the business world, or those at present employed in other fields and desiring to make a change, and to
train them to a point where they will be familiar with piano construction, with the practices of the trade and
with logical selling arguments, so that retailers may make use of their services without any great personal
training expense.
There are in the trade, of course, managers and salesmen of the old school who stick to the idea that
piano salesmen are born and not made—that they come close to representing a distinct race of their own, and
that the ordinary individual cannot hope to attain any great measure of success in the field. Such an idea is
naturally archaic, for piano dealers before now have taken men from other fields and developed them success-
fully to a point where they were real piano sales producers, earning incomes that compare favorably with sell-
ing rewards in other lines of business.
"
' *
Only recently an aggressive retail manager in the East advertised for salesmen, offering a very mod-
erate salary, even for normal times, but holding out commissions on sales as bait. The response to the adver-
tisement was surprising, coming from men of education and in many cases successful selling experience, who
appeared to be interested in entering a new field and who were impressed not so much by the amount of
money that was offered them as salary as by the opportunities offered for making substantial commissions as
a result of earnest effort.
Naturally, these new men must have some sort of training, and there is no question but that if there
were a selling school it would enable them to receive the benefit of the experience of several successful
piano merchandisers rather than the advice of only one man, no matter how good he might be. There could
be some good, permanent work done to the advantage of the industry as a whole.
There is nothing unique about salesmanship schools, for such schools have brought thousands of real
dollars into the coffers of talking machine dealers; have proven successful with the cash register people, and
have been put over in fields too numerous to mention. It is not a question, as some seem to suppose, of drill-
ing the salesman in a set speech to be delivered directly to the prospect, but rather of acquainting him with the
details of piano construction, of the factors that make for quality, and of the arguments with which he is most
likely to be confronted.
The question of some organized method of training in piano salesmanship will very likely come up at
the conventions in June. There are going to be many who will favor the move, and many more who, for one
reason or another, will oppose it; but before the idea is sidetracked entirely, however, there should be offered
for consideration some other definite plan that will mean more piano sales. That is the goal, regardless of what
steps may be taken for its accomplishment.
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