Music Trade Review

DECEMBER
22, 1923
THE
.P ut Yourself
MUSIC
•
In
TRADE
REVIEW
7
the Buyer's Place
Taking the Customer's Point of View Into Consideration When Making a Sale a Valuable Factor in Closing
- Service and Salesmanship Are Basically Synonymous- Under-selling and Over-selling, Both
Should Be Avoided in Sizing Up the Customer's Buying Capacity
There is nothin g original in this term and
A certain ma n decid ed to go into the real
argument, but it does one no harm to con­
estate business, which, upon further investiga­
tion, meant that he obtained a position with a
stantly think of it.
Selling and Service Synonymous
subdivider as a salesman to sell lots. The firm
It has often been said that in all walks of
for whom he worked had a rather unusual rule,
life and at all times we are engaged in selling
they made all their sa lesmen bu y a lot when
and it is easy to see that real selling and service '
they first went to work. This rule turned many
salesme n away, fillin g them with indignation
a re synonym"aus. The lover sells himself-or
and wrath-they denounced the firm as owners
rather the proposition of marriage-to his girl;
of . a "skin game." "The id ea," they said, "of but at the back of his mind, consciously or un­
making us buy lots li ke ordinary suckers-no, consciously, he is thinking of how he is goi ng
siree!"
to serve her by providing a home: The preacher
A Hard and Fast Rule
sells religion to his congregation only by trying
The firm, however, made it a hard and fast
to serve them in directing them to' what he
rule that all salesmen wo·rking for them and
believes to be real happiness now and in the
selling lots in a new subdivision must buy at hereafter. And so on.
least one each for themselves. "How else will
But the salesman should be able to know to
you have confidence enough to· se ll?" it asked. what extent he should sell. He should be able
The particular salesman of whom we write to decide whether he is over-selling a customer
bought a lot on the instalment plan, less his
or under-selling him-either over or und er is
salesman's. commission. "You sold it to your­
poor service, or rather, it is no service. And
self," explained the sales manager, "so we de­
ther e is only one way of sizing a customer up
duct your commission. Some sale-first blood!" and that is by placing oneself in the customer's
he gr inned. "Are you satisfied I"
place. Be your. customer's buyer-buy fO'l' him
"I guess so·, " said the salesman a little sheep­
as though you were in his shoes. Thus we
ish ly, "although;" he added, "1 don't see what
I want with a lot." "We ll, " answered the sales
AMERICAN PIANOS IN ENGLAND
manager, "if you don't need one, how are you
going to co nvince yo ur customers?" And after British Government Will Not Attempt to Re­
strict Imports of Such Instruments According
thal he gave a sales talk w hi ch was so con­
to Report of Trade Commission
vinc ing that the salesman ' very .nearly bought
another lot of his own free wi ll-h e got quite
\VAS InNGTON , D. C, December 18. .. ;\merican
""armed up and enthusiastic.
Afterwards, when he had cooled down, ' he manufacturers and expor ters of pianos need have
fclt very glad that he had not yielded to th e 110 hesitancy in entering the British market
impulse-he would have been a sucker jf he since, according to a report just received in
had, he thought.
vYash ington from the trade commissioner at
Well, he sold a few lots in that sub-division.
London, the British Government has no inten­
At first he did not sell them, he took orders
tion of a ttemptil)g to restrict imports of such
[or them-enthusiastic buyers who chanced his ar ticl es. .\t the present time imports into· Eng­
way insisted on buying. Later he caught a land of pianos, although somewhat lower than
little enthusiasm himself and helped to se ll to
during th e pre-war years 1909-13, are holding
those who bought from hi m.
up better than a re imports of other classes of
c.ommod iti es. The average monthly value of
When Enthusiasm Is Aroused
piano import s during th e pres ent ye ar was
He was really b eg innin~' to believe in the
'£41,395, as compared with £46,856 in 1922, and
va lue of what he was selli ng when he su ddenly
a pre-war average of £48,250, according to fig­
realized that the sub-division 'was all sold out.
ures gleaned from official sources in England.
Someo·ne insisted on buying his lot from him
at a fair profit to himself and he sold it with 'In 1919 the average monthly imports of pianos
were valued at £1,986, being lo w due to th e
a slightly guilty feeling that he was taking
fact that Germany was not open to trade .
advantage of the buyer-,-later he regretted very
In attempting to deal with th e question of
.m\lch that he h~d · sold' because it reso ld again
luxury restriction, the British Government has
fo 't ;'a, mu ch higher price.
found 'it very diffi cult to draw the line between
Then another sub-division opened and. as a
lu x uri es and essential goods; pianos are cer­
salesman working for the same firm he bought
tainl y essential as an element in educatio n, while
a lot. A week or two later he bought two
shoes and clothing beyond a certain amount
more lots and doubled his own sales. He was
belong in the list of luxuries. Further, many
filled wi th enthusiasm and felt that he was
making new friends by selling-he was doing of the co mmodi ti e·s that are import ed are also
them a service. He even went so far as to articles of expo rt and the freight and insurance
from the imports help to pay the cost of ex­
hunt up his old friends and relations and try
porting British goods. Finally, there is a ma­
'a nd give them service by selling them; in one
terial gain to the Government treasury through
or two ca ses 'he split his commission 0·1' sac­
the sums paid in import duties.
rificed all. But at this latter practice he was
caught by his sales manager, who nearly fired
him on the spot. "I don't want a ny men of
MONICA MUSIC SHOPPE OPENS
that kind working for m e," said the lat ter, "my
HOLLYWOOD, CAL., December 15.-Th e formal
sa le smen are serving ou r customers and for that
they deserve all th e pay that's their due-ever y open iJ) g of th e new ?vronica Music Shoppe a t
labot·e t · is worthy of his hire and when he 4512 Sunset boul evard was held here recently.
Monica Gualano is the proprietor and will carry
cheats himself out of part of that hire he is
icommencil1g:·-·to becom e a grafter-he's los in g a full line of pianos, phonog raphs a.nd st ringed
instruments. Miss Gualano, formerly the owner
the true value of service."
of the Hollywood Music Shoppe, has had her
All of th e' iibove sto i' y is rather a long way
ne\\ . e,tablishment deconted effectively.
ar01lJ)d to the main point of thi s littl e artick
o n salesmanship as applied to the music store,
Consult the Universal Want Directory of
but it is merely told because it is a rather con­
vincing example of salesmanship as being really The Review. In it advertisements are inserted
free of charge for men who desire positions.
a"matter of service..
.
come back to the golden rule which we are
all beginnin g to realize more and more is th e
best business policy!
Remember, however, that in following this
golden rul e one can err sometimes as badly by
under-sellin g as by over-selling. One is not
rendering real service to a man by selling him
one lot when he can easily affo·rd six and on
which he would make additional profit, nor is
the piano sal esman serving a customer right by
selling him a low-p r ice . piano when he would
obtain greater pleasure through pride of pos­
session, quality and satisfaction by owning an
expensive o·ne.
Summing Up
To sum up: Before a piano salesman can
render real service to a customer by actually
filling his nee ds, it is necessary for him to ob­
tain th e fullest info·rmation possible in re gard
to th e custom er's circumsta nc es and means;
then, with this information, he can cons t it ute
himself as th e purchasing agent for the cus­
tomer-rendering him real sales-service with
the fullest observation of the Golden Rule in
business.
BILL FOR NATIONAL CONSERVATORV
Senator Fletcher, of Florida, Introduces Meas­
ure Providing for Establishment of National
Conservatory of Music With Several Branches
W .\SHINGTON, n. C, December 18.-A bill pro­
viding for the establi shmen t of a National Con­
servatory of Mu s ic, for the education of pupils
in music and all its branches, vocal and ins tru­
mental, has been introduced in the Senate by
Senator Fletcher, of Florida. The conservatory,
under Mr. Fletcher's bill, would be foster ed and
maintained by the Govern ment and would have
branches in Florida, California, vYashington , the
District of Columbia an d other sections as
needed. The exec uti ve" headquarters of the ge n­
eral board 0.£ re ge nt~ a nd the director general
wo uld be located in W conservatory would be located at any point de­
termined up on by the general board of rege nt s.
The general board would consist of the Presi­
dent of the United State" the President of the
Senate, the Speaker of the House of Repres enta­
tives, th e chairman of the Committee on Educa­
tion and Labo r of the Senate and House and a
director general and advisory board of dire cto·rs.
The director general is to be a profess ional
musician and the advisory board, to 'c onsist of
fifteen members, in cludes five professional musi­
cians, fiv e members from musical organizations
and five m embe r ~ who are eminent edu cators
or other persons o f hi gh character and adm in­
istrative capacity. The sum o[ $50,000 is ap­
propriated for preliminary ~xp('nses .
TO ERECT HIS OWN BUILDING
James K. Patterson, of Evanston, Ill., An­
nounces Plans for Two-story Structure
EVANSTON, ILL. , December ' 18.--Arrangements
fo r the erection of a building of his own in which
to conduct his mus ic business in th e future have
just been announced by James K. Patterson,
who has been e ngaged in the music busines~ for
the past eighteen years here. The new building
is located at 816-18 Church street, and will be
ready for occupancy about May 1, 1924. Mr.
Patterson's present location is at 828 Davis
street, and he also conducts a musical and
household accessory establishment at 1950-52
I rv in g Park boulevard, Ch icago .