Music Trade Review

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NOVKMBER 15,
1924
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
11
Making All of the Employes Salesmen
How the Knight-Campbell Music Co., Denver, Colo., Through the Use of Contests Has Made Every Member
of Their Organization a Source of Prospects—$50,000 Additional Business Expected From
Latest Contest Lasting Over a Period of Four Months
VERY retail piano selling organization
has hidden sales resources which good
management can bring to the surface and
which, if utilized, contribute heavily to the gross
volume of sales which the house makes. These
are not in the men who are most directly con-
cerned with the selling—that is the salesmen.
They exist among the other employes of the
warerooms, the office help, the girls in the rec-
ord and roll departments, the tuners and re-
pairmen, even the porters and the movers. All
of these are real sources of prospective cus-
tomers if they are encouraged by the proper
means and the trouble they go to is made worth
their while. An instance of the way in which
this encouragement is responded to by the em-
ployes is shown in the formation of what is
termed the "inner sales force" of Lyon & Healy,
Inc., Chicago, which, during a period of approx-
imately eighteen months, was directly respon-
sible for gross sales amounting to very nearly
a half a million dollars.
E
The Prospect Contest
It has been found by some retail piano houses
which are using this system that the mere pay-
ment of a certain sum for each prospect turned
in and which eventually results in a sale will
bring better results if a competitive element is
added and a contest along these lines worked
out so that the interest of every employe will
be enlisted not only in the actual returns from
his or her work in cash, but in the eventual
victory and what goes with it. A piano house
which has carried this idea much further than
the average and which has achieved wonderful
results with it is the Knight-Campbell Music
Co., Denver, Colo. For a long time this firm
has held regular contests of this type and it
has always found that their continuance has in
no way mitigated against the stimulation of
interests among those whom they employ.
The "Duck Pond" Contest
Last Spring this firm conducted what it
termed an "Andy Gump" contest, which was
described at that time in The Review. The em-
ployes of the house were divided into two teams,
composed respectively of the men and the
women, the men representing the ever-popular
Andy, and the women his ever-present wife,
Min. The basis of the contest was a trans-
continental race between the two, each prospect
that was reported and closed advancing the
standing of the respective teams. It brought
remarkable results, so successful in fact that the
firm started a similar one on September 1 to
continue until December 24, with the announced
aim of doing $50,000 worth of business from
that source during these four months.
A unique plan is used to present this con-
test to the employes. A large duck pond has
been painted in oil and hung in a prominent
place in the warerooms where every employe
has it before his or her eyes at least two or
three times daily. On one side of the water
stands the figure of "Shorty" Gregg with gun
leveled at the ducks flying in the distance. He
represents the men's team of the organization.
On the other side of the pond is "Pop" Bohon,
in a similar attitude, he representing the women
employes. For each prospect reported a duck
is placed on the pond, and as soon as the pros-
pect is turned into a sale the duck is removed.
What I-t Does
"This is a contest of non-selling employes,"
said Burt Wells, of the company, recently to
The Review. "Such contests are wonderful
assets to any concern that is selling musical
instruments. The rivalry developed between
the men and women of the two teams is very
keen and as a result we have educated a very
large number of our non-selling people to search
for prospects among their friends and acquaint-
ances and to be forever alert no matter where
they may be. The contests have proven their
worth in enabling us to make a great many sales
which otherwise would have either never been
made at all, or else have been made by one of
our competitors.
"The most interesting feature about the con-
test to my mind is the educational part of it.
We have found that it is teaching the young
men and women who never had an idea in their
heads and who wouldn't have known a prospect
for business even if it blossomed right under
their noses, to look around them and keep their
eyes open. Now their scent for prospects has
grown acute and they are steadily bringing
them into our salesmen.
"Of course, there is a reward for the employe
every time the sale is made to one of his or
her prospects, and in addition the sale is cred-
ited to his or her account for an extra prize in
the contest. In this particular race every dollar
in sales is a pound of duckmeat to add to the
weight of the gamebag carried by the contest-
ants. The goal set for this contest is $50,000
from September 1 to December 24, so you see
it is going to make a sizable addition to our
gross volume of business."
Ever-Widening Contact
Any piano merchant who would stop and
think for a moment regarding the wide influ-
ence which his non-selling employes possess
would immediately perceive what an asset he is
wasting in not utilizing this in developing sales.
Suppose he has ten people in the non-selling
force. Each of these have at least ten friends,
neighbors or acquaintances. There are a hun-
dred people reached immediately. But that is a
conservative es-timate. It usually runs much
beyond that. And where a contest is staged,
usually the employe in question can succeed
in interesting all of these in his work for a
prize, with the result that the number of people
goes on increasing on geometrical progression
and in a short time represents large numbers.
An Eastern house which had used such con-
tests occasionally recently had the top prize
carried away by the Italian porter, who could
hardly speak English. He turned in the largest
number of prospects and also showed the larg-
est percentage of sales closed. Particularly no-
ticeable about his prospects was the fact that
they included all types of people and were not
confined to his own nationality. A little inves-
tigation turned up the fact that he had a brother
in the moving business who carefully turned
over to him the name of every family he moved
which possessed no piano, player or talking
machine. Although this house had paid its em-
ployes for years for each prospect that devel-
oped into a sale, it required the contest to wake
up the porter and for him to develop this point
of contact which he had never used in the past.
The practice of rewarding employes for pros-
pects turned in is steadily growing. The John
Wanamaker piano department in New York
pays two per cent to any employe who turns
in a prospect which is eventually closed.
This includes every employe of the house
and not alone those directly connected with
the piano department. As this firm has approx-
imately 3,000 employes it can easily be seen
what a remarkable contact this system gives the
house.
Another variation of the contest idea is to
confine the prizes to a certain type of instru-
ment. Sherman, Clay & Co., of San Francisco
and the Pacific Coast, have held a number of
such contests confined to the player-piano and
the results have been very good. Invariably the
contests stimulated interest and showed an in-
crease in the sales volume of the type of instru-
ment to which it was confined.
Such a contest to be successful needs a
graphic representation to the employes who
take part in it Its progress and the standing
of the- various teams involved should be repre-
sented pictorially and with a certain degree of
humor if possible. Pictures say more than
words as every advertising man knows.
New Amco
Period Styles
and
Regular Line of
Amco Benches
Offers a large variety of
piano benches that satisfy
the most exacting taste.
If you are not now receiving the
AMCO BULLETIN, a pamphlet is-
sued every other month containing
items of interest to piano merchants,
please write us and we will put your
name on our mailing list.
American Piano
Bench Mfg. Co.
415-19 W. Superior Street
CHICAGO, ILL.