Music Trade Review

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DECEMBER 13,
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
1924
9
Making the Sales Organization a Unit—(Continued from page 7)
tically pays him for doing his work. By this
means of keeping the sales organization intact
as group workers the firm promotes alertness
and strict attention to floor duties of the inside
sales head of the various departments and is
the gainer in efficient service and loyalty. Where
a "turn over sale" is made the commission of
the floor men is divided. For instance, the
captain of one team is unable to close a deal
or develop a prospect sent by one of his can-
vassers through failure of personal appeal, or
any other cause than lack of effort on his part,
he turns the customer over to another floor
man and if the deal is closed the commission
is divided, the larger portion going to the man
who has actually landed the order.
Advocates of the Salary Basis
Manager O. Fitzgerald, of the Ludwig Piano
Co., Philadelphia branch, finds that the straight
salary is most productive of co-operation be-
tween inside and outside representatives. He
avers this develops the family idea in the busi-
ness of the Ludwig Co. There is united effort
on the part of both forces in developing the
business interests with harmony and goodfel-
lowship among the workers. The salary sys-
tem eliminates petty squabbling over commis-
sions and promotes good will and co-operation,
for both are duly credited for the accomplish-
ments on the sales floor.
Ethics predominate when the indoor and out-
door salesmen are compensated through a
straight salary, according to the experiences of
Albert C. Weymann, treasurer and secretary of
H. A. Weymann & Son, and manager of its
piano department. Through this means of pay-
ment for services the Weymann company has
been able to secure a mutual exchange of cour-
tesy between both divisions of the sales or-
ganization. When the question of commissions
is not the paramount issue in sales competi-
tion the entire body works in unison for the
advancement of the firm's interest, Mr. Wey-
mann finds. He also has noted the friendly
and fraternal exchange of information on pro-
spective sales which has been passed from one
branch of the organization to the other under
the stipulated salary policy and through which
the firm is the gainer in increased business.
Backing up the firm's terms of compensation,
it has been found that better salesmen are de-
veloped by round table discussions of an in-
formative and educational nature beginning
with the mechanical arrangements of the piano,
the source of raw materials and extending
through the technicalities of manufacture and
expert salesmanship. These talks are held
weekly and have proved valuable in promotion
of efficiency and co-operation throughout the
entire sales organization.
Cleveland Music Merchants Find That
Salary Plus Commission Is Effective
HP UK various Cleveland piano houses appear
to have developed thoroughly satisfactory
methods for arranging the compensation of
their inside and outside staffs, for these two
most important factors in the business organi-
zation work together in complete harmony.
The methods of the various houses naturally
differ to a considerable extent, but the basic
idea is to so arrange the compensation that
each individual will be satisfied and inclined to
put forth his best effort to the common end of
increasing trade.
The opinions of a number of the local trade
members on this subject are herewith presented:
H. B. Bruck, the H. B. Bruck & Sons Co.—
"You can never get something for nothing,
though there are many people who believe that
they can upset this rule. This rule applies in
piano selling as well as anything else. If the
closing of the piano deal is all important, then
the selection of the person, the floorman, or
whoever is to do the closing, is just as im-
portant. In other words, if you want a really
good closer, you have got to pay him a good
salary.
"But the fixed income is likely to have the
effect of lessening the capability of the most
enthusiastic, so an additional incentive to sus-
tain enthusiasm and interest seems necessary.
Call it commission, bonus or whatever you like,
it seems to me the best results can be obtained
if the floorman knows that he is going to get
something extra every time he closes a deal.
"This should not be a flat sum, as the wide
variety of prices in pianos also makes for a
wide variety effort in closing the deals. I be-
lieve that this additional sum should be graded—
say $5 for the higher priced new pianos, down
to $1 for the used pianos that the floorman
closes. These sums are not large in themselves,
but in the aggregate will mount up into a tidy
sum at the end of a week, month or year, and
when the floorman realizes that, he is bound to
bend every effort toward closing every deal that
comes to him.
"Finally, the owner of the piano establish-
ment should forego any thought that the floor-
man is making this extra money. For is it not
better, even though he make $50 a week extra,
that the piano establishment sell ten high grade
pianos, and reap the profit on them, than to lose
the chance of this profit by withholding the
additional money as incentive for the floor-
man?"
Emphasizing Necessity of Team Work
George M. Ott, the G. M. Ott Piano Co.—
"The best method for making real co-operation
between floorman and outside salesman, I be-
lieve, is to have a strict understanding that team
work is necessary. It stands to reason that
all the good work of the outside salesman
means nothing if the floorman does not actually
close the deal that the outside man originated.
And it is equally important that without the
aid of the outside man, the floorman would
have nothing to close.
"In the final analysis, the outside salesman
does most of the work. He originates the
deal, and brings it to that point where the
customer is ready to come to the store and is
in a buying mood. At that point the floorman
can either make or break the sale. Some in-
centive is necessary. The commission should
be divided, the greater portion go to the outside
salesman because of the originality he must put
forth, the smaller portion to the inside man.
"Best results can be obtained, however, aside
from the additional compensation, by an un-
derstanding that the outside salesman is to
praise the house and the inside floorman, and
insist that the customer ask for the floorman
by name, giving, in short, the impression that
a square deal is quite as important to the cus-
tomer as the piano he or she is buying. This
method of co-operation should get the maxi-
mum number of closings out of the prospects
developed."
W. W. Bell, the Wolfe Music Co.—"Some-
thing additional for the floorman, as an induce-
ment, to close as many deals as possible, seems
essential. The average individual, in whatever
walk of life, who is provided for by a stated
income or salary, won't do any more than he
has to. Hence an additional income, however
small, seems necessary. What this is to be, and
how it is to be apportioned, of course depends
upon the resources of the house employing him,
but I believe the returns justify it."
Largest Share for Outside Man
A. L. Maresh, the Marcsh Piano Co.—
"Where it is necessary for two persons to work
together to create and close the sale of a piano,
it should be understood right at the beginning
that there has got to be team work. Without
this many sales are likely to be lost. While,
of course, the owner of the establishment
should have something to say in this arrange-
ment, it is well for the inside and outside men
to make their own arrangement. I should say
that the outside man should get more commis-
sion than the inside man, say two-thirds for the
outside man and one-third for the insider. Our
experience is that nine out of ten prospects who
come into the store are sold before they come
in, so this tends to prove thai the outside
salesman must surely have been on the job.
The big job is to get them in. But the floor-
man is just as important in his part in closing
the deal and hence, he should be rewarded."
Harlan H. Hart, the May Co. piano depart-
ment.—"We believe in fair play and recognition
of merit. In other words, pay the floorman
what he is worth, pay him for what he does and
if he is inclined to do better than is expected
of him, he should receive a bonus. In our
office we have a little sign that may illustrate
what we mean. It reads: 'If you must fight
for happiness, fight for it, but not at the ex-
pense of others.' I think this might be taken
as a slogan for what we mean by fair play."
Working Both Outside and Inside
Adolph Muehlhauser, the Muehlhauser Bros.
Piano Co.—'"The manner in which we aim to
close deals here may be a little different from
others, but we find it works out satisfactorily.
Everybody takes his turn at both inside and
outside work. After having worked upon a
prospect on the outside, everyone in our or-
ganization aims to be in the store when the
prospect calls. The prospect will then recog-
nize the individual, and this helps to make the
customer feel more at home. The purchaser
also is not made to feel as though dealing with
a stranger, that is, some one different from the
person who first discussed the piano sale with
her."
Outside Men Must Rotate on Floor
With Indianapolis Music Merchant
' I A HE successful merchandising of pianos re-
quires a thorough and carefully developed
selling organization. The satisfied salesman is
the one who is backed up by his company and
receives full co-operation, and particularly is
this true of the outside man. Dealers recog-
nize that the outside man is the most important
cog in their selling force as he is the missionary
who goes into the field and sells the idea of
his particular store, and while each store has
its respective plan of compensation for sales-
men, the underlying principle must always be
that a satisfied customer is the best selling
force.
The various modes of compensation that In-
dianapolis dealers have for rewarding the ef-
forts of their salesmen are proving in the
main very satisfactory. The outstanding point
in each plan carries the desire to reward suffi-
ciently the outside salesman, the man upon
whom a great majority of the business of the
store rests.
The Pearson Piano Co.'s Plan
The Pearson Piano Co., more than a half-
century in the local piano trade, has had little
difficulty in its method of compensation, ac-
cording to E. W. Stockdale, manager of the
piano department.
Regardless of whether the customer has been
solicited by the outside salesman or not, the
floor man attempts to sell him. When it de-
velops that the outside man has solicited this
particular prospect and through his efforts the
{Continued on page 11)