Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
AUGUST 23, 1924
MUSIC
TRADE
REVIEW
Twelve Ways of Obtaining Prospects
A Dozen Methods Which Music Merchants in All Sections of the Country Are Using With Success in De-
veloping Their Prospect Lists With Names That Are Worth the Expense Involved in the
Selling Cost of Obtaining Their Signatures on the Dotted Line
CERTAIN retail music merchant in the
Middle West sends out a guarantee with
every piano or player-piano that he sells
in addition to the one which the manufacturer
furnishes with the instrument. A card is made
out covering each sale and placed ninety days
ahead in his file. At the end of that period
a letter is written to the customer requesting
information regarding the instrument and ex-
pressing the hope that it has fulfilled the ex-
pectations of pleasure and entertainment which
the customer had at the time of his or her
purchase. The letter ends with a reference to
an enclosure of a stamped postcard and with
a request that the recipient write the names
of several friends and neighbors who have
heard the instrument and who have expressed
gratification regarding it. The merchant re-
ports that the returns have more than war-
ranted the expense involved in maintaining the
system, for he has been able to trace a large
volume of sales to such prospects since he be-
gan it.
A dealer in Wisconsin about the middle of
every September secures the records of all au-
tomobiles licensed in the territory which he
covers during the Spring and Summer months.
These are carefully classified and a series of
letters written to these automobile owners call-
ing attention to the fact that the motoring
season is coming to an end and that the long
Winter evenings will soon be at hand. This is
especially true in his territory, as heavy snows
and low temperatures of a Wisconsin winter
are not particularly conducive to motoring dur-
ing this period. He has used this sales cam-
paign during the past seven years and in every
case he has found that it has brought good
results.
These are two of the ways in which active
music merchants are building up live prospect
lists. The sources for these names are innu-
merable, providing always that the music dealer
has the ingenuity to use them and to follow
them up closely. It is all a matter of obtaining
contact with people who have sufficient means
to purchase the goods which he offers. Here
are some other methods which retail music
merchants have tested and which have been
found to be profitable.
Children's Birthdays
A Southern merchant in a city of about 75,000
people has had remarkable success in supplying
pianos to families whose children are just be-
coming old enough to begin their musical edu-
cations. The secret of his success is simple.
He secures transcripts from the birth records
filed with the municipal authorities, and, as
each birthday comes around, sends a simple
but handsome birthday greeting to the child.
When the child becomes old enough these cards
are supplemented with a suggestion that it is
time that his or her musical education be
begun, one to which a family is always suscep-
tible. The child is prejudiced in his favor by
the cards and the child is a big factor in such
a sale. Changes in address are controlled by
mailing first class with a return notice. Of
course, the names themselves are classified ac-
cording to the status of a family and checked
against the list of taxpayers in the cily. Peo-
ple who own their own homes rarely move.
Wedding license records as well a ; wedding
and engagement notices in the newspapers are
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used by another music merchant in a somewhat
similar way. A card of congratulation is sent
to the woman in each case, follti wed up by a
small booklet telling of music's place in the
home and how no home is complete without it.
Relatives of the bride, when it is possible to
obtain their names, are also solicited, a musical
instrument being always a welcome wedding
gift. This can always be done when the en-
gagement notice is to be had, since its estab-
lished form contains such information.
A method which cannot be used so widely
but which is found to be extremely profitable
by the merchant who uses it is that of follow-
ing up records of residential fires. At first
glance it would be thought that such a time
would be the worst possible to solicit a pros-
pect for the sale of a piano or player-piano.
But ninety-nine people out of one hundred are
insured, and as soon as they receive their insur-
ance begin to create a new home. Invariably
the woman wants something better than she
has had in the past. People in this condition
have been found by this merchant to be good
prospects. They are reached through first-class
mail, the postoffice doing the forwarding.
Real Estate Transfers
This same dealer follows all transfers of resi-
dential real estate and all filings of plans for new
homes in his selling radius. The purchase or
building of a new home invariably means the
purchase of new home furnishings and it is not
difficult to have a piano or player-piano in-
cluded with these, providing, of course, that
the solicitation comes at the proper moment.
This again has proven a profitable source of
good prospects.
Two dealers in a New England city, in non-
competing lines and one of them a music mer-
chant, have worked out a plan for the exchange
of prospect lists to their mutual benefit. Each
of them turns a prospect's name over to the
other just as soon as the sale of his own mer-
chandise has been completed. This exchange
of names has proven valuable to both of them.
It is a plan which could be worked more
widely than it is.
A Brooklyn department store, which has an
extensive music department-, finds one of its
most prolific sources of prospects in the series
of concerts which it gives every Winter in con-
nection with churches, lodges and other social
organizations. The instruments, artists and
program are furnished by the department store,
and the advertising, printing, etc., by the organ-
ization for which the concert is given. Names
are obtained from those who do the ticket sell-
ing. The full proceeds naturally go to the
organization for which the concert is given.
This plan has the advantage of not only fur-
nishing good names, but it gives the oppor-
tunity of giving a demonstration of either a
player-piano or reproducing piano, as the case
may be.
A merchant in Central New York finds one
of the most efficient means of building up a
prospect list is through exhibits at county fairs,
church bazaars and other events of this type.
He has one man in his selling organization who
does practically nothing else but this and who
has a plan worked out to obtain the names of
those who visit the exhibit through a prize
contest involving some degree of skill on the
part of those who participate. Practically every
church or lodge in his territory is willing to
give space for such an exhibit at a very low
price, since the man in charge of it has worked
out entertainment features which add to the
attractiveness of the event. This is the factor
that must always be remembered in selling work
of this sort and which gives the music mer-
chant an incontestable advantage over mer-
chants in other lines of retailing who also make
exhibits.
A music merchant in a large Pacific Coast
city regularly arranges reproducing piano re-
citals in the homes of the most prominent pur-
chasers of these instruments which he has on
his list of customers. For this work he uses
a woman who is socially well acquainted in
his city and who gives every co-operation to
the hostess. The list of names is secured by
this woman offering to supply the engraved
invitations if the names are furnished her and
to take care of the mailing. Most women dis-
like this detail and are only too glad to have
somebody take care of it for them. If the
woman who is giving the concert is very prom-
inent socially this merchant goes so far as to
furnish a local artist of some reputation. The
cost of this is small as the artist is only too
anxious to appear before what is the best audi-
ence in his city.
Co-operating With Teachers
A leading music merchant of Denver has
worked up a wonderful prospect list of piano
students through a very simple means. It
might be thought that such a list would be
worth little since all of these already have
instruments. As a matter of fact it is a good
list for the simple reason that the piano student
invariably starts with a medium-grade instru-
ment and wants a better one, and especially a
grand all the time. This dealer places at the
disposal of the local teachers one of his repro-
ducing studio rooms for lectures on musical
interpretation, illustrated by the reproducing
piano through three or four interpretations of a
composition by three or four pianists. It is
said that a majority of the leading teachers in
the city use this convenience and in return will-
ingly furnish lists of students, and use their in-
fluence in eventual sales. When students give
public recitals, the lists of compositions to be
played are obtained, and invitations are mailed
to them stating that they can hear various in-
terpretations of these numbers in the store.
This close relation between the store and the
students and teachers of the city is a big fac-
tor in the eventual volume of sales.
This same merchant probably carries the en-
couragement of all his employes in furnishing
prospects' names further than any other house
in the country. Contests along these lines are
constantly staged, department being pitted
against department, the male employes against
the women employes and many other frVam con-
tests being worked out.
Consolidated Go. to Expand
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, August 16.—The. State
Securities Commission has given the Consoli-
dated Music Co. permission to offer for sale
750 shares of its preferred stock at $100 per
share. It is understood that the amount real-
ized from the sale of the stock will be used
for the much needed expansion of the business.
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