Music Trade Review

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REVIEW
THE
VOL. LXXXII. No. 18 Published Every Safrrday. Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., 383 Madison Ave., New York, N. Y., May 1, 1926
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Combing the Specialty Field to Get
More Retail Piano Salesmen
Scarcity of Retail Piano Salesmen at the Present Time Made One Executive Advertise for Men Accustomed
to Selling Articles From Few Hundred to Well Over One Thousand Dollars, With the Result
That He Obtained Good Number of Men Who Eventually Made Good
IMULTANEOUSLY with the realization of
the need of more intensive selling effort on
the part of retailers in pianos for the pur-
pose of increasing materially the annual turn-
over of those instruments and successfully fight-
ing competition that exists with other products,
there comes the oft-repeated cry for more piano
salesmen or at least for salesmen who can, and
will, sell pianos.
A Puzzling Condition
This situation is puzzling in a sense, because
although scores of dealers and their managers
report a scarcity of competent sales people, there
are salesmen who have devoted themselves to the
piano field for years and who claim that it is
difficult for them to make connections of a suit-
able nature. Whether the field is not suffi-
ciently profitable, or whether the salesmen
themselves are at fault is a matter of question,
though there are many men who have made and
are making very substantial incomes through
retail selling of pianos.
Proper Handling
It would appear that the question of the
proper handling of salesmen is quite as impor-
tant, and in many cases more important, than
the ability of the salesman himself. If he is
properly encouraged, offered a proposition thai
will give him a fair percentage of the money he
earns for his house, and is backed up by the
house itself in advertising and in other ways,
the mediocre salesman can often make an ex-
cellent showing, while the naturally competent
man can develop into the star class.
Going Out of the Field
It is natural for the piano man in search of
salesmen first to select those who have had some
experience in the field, who know the talking
points of pianos and their relative merits and
who can talk intelligently regarding competitive
instruments mentioned by the prospect. It hap-
pens, however, that in many cases such men, if
they are worth while, are already employed and
generally pretty well satisfied with their present
situation. That the demand for trained piano
salesmen is larger than the supply is shown in
a number of ways and none more convincing
than the manner in which the replies are re-
ceived by salesmen advertising for employment
in the classified columns of The Review. Rare
indeed is the advertisement of this type that
S
does not bring at least a dozen replies from
practically all sections of the country, and the
average is really close to a score. This indicates
that the demand for salesmen is not simply a
matter for.conversation.
Despairing of getting men already trained in
r
HE scarcity of piano salesmen at the
present time is one of the big elements
in causing present conditions in the piano
industry. Too often the merchant who de-
sires to recruit his sales personnel confines
his efforts to men who have already had
actual piano selling experience and makes
no effort to obtain men from other fields.
There are thousands of good specialty sales-
men in the country who have received first
class sales training and who in short time
would become good piano salesmen. Here
on this page is the story of how one man
tapped this field with good results.
the field quite a number of dealers have for
some years past followed the practice of recruit-
ing their sales staffs from the general run of
men with sales training regardless of the field
in which they have been operating previously.
It has been found that with sales ability already
developed, it is not a particularly difficult prop-
osition to develop in the salesman a fairly com-
prehensive knowledge of the instruments he is
expected to sell and the procedure to be fol-
lowed in their sales.
A Successful Experiment
A particularly interesting experience in connec-
tion with drafting men from other fields to sell
pianos was reported recently by a Western man-
ufacturer, whose sales organization is built along
lines that make for close co-operation with the
dealer, and who follows the instrument from the
factory to the warerooms and into the cus-
tomer's home. Several dealers handling this
manufacturer's product in a given territory com-
plained of a scarcity of salesmen and of the fact
that advertisements for piano salesmen brought
very unsatisfactory responses. The sales man-
ager for the manufacturer tackled the problem
from another angle and advertised for high-class
specialty salesmen successful in handling prod-
ucts ranging in price from a few hundred to
well over a thousand dollars. The response was
instantaneous, for the second day following the
appearance of the advertisement over a hun-
dred men were interviewed, of whom thirty-
three were selected and turned over to the va-
rious dealers for trial. The success of the ex-
periment lies in the fact that of the thirty-three
men selected twenty-eight made good and are
still holding down their jobs.
Sales Ability the Thing
The fact of the matter is that the man who
has sold automobiles or furniture or insurance,
or any of those things which are calculated to
bring him in direct contact with the home and
the housewife, as well as with the male head of
the family, should be quite competent to talk
pianos intelligently to the same people. The
point made by the manufacturer, and it is a
good one, is that only certain specialty salesmen
will fit into the piano man's scheme of things.
The fellow who has devoted his time to selling
patent soap dishes or sink strainers, stove tops,
or any of a hundred and one "household neces-
sities," on a call-once-and-never-came-back plan,
is not the type of man who can succeed in
piano selling. He may, it is true, be able to
place the instruments, but the dealer is likely to
find that such a salesman has been free with
promises in closing the sale without thought of
the come-back that is certain. With pianos it is
not a case of get the money and disappear.
Part-Time Selling
One dealer in the East has solved his sales
problem in a measure by engaging what he
terms a part-time crew, paying them commis-
sions and meeting their expenses up to a mod-
erate amount. In this crew are included three
music teachers and two life insurance agents, the
latter engaged in making weekly collections on
industrial policies. All these individuals have
access to numerous homes during the week and
can quickly find out whether or not a piano is
needed and if the family is in a position to buy
one. These part-time sales people devote their
evenings and such hours as they have available
(Continued on page 4)