Music Trade Review

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Sales
\folume
75,000
FAHNESTOCK
Constant Promotional Work
Proves the Most Direct
Road to Instrument Sales
company recently among school students of the
vicinity.
For many years the 'company has had on its
payroll artists who appear in public without
charge, giving concerts at various functions to
promote the love of good music. This sort of
expenditure pays, it has been found.
The company advertises regularly and in all
Syracuse newspapers. Its piano advertising tells
just one story, namely that this is the great
instrument of self-expression, especially for
children. Parents are reminded that talking
machines and radio receiving sets are fine, but
they merely reproduce music, they do not create
it. To develop self-expression in your 'child,
buy a piano, is the story the House of Clark
has told over and over. And in the constant,
forceful telling of that story lies the entire
secret of its success in selling pianos, accord-
ing to officials of the company.
"We're going to keep on telling that story
Imposing Front of Clark Music Co. Store
over and over, for somebody sees it every time
we print the message," it was said.
The Clark Co. also makes extensive use of
direct mail advertising, and sees to it that every
prospect on the company's list receives attrac-
tive sales literature at frequent intervals. It is
found that this direct mail work makes a worth
while addition to newspaper advertising because
it not only attracts the prospect from another
angle, but reaches him, generally, at a time
when he is in a position to devote a few
minutes to reading and absorbing the informa-
tion offered.
Pianos are featured in advertisements, in win-
dow displays, and in the main showroom. It
has come to be axiomatic to associate Clark
and piano in Syracuse. This leads to the third
phase of merchandising, namely that of selling
good instruments. The company urges pros-
pective buyers to dispose oi their own old
pianos if a trade-in is suggested, and succeeds
in most instances, so that its stock is almost
exclusively new instruments, none of which is
a cheap, makeshift piano that will cease to be
a pleasure-giving device long before the con-
tract to purchase is completed. Sell good pianos
or none, is the unchanging instruction to the
company's sales people.
The final phase is that of the help employed.
Good-looking, intelligent girls, and wide-awake,
neatly dressed men are employed exclusively.
Ability to play some instrument is a big factor
in any prospective employe's favor. The love
Small Musical Instruments Are Also Sold—Many of Them
9
of good music is an essential. The company
pays good wages, employing as many as
seventy-five sales people in the peak of sales
seasons. Every employe is on the lookout for
prospects. Anyone who suggests the name
of a prospect gets a commission when the sale
is made. Earnings of the workers are thus in-
creased substantially.
This idea of interesting every employe
whether bookkeeper, office boy or porter, in the
selling of the products the company handles,
not only serves to increase sales to a surprising
extent, but keeps the employes on their toes and
on the lookout for prospects. As a result of
this policy, it is found that a goodly number
of employes, hired originally for non-selling
work, had demonstrated such keenness in dis-
covering prospective customers that they have
been advanced to the sales department.
The volume of piano business handled by ".he
Clark Co., is also credited in no small measure
to the systematic manner in which the work of
the salesmen is checked up and routed. A sys-
tem has been devised for the handling of pros-
pects that is almost automatic in its operation
and enables the salesmen to follow up his pros-
pects regularly and to know before he starts
out just what work has been already done on
the prospect and the progress that has been
made. By this plan it is possible to so arrange
the outside salesman's call that he can see a
maximum number of people in a minimum time
and without doubling on his tracks. It means
also that no prospect is neglected, for a
neglected prospect often means a lost sale.
Where, for one reason or another, it is not
deemed necessary or advisable to call person-
ally on the customer, the salesman uses the tele-
phone as a means of keeping contact and for
presenting to the prospect any special offerings.
In all this sales work the Clark Co. operates
on the principle that by maintaining constant
pressure on prospects the public of Syracuse
and vicinity is bound to keep in mind that at
Clark's musical instruments of the right sort are
obtainable and to be inclined to visit the com-
pany's store when the purchase of an instru-
ment is in prospect.
Mr. Clark is proud of his store. It is re-
splendent in Oriental rugs of rare value. There
is the famous Clark collection of harps, but that
is another story. Those who enter the store
cannot fail to be impressed with the fact that
it is a successful 'company. The sales people
bear out this impression and, with mighty few
exceptions, callers at the store do their bit to
contribute to that success.
"Sell pianos, why not," concluded Mr. Clark.
"They are the instrument of self-expression, no
home in which there are children should be
without one."
And thus a $500,000 business is developed.