Music Trade Review
Issue: 1930 Vol. 89 N. 9 - Page 5
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Some of the
rospects
Are Old Customers
A
S we all know, the
player piano sales have
dropped off, and we
are back in the period
of selling uprights and grands
to customers who are giving
their children music lessons,
which is the most sound basis
for piano business to be built
on, as fads and fancies do not
effect piano playing in any way.
We have taken a list of all
pianos sold by the firm in the
last twenty years, using this
list as our most important
prospect list, and giving each one of our out-
side salesmen ten names to call on each day,
plus their regular day of canvass from hou.se
to house with the following canvass: (Mrs.
Doe, "I am from the Service Department of
the John Doe Piano Co., and I wonder if we
can service your piano in the way of tuning or
regulating"). This immediately obtains for the
salesman the information as to whether they
own a piano or not. Our salesmen are in-
structed to get the name, the initials, and the
address, of all people who own pianos, plus the
name and the age of the piano; also whether
or not there are any children in the family.
They are instructed not to try to sell pianos
on this canvass. The most important thing
of this whole canvass is that these salesmen
have never sold pianos before in their lives.
One is a washing machine man, one a stock
and bond man, and the other a Fuller brush
man. All are used to canvassing, and we are
building up a very nice prospect list with this
mode of canvass. As you know, the majority
of successful piano salesmen in piano houses
get 75 per cent of their business from old
customers and an intelligent canvass.
By SIDNEY A. REARDIN
hand dealer, it would eventually
be fixed up by some tuner, and
would keep some ipiano dealer
from selling a new piano and
making a satisfied customer.
My experience has taught me
that 75 per cent of the custom-
ers who come in to see $35.00
to $75.00 used pianos and $395.00
new grand pianos, don't want
that type of instrument. They
really have in mind investing
from $600 to $800, as the buying
public know they can't get a
good grand piano for much less
than this amouit of money. The upright cus-
tomers, although they have been told by the
dealer that they can get pianos for $50.00 to
$75.00, good a,s new, really don't believe it.
I don't feel that the piano business is any
worse off than is the selling of many other
commodities. I do feel that an experienced
piano salesman with his present mental attitude
is licked before he starts. I think that if a
piano salesman, each time he approaches a. pros-
pect's house, and just before he rings the door
bell, would pretend that there are four other sales-
men at his elbow, the electric refrigerator man,
the vacuum cleaner man, the automobile man
and the radio man, each one after this cus-
tomer's $50.00, which is to go to one of these
five commodities as initial payment, he would
figure that it is just going to be a question of
who is the best salesman with the best canvass
or sales talk, and would get more piano busi-
ness than he does.
Consequently, I am hiring men who have
never sold pianos before and don't know that
pianos can't be sold. Upon investigating you
will find that the automobile man, as well as the
ice box "and vacuum cleaner dealers, etc., are
going out and getting men who have no previ-
ous experience in their lines.
Of course, these meihods will not apply to
dealers or salesmen who can't exist only on
wars and stock market booms. We must have
dealers and salesmen who can function in nor-
mal times, and both dealer and salesmen must
make plans for the future as well as the present
sales, which takes patience and patience and
patience, on the part of both the dealer and the
salesman, and incidentally the manufacturer.
Buyer and manager of the Piano Department
of Strawbridge & Clothier, Philadelphia, tells
how former patrons can be turned into new
customers—Some timely views on proper can-
vassing and the men to do it.
My experience has been very much diversi-
fied, namely, in locations, types of dealers and
types of merchandise handled. I have yet to
find an experienced piano salesman who will
consistently follow the above canvass. Not only
are we using this method but we have a list
of the convents in Philadelphia, and we are
making the same survey of the schools and
churches.
We will broadcast fifteen minutes a day over
our station starting next week, with an exclu-
sive piano number of light semi-classical pieces.
In conjunction with this, we are starting a
group class instruction, a combination of differ-
ent methods and charging fifty cents a lesson
for the pupils.
All of our canvassing is done in neighbor-
hoods who own homes of from $7,000 to $15,-
000, which I have found by experience to be
the best type of neighborhood, and the best
group of people to sell new studio model up-
rights and $600 to $800 grands.
The second-hand trade-in question is taken
care of by first selling the customer our piano
and our firm. The trade-in allowance is han-
dled as a secondary consideration. Unless a
piano sale is handled in this manner and you
allow the customer to sell you their old piano
regardless of what the new piano is you are
selling, then you will always have difficulty in
taking old pianos in trade at a price that you
can afford to junk 90 per cent of, as it is our
policy to allow only $25.00 to $50.00 for old
pianos. The majority of these instruments are
from 15 to 40 years old, and are absolutely not
musical instruments any more. After we get
a piano, on which we have allowed $30.00, and
spend two days' time on it, for which, if work-
ing outside, our tuner would get $12.00 a day,
and add this $24.00 or $25.00 to the allowance
of $30.00, it makes us have invested $55.00 in
this particular instrument. If we can't sell
this piano for $100 to $125 readily, rather than
invest any more money than the original $30.00,
we break this piano up so that it won't be used
as a musical instrument, in place of selling it
to some second-hand dealer for $5.00 or $10.(X).
We appreciate that if we sold it to a second-
Some of the
rospects
Are Old Customers
A
S we all know, the
player piano sales have
dropped off, and we
are back in the period
of selling uprights and grands
to customers who are giving
their children music lessons,
which is the most sound basis
for piano business to be built
on, as fads and fancies do not
effect piano playing in any way.
We have taken a list of all
pianos sold by the firm in the
last twenty years, using this
list as our most important
prospect list, and giving each one of our out-
side salesmen ten names to call on each day,
plus their regular day of canvass from hou.se
to house with the following canvass: (Mrs.
Doe, "I am from the Service Department of
the John Doe Piano Co., and I wonder if we
can service your piano in the way of tuning or
regulating"). This immediately obtains for the
salesman the information as to whether they
own a piano or not. Our salesmen are in-
structed to get the name, the initials, and the
address, of all people who own pianos, plus the
name and the age of the piano; also whether
or not there are any children in the family.
They are instructed not to try to sell pianos
on this canvass. The most important thing
of this whole canvass is that these salesmen
have never sold pianos before in their lives.
One is a washing machine man, one a stock
and bond man, and the other a Fuller brush
man. All are used to canvassing, and we are
building up a very nice prospect list with this
mode of canvass. As you know, the majority
of successful piano salesmen in piano houses
get 75 per cent of their business from old
customers and an intelligent canvass.
By SIDNEY A. REARDIN
hand dealer, it would eventually
be fixed up by some tuner, and
would keep some ipiano dealer
from selling a new piano and
making a satisfied customer.
My experience has taught me
that 75 per cent of the custom-
ers who come in to see $35.00
to $75.00 used pianos and $395.00
new grand pianos, don't want
that type of instrument. They
really have in mind investing
from $600 to $800, as the buying
public know they can't get a
good grand piano for much less
than this amouit of money. The upright cus-
tomers, although they have been told by the
dealer that they can get pianos for $50.00 to
$75.00, good a,s new, really don't believe it.
I don't feel that the piano business is any
worse off than is the selling of many other
commodities. I do feel that an experienced
piano salesman with his present mental attitude
is licked before he starts. I think that if a
piano salesman, each time he approaches a. pros-
pect's house, and just before he rings the door
bell, would pretend that there are four other sales-
men at his elbow, the electric refrigerator man,
the vacuum cleaner man, the automobile man
and the radio man, each one after this cus-
tomer's $50.00, which is to go to one of these
five commodities as initial payment, he would
figure that it is just going to be a question of
who is the best salesman with the best canvass
or sales talk, and would get more piano busi-
ness than he does.
Consequently, I am hiring men who have
never sold pianos before and don't know that
pianos can't be sold. Upon investigating you
will find that the automobile man, as well as the
ice box "and vacuum cleaner dealers, etc., are
going out and getting men who have no previ-
ous experience in their lines.
Of course, these meihods will not apply to
dealers or salesmen who can't exist only on
wars and stock market booms. We must have
dealers and salesmen who can function in nor-
mal times, and both dealer and salesmen must
make plans for the future as well as the present
sales, which takes patience and patience and
patience, on the part of both the dealer and the
salesman, and incidentally the manufacturer.
Buyer and manager of the Piano Department
of Strawbridge & Clothier, Philadelphia, tells
how former patrons can be turned into new
customers—Some timely views on proper can-
vassing and the men to do it.
My experience has been very much diversi-
fied, namely, in locations, types of dealers and
types of merchandise handled. I have yet to
find an experienced piano salesman who will
consistently follow the above canvass. Not only
are we using this method but we have a list
of the convents in Philadelphia, and we are
making the same survey of the schools and
churches.
We will broadcast fifteen minutes a day over
our station starting next week, with an exclu-
sive piano number of light semi-classical pieces.
In conjunction with this, we are starting a
group class instruction, a combination of differ-
ent methods and charging fifty cents a lesson
for the pupils.
All of our canvassing is done in neighbor-
hoods who own homes of from $7,000 to $15,-
000, which I have found by experience to be
the best type of neighborhood, and the best
group of people to sell new studio model up-
rights and $600 to $800 grands.
The second-hand trade-in question is taken
care of by first selling the customer our piano
and our firm. The trade-in allowance is han-
dled as a secondary consideration. Unless a
piano sale is handled in this manner and you
allow the customer to sell you their old piano
regardless of what the new piano is you are
selling, then you will always have difficulty in
taking old pianos in trade at a price that you
can afford to junk 90 per cent of, as it is our
policy to allow only $25.00 to $50.00 for old
pianos. The majority of these instruments are
from 15 to 40 years old, and are absolutely not
musical instruments any more. After we get
a piano, on which we have allowed $30.00, and
spend two days' time on it, for which, if work-
ing outside, our tuner would get $12.00 a day,
and add this $24.00 or $25.00 to the allowance
of $30.00, it makes us have invested $55.00 in
this particular instrument. If we can't sell
this piano for $100 to $125 readily, rather than
invest any more money than the original $30.00,
we break this piano up so that it won't be used
as a musical instrument, in place of selling it
to some second-hand dealer for $5.00 or $10.(X).
We appreciate that if we sold it to a second-
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