Music Trade Review

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NO-STRADDLE
EDITORIALS
WE MAY BE WRONG BUT NEVER IN DOUBT
SEPTEMBER 1941—VOL. 100. No. 9—THE 2.741st ISSUE
MEDALS AWARDED THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
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UITE a story which appeared re-
cently on the piano sales antics of a
department store whose heresiatic
policy is a great topic among piano
men. A big Philadelphia dealer com-
mented: "You are right when you say piano
selling should be streamlined, comparable
with the product. There should be no need
for piano salesmen to tear themselves apart
in every sale of a piano." Mulling this over,
and with all regard for the sales lever of
tone, it is possible that we are still selling
pianos backwards for all these years. Per-
haps we have reached the point where, with
all the past exploitation of piano styling that,
we should drop tone as a major factor and
put the styling first. In other words, it seems
advisable to waste no more time on the
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factor of tone. Let tone be taken for granted,
both in sales theory and in practice.
ON'T permit either the customer or
salesman to play even so much as a
chord until the piano is in the home
where the year after year playing is
to be done. Even after many years of piano
selling, few dealers are yet demonstrating
the tone of a piano under regular home con-
ditions. For example, dealers are still dem-
onstrating in rooms 20 feet high; or letting
the pianos stand on bare wooden floors or
in the corner or side of a room 35 x 65, where
the acoustics are so foreign to those in the
home, and comparing perhaps to the display
of a 9 x 12 rug on the floor of the Grand
Central.
D