Presto
Issue: 1920 1756 - Page 12
PRESTO
12
PAINLESS INJECTION OF
A PIANO BUYING DESIRE
Experienced Piano Salesman Tells How the
Wise Operator in the Country
Reaches His Subject.
"Salesmanship in the country is the painless in-
jection of the piano buying desire," said A. D. Spen-
cer, a piano man with a good rural territory which
centers in Gladstone, Mo. In the dog days, when
city pavements blister the feet, and piano salesmen
seek the shady end of the store to chew the cud
of the bitter fancy of listlessness, the piano pro-
vider of the agricultural sections goeth forth with
joy, according to Mr. Spencer. Instead of waiting
until Opportunity gives its one imperious little rat-
tat-tat-tat at the door, the rural prospect chaser
hunts it in the fragrant alfalfa, the undulating tim-
othy and the tasseled corn rows to find and grab it
firmly by the chin whiskers.
The rural dealer or salesman does not wait until
the ultimate consumer gets good and ready to con-
sume. He is the creation of psychological moments,
the prompt propounded of propositions, and the
master of final consequences.
"The piano salesman who hunts prospects in the
country is a diplomat who talks of anything but
pianos when he approaches his subject,' said Mr.
Spencer. "The weather, the crops, stockyard in-
difference or interest in hogs, paying popularity of
fat steers, Willum J. and prohibition, Senator
Lodge and reservations, viewpoints of garden truck,
jeopardy of the king job in Europe, hides, tax bun-
gles and jokers are subjects that may be approached
directly, but pianos—Oh, no! That is a subject
that the wise piano salesman who works close to
the soil and works the soil tillers closely, does not
administer. He injects it."
Mr. Spencer outlined an ingenious procedure.
The patient farmer is mending a whiffletree in the
barn lot. occasionally gazing with satisfaction at the
March 18, 1920.
waving lines of ripening corn in the fields. His
wife, in a print sunbonnet and negligee mother hub-
bard, stands close by with a duplicate of the satis-
fied gaze. Myriads of omniverous poultry watch
the mechanical movements of her hand that spreads
the showering fistfuls of grain. All is suggestive of
peace and plenty.
The patter of a horse's hoofs or, maybe, the joy-
ous staccato honk of an auto horn draws the eyes
of the barn lot occupants to the turn in the pike.
Their glances are fearless in their very uncon-
sciousness of what the advancing traveler meditates.
To them he is just a man in a buggy or auto, or
whatever it may be; he adds interest to the land-
scape, that's all. But to the man approaching along
the pike, the farmer and his wife are speicmens of
that variety of game he is out to bag—ultimate
consumers, and they are as good as bagged.
The man with the piano in his vehicle hands out
a sample of refreshing conversation about anything
and everything—except pianos. You never find his
piano preamble prancing around among a covey of
ultimate consumers like some impetuous bush
beater of the hippo belt of Mombasa. Not a bit
of it. The rural salesman is discretion itself. You
see, he knows the habits of the game he stalks.
At one moment the farmer's wife is deep in a
dissertation on the prevalence of pip in the leg-
horns or th eapparently unperventable liiabiltiy of
the black cochin chinas to the ravages of roup when
next moment the undivided interests of the supper
table seems to be fixed on the wonders of the re-
producing player-piano.
Or the farmer may have the floor, so to speak,
and may be durning the governmental attitude on
grain prices when—nobody can tell how—the sub-
ject has switched to one concerning the proper ar-
rangement of piano strings on a perfect scale or
the pleasure-producing marvel of the player music
roll.
E. M. Love, secretary of the Story & Clark Piano
Company, Chicago, is expecting F. F. Story, vice-
president and treasurer of the company, back from
his California outing this week.
BENCHES
TONK
PREPARING CATALOGS FOR
THE FOREIGN MARKET
The Proper Way to Do It Provides Several Prob-
lems for the Exporter.
In a survey of export sales problems the Bureau
of Foreign and Domestic Commerce says in reply
to a query that it is possible to do a satisfactory
export business by means of catalogs; that many
American manufacturers have found it highly ad-
vantageous to develop prospects by sending out
catalogs first and then following up the work by
traveling salesmen or local agents. In commodities
of a novelty nature or standard styles of goods
like pianos, that can be perfectly illustrated and
described, catalogs alone can produce a great lot
of business. The bureau says that many concerns
are doing a large and growing- business is foreign
markets by means of catalogs, and that a greater
assurance of good results follows if the catalogs
are aided by a generous use of trade papers with
foreign readers.
In preparing a catalog for use in foreign trade the
most important thing is to get the right point of
view. The compiler must place himself in the posi-
tion of the prospective buyer. Never take anything
for granted; assume that the person for whom it is
designed knows nothing whatever about the sub-
ject being treated. Deal with facts and make it
plain and easily understood.
The other advices are obviously wise: Do not
send a catalog in the English language to a coun-
try where another language is spoken. See that
the technical translations are correct. Do not use
poor illustrations.
Proper distribution is obtained in various ways.
Verify the names found in directories, trade lists,
etc., and submit them to American consuls, local
banks in foreign countries and to your agents if
you have such. If this precaution is not observed
the percentage of waste is likely to be extremely
high.
PIONEER SCHOOL FOR PIANO MEN
Established 1901
FOLK'S SCHOOL oj TUNING
GO WITH GOOD P ANOS TO
ACTIVE DEALERS' CUSTOMERS
Piano, Player-Piano and
Organ Tuning, Repair-
ing
Regulating and
Voicing. Best equipped
schoo in the U. S
WISE DEALERS ALREADY IN LINE
Write Us NOW for Information
617CH
TONK MANUFACTURING CO.
1912 Lewis Street
•
WESSELL, NICKEL & GROSS
Manufacturers of
PIANO
ACTIONS
ONE GRADE ONLY
HIGHEST GRADE
Ihe Sign of Supreme
Achievement in Piano
Actions.
826 Successful Graduates
FACTORIES:
West Forty-Fifth Street, Tenth Avenue and Weal
Forty-Sixth Street
OFFICE:
4S7 West 45th Street
NEW YORK
Com stock, Cheney & Co.
Ivory Cutters and Manufacturers
Piano Keys, Actions m Hammers
»VORY \ N D COMPOSITION-COVERED ORQAN KEYS
The only Comf any Furnishing ihe Keys, Actions, Hammers and Brackets CompSitt
CHICAGO
Diploma? awarded and positions secured.
Private and c'.ass instructions, both texet.
School all ft
Address:
yat
Hlu*tra*»d (atologuii frt.
Box 414. VALPARAISO, IND.
CABLE-NELSON PIANO CO,
Manufactures fine pianos and player-pianos and
Wholesales them at fair prices and terms.
The agency is a source of both
profit and prestige.
REPUBLIC BUILDING, CHICAGO
The Best High-Grade Piano for the Money
Newman Bros. Pianos have tonal quality second to none.
Their many superior points and their forty=six years of pres-
tige give the dealer interesting facts to tell his prospects.
When you take on the Newman line of pianos and players you
become one of us, and we give you real help when you need it.
Don't just think we are a fine firm to deal with, find out for
sure and you will stay right with us.
Newman Bros. Company
Telegraph and R. R. Station: Essex, Conn.
Office and Factories: Ivory ton, Conn*
Factories, 806-16 Dix St.
Chicago, Illinois
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/
12
PAINLESS INJECTION OF
A PIANO BUYING DESIRE
Experienced Piano Salesman Tells How the
Wise Operator in the Country
Reaches His Subject.
"Salesmanship in the country is the painless in-
jection of the piano buying desire," said A. D. Spen-
cer, a piano man with a good rural territory which
centers in Gladstone, Mo. In the dog days, when
city pavements blister the feet, and piano salesmen
seek the shady end of the store to chew the cud
of the bitter fancy of listlessness, the piano pro-
vider of the agricultural sections goeth forth with
joy, according to Mr. Spencer. Instead of waiting
until Opportunity gives its one imperious little rat-
tat-tat-tat at the door, the rural prospect chaser
hunts it in the fragrant alfalfa, the undulating tim-
othy and the tasseled corn rows to find and grab it
firmly by the chin whiskers.
The rural dealer or salesman does not wait until
the ultimate consumer gets good and ready to con-
sume. He is the creation of psychological moments,
the prompt propounded of propositions, and the
master of final consequences.
"The piano salesman who hunts prospects in the
country is a diplomat who talks of anything but
pianos when he approaches his subject,' said Mr.
Spencer. "The weather, the crops, stockyard in-
difference or interest in hogs, paying popularity of
fat steers, Willum J. and prohibition, Senator
Lodge and reservations, viewpoints of garden truck,
jeopardy of the king job in Europe, hides, tax bun-
gles and jokers are subjects that may be approached
directly, but pianos—Oh, no! That is a subject
that the wise piano salesman who works close to
the soil and works the soil tillers closely, does not
administer. He injects it."
Mr. Spencer outlined an ingenious procedure.
The patient farmer is mending a whiffletree in the
barn lot. occasionally gazing with satisfaction at the
March 18, 1920.
waving lines of ripening corn in the fields. His
wife, in a print sunbonnet and negligee mother hub-
bard, stands close by with a duplicate of the satis-
fied gaze. Myriads of omniverous poultry watch
the mechanical movements of her hand that spreads
the showering fistfuls of grain. All is suggestive of
peace and plenty.
The patter of a horse's hoofs or, maybe, the joy-
ous staccato honk of an auto horn draws the eyes
of the barn lot occupants to the turn in the pike.
Their glances are fearless in their very uncon-
sciousness of what the advancing traveler meditates.
To them he is just a man in a buggy or auto, or
whatever it may be; he adds interest to the land-
scape, that's all. But to the man approaching along
the pike, the farmer and his wife are speicmens of
that variety of game he is out to bag—ultimate
consumers, and they are as good as bagged.
The man with the piano in his vehicle hands out
a sample of refreshing conversation about anything
and everything—except pianos. You never find his
piano preamble prancing around among a covey of
ultimate consumers like some impetuous bush
beater of the hippo belt of Mombasa. Not a bit
of it. The rural salesman is discretion itself. You
see, he knows the habits of the game he stalks.
At one moment the farmer's wife is deep in a
dissertation on the prevalence of pip in the leg-
horns or th eapparently unperventable liiabiltiy of
the black cochin chinas to the ravages of roup when
next moment the undivided interests of the supper
table seems to be fixed on the wonders of the re-
producing player-piano.
Or the farmer may have the floor, so to speak,
and may be durning the governmental attitude on
grain prices when—nobody can tell how—the sub-
ject has switched to one concerning the proper ar-
rangement of piano strings on a perfect scale or
the pleasure-producing marvel of the player music
roll.
E. M. Love, secretary of the Story & Clark Piano
Company, Chicago, is expecting F. F. Story, vice-
president and treasurer of the company, back from
his California outing this week.
BENCHES
TONK
PREPARING CATALOGS FOR
THE FOREIGN MARKET
The Proper Way to Do It Provides Several Prob-
lems for the Exporter.
In a survey of export sales problems the Bureau
of Foreign and Domestic Commerce says in reply
to a query that it is possible to do a satisfactory
export business by means of catalogs; that many
American manufacturers have found it highly ad-
vantageous to develop prospects by sending out
catalogs first and then following up the work by
traveling salesmen or local agents. In commodities
of a novelty nature or standard styles of goods
like pianos, that can be perfectly illustrated and
described, catalogs alone can produce a great lot
of business. The bureau says that many concerns
are doing a large and growing- business is foreign
markets by means of catalogs, and that a greater
assurance of good results follows if the catalogs
are aided by a generous use of trade papers with
foreign readers.
In preparing a catalog for use in foreign trade the
most important thing is to get the right point of
view. The compiler must place himself in the posi-
tion of the prospective buyer. Never take anything
for granted; assume that the person for whom it is
designed knows nothing whatever about the sub-
ject being treated. Deal with facts and make it
plain and easily understood.
The other advices are obviously wise: Do not
send a catalog in the English language to a coun-
try where another language is spoken. See that
the technical translations are correct. Do not use
poor illustrations.
Proper distribution is obtained in various ways.
Verify the names found in directories, trade lists,
etc., and submit them to American consuls, local
banks in foreign countries and to your agents if
you have such. If this precaution is not observed
the percentage of waste is likely to be extremely
high.
PIONEER SCHOOL FOR PIANO MEN
Established 1901
FOLK'S SCHOOL oj TUNING
GO WITH GOOD P ANOS TO
ACTIVE DEALERS' CUSTOMERS
Piano, Player-Piano and
Organ Tuning, Repair-
ing
Regulating and
Voicing. Best equipped
schoo in the U. S
WISE DEALERS ALREADY IN LINE
Write Us NOW for Information
617CH
TONK MANUFACTURING CO.
1912 Lewis Street
•
WESSELL, NICKEL & GROSS
Manufacturers of
PIANO
ACTIONS
ONE GRADE ONLY
HIGHEST GRADE
Ihe Sign of Supreme
Achievement in Piano
Actions.
826 Successful Graduates
FACTORIES:
West Forty-Fifth Street, Tenth Avenue and Weal
Forty-Sixth Street
OFFICE:
4S7 West 45th Street
NEW YORK
Com stock, Cheney & Co.
Ivory Cutters and Manufacturers
Piano Keys, Actions m Hammers
»VORY \ N D COMPOSITION-COVERED ORQAN KEYS
The only Comf any Furnishing ihe Keys, Actions, Hammers and Brackets CompSitt
CHICAGO
Diploma? awarded and positions secured.
Private and c'.ass instructions, both texet.
School all ft
Address:
yat
Hlu*tra*»d (atologuii frt.
Box 414. VALPARAISO, IND.
CABLE-NELSON PIANO CO,
Manufactures fine pianos and player-pianos and
Wholesales them at fair prices and terms.
The agency is a source of both
profit and prestige.
REPUBLIC BUILDING, CHICAGO
The Best High-Grade Piano for the Money
Newman Bros. Pianos have tonal quality second to none.
Their many superior points and their forty=six years of pres-
tige give the dealer interesting facts to tell his prospects.
When you take on the Newman line of pianos and players you
become one of us, and we give you real help when you need it.
Don't just think we are a fine firm to deal with, find out for
sure and you will stay right with us.
Newman Bros. Company
Telegraph and R. R. Station: Essex, Conn.
Office and Factories: Ivory ton, Conn*
Factories, 806-16 Dix St.
Chicago, Illinois
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/
Future scanning projects are planned by the International Arcade Museum Library (IAML).