Presto
Issue: 1920 1781 - Page 22
22
FtJBSTO
ART STANDPOINT IN
SELLING PIANOS
An Address to the Salesmen of Sherman,
Clay & Co., San Francisco, July 12, 1920, by
Alfred Dolge, Representing the Haddorff
Piano Co. of Rockford, 111.
Our good friend Ahlf has honored me once again
with the request to address you. He has been on a
tour of investigation through the East and has re-
turned home bubbling over with useful knowledge
and experiences, such as one can get only by travel-
ing. I presume he thinks that I have been all my
life a sort of peripatetic piano man and must there-
fore always be ready to say something of interest to
other piano men. It is true that during my more
than fifty years of activity in our art industry, I
have had unusual opportunities to become intimately
acquainted with the great piano constructors, manu-
facturers, dealers and piano virtuosos, many of
whom I do count among my best friends.
Best Success Follows Art.
My leaning has always been to the artistic side of
our calling, feeling that the successful commercial
end can only be attained by faithfully adhering and
following the dictates of the artistic impulses, in-
herent with every serious follower of our calling. To
what an inspiring extent, this dictum is observed by
the house of Sherman, Clay and Company, I felt
strongly when a few days ago I sat in your organ
room and listened to the tones of the wonderful in-
strument there. It is a noble organ in every respect.
But suppose this same organ stood in an ordinary
empty room, bare walls, bare floors, the organ ex-
posed and bright daylight, or glaring electric lamps,
torturing your eyes. Do you believe with such an
effect on your senses that you would feel the desire
to own such an organ? Surely not. You would be
irritated, your nerves would revolt and your only de-
sire would be to get away. I sat in your organ room
dreaming, taking in all the great instrument gave out
and when it ceased I wanted more of it. Were I a
millionaire I would have bought that organ on the
spot, but with the further determination that my
architect should give it just such a setting as your
organ room. The atmosphere of this organ room
is necessary for the proper appreciation of the music
pouring forth from the organ. It is as necessary as
a proper frame for a picture.
Take a painting of any of the great masters out of
its frame and it will impress you only half as much
as if set out by a fitting frame. The frame makes
the atmosphere which gives to your mind the full
enjoyment of the great picture. Mr. Stephenson is
even now changing all branch stores to veritable art
rooms. Therefore I am quite satisfied that Sherman
Clay & Company will pay most marked attention to
the proper atmosphere for every piano sales room,
when the time comes to occupy new quarters in San
Francisco. This will give you salesmen incalculable
assistance although even then it will be necessary
for you to furnish for the mind of the prospective
purchaser a frame for your picture, the piano which
you are trying to Sell.
Public Learning Quality.
More and more the public is learning to under-
stand tone quality. The talking machine is educat-
ing the ears of everybody. We all know that only
those piano constructors who aimed first of all to
produce the best possible musical quality of tone,
have been the great artistic and commercial suc-
cesses which piano history records. Millions of
pianos have been built, but only a few names of
piano tone creators have lived in history, just as only
a few great violin builders are known and are count-
ed among the immortals.
It is one of the foremost duties of the piano sales-
man to impress upon his prospect that the piano has
a soul. Any good mechanic can build a beautiful
piece of furniture, a piano case, but tone creation is
possible only for the genius. Your house has ever
been true to its mission of marketing truly artistic
pianos; hence its wonderful success.
The Piano's Atmosphere.
It is easy for you salesmen to build those frames
around the pianos which you have to sell, to create
the proper atmosphere. Know your piano and its
construction from A to Z, but do not go into too
much dry detail. Play upon the emotional side of
the human being and let your versatility affect him
directly and easily. It is of course the art of the
salesman to read his customer's mind as speedily as
possible and then direct his thinking so that he will
believe that he obtained the best piano in the es-
tablishment. You are so fortunate as to have a
veritable galaxy of fine instruments to offer to the
public.
September 11, 1920.
About a year ago I promised to provide you with
a good running mate to your Steinway. Good things
grow slowly. An oak needs much more time to
grow from the seed to a tree, than any other tree,
but once full grown it is an oak. Now be patient a
little longer until you get your Sherman, Clay &
Company Grands. Give Mr. Haddorff the time
which a genius needs to create a masterpiece. What
a Haddorff grand piano can give us we all heard
demonstrated by Leopold Godowsky in your grand
room a year ago. Haddorff's products have the one
outstanding feature, the purest musical tone quality
so important a factor in the future development of
our industry.
Playerpiano an Education.
Because of the playerpiano we will find in the very
near future that only musical enthusiasts with highly
cultivated ears, will buy what we call nowadays
"straight pianos." The public wil prefer players.
Therefore straight pianos must be primarily satis-
factory as to tone quality, must have a pure musical
quality which will at once captivate and grip the soul.
The good salesman will study how to bring that
about with his prospect.
And now a few words as to the playerpiano. It is
one of my most interesting studies to observe a
salesman selling a player. And surely your Mr.
Tatroe is an excellent instructor in the art of selling
these instruments, I need not spend any time on
that subject, but permit me to give a few observa-
tions.
I have seen sales lost over and over again because
the salesman did not pick out the proper rolls. I
have seen salesmen feeding their customers on Pad-
erewski, Bauer, Ganz and other celebrities, playing
Bach, Beethoven and Brahms, all of which was
Greek to the listeners. The salesman's talk and dem-
onstration was that the most difficult compositions
could be played by anybody on a player. The pros-
pect was not in the least interested, and went to
another store where perhaps by mere accident popu-
lar airs were played for him, which he understood,
and then he bought.
When the salesman has succeeded in gauging the
mental attitude, the musical learning of the prospect,
let him play some heavy classical stuff to impress
the buyer with the big names, but don't let him over-
look the psychological point that the prospect's heart
will be touched by the "Last Rose of Summer," or
''Home Sweet Home," or any other of those beau-
tiful songs or lullabys which children learn at schoot
and mother sings at the cradle.
LEARN TO TUNE PIANOS
hands in order.
C] Every Practical Tuner should know how to
correct the irregularities of the player-piano.
fl| Every Piano Salesman who aims to be thoroughly
proficient should learn to tune.
It Doesn't Cost Much-
Age Is No Bar to Learning-
It Doesn't Require Much Time,
Write for Booklet
POLK'S SCHOOL OF PIANO TUNING
VALPARAISO, INDIANA
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/
FtJBSTO
ART STANDPOINT IN
SELLING PIANOS
An Address to the Salesmen of Sherman,
Clay & Co., San Francisco, July 12, 1920, by
Alfred Dolge, Representing the Haddorff
Piano Co. of Rockford, 111.
Our good friend Ahlf has honored me once again
with the request to address you. He has been on a
tour of investigation through the East and has re-
turned home bubbling over with useful knowledge
and experiences, such as one can get only by travel-
ing. I presume he thinks that I have been all my
life a sort of peripatetic piano man and must there-
fore always be ready to say something of interest to
other piano men. It is true that during my more
than fifty years of activity in our art industry, I
have had unusual opportunities to become intimately
acquainted with the great piano constructors, manu-
facturers, dealers and piano virtuosos, many of
whom I do count among my best friends.
Best Success Follows Art.
My leaning has always been to the artistic side of
our calling, feeling that the successful commercial
end can only be attained by faithfully adhering and
following the dictates of the artistic impulses, in-
herent with every serious follower of our calling. To
what an inspiring extent, this dictum is observed by
the house of Sherman, Clay and Company, I felt
strongly when a few days ago I sat in your organ
room and listened to the tones of the wonderful in-
strument there. It is a noble organ in every respect.
But suppose this same organ stood in an ordinary
empty room, bare walls, bare floors, the organ ex-
posed and bright daylight, or glaring electric lamps,
torturing your eyes. Do you believe with such an
effect on your senses that you would feel the desire
to own such an organ? Surely not. You would be
irritated, your nerves would revolt and your only de-
sire would be to get away. I sat in your organ room
dreaming, taking in all the great instrument gave out
and when it ceased I wanted more of it. Were I a
millionaire I would have bought that organ on the
spot, but with the further determination that my
architect should give it just such a setting as your
organ room. The atmosphere of this organ room
is necessary for the proper appreciation of the music
pouring forth from the organ. It is as necessary as
a proper frame for a picture.
Take a painting of any of the great masters out of
its frame and it will impress you only half as much
as if set out by a fitting frame. The frame makes
the atmosphere which gives to your mind the full
enjoyment of the great picture. Mr. Stephenson is
even now changing all branch stores to veritable art
rooms. Therefore I am quite satisfied that Sherman
Clay & Company will pay most marked attention to
the proper atmosphere for every piano sales room,
when the time comes to occupy new quarters in San
Francisco. This will give you salesmen incalculable
assistance although even then it will be necessary
for you to furnish for the mind of the prospective
purchaser a frame for your picture, the piano which
you are trying to Sell.
Public Learning Quality.
More and more the public is learning to under-
stand tone quality. The talking machine is educat-
ing the ears of everybody. We all know that only
those piano constructors who aimed first of all to
produce the best possible musical quality of tone,
have been the great artistic and commercial suc-
cesses which piano history records. Millions of
pianos have been built, but only a few names of
piano tone creators have lived in history, just as only
a few great violin builders are known and are count-
ed among the immortals.
It is one of the foremost duties of the piano sales-
man to impress upon his prospect that the piano has
a soul. Any good mechanic can build a beautiful
piece of furniture, a piano case, but tone creation is
possible only for the genius. Your house has ever
been true to its mission of marketing truly artistic
pianos; hence its wonderful success.
The Piano's Atmosphere.
It is easy for you salesmen to build those frames
around the pianos which you have to sell, to create
the proper atmosphere. Know your piano and its
construction from A to Z, but do not go into too
much dry detail. Play upon the emotional side of
the human being and let your versatility affect him
directly and easily. It is of course the art of the
salesman to read his customer's mind as speedily as
possible and then direct his thinking so that he will
believe that he obtained the best piano in the es-
tablishment. You are so fortunate as to have a
veritable galaxy of fine instruments to offer to the
public.
September 11, 1920.
About a year ago I promised to provide you with
a good running mate to your Steinway. Good things
grow slowly. An oak needs much more time to
grow from the seed to a tree, than any other tree,
but once full grown it is an oak. Now be patient a
little longer until you get your Sherman, Clay &
Company Grands. Give Mr. Haddorff the time
which a genius needs to create a masterpiece. What
a Haddorff grand piano can give us we all heard
demonstrated by Leopold Godowsky in your grand
room a year ago. Haddorff's products have the one
outstanding feature, the purest musical tone quality
so important a factor in the future development of
our industry.
Playerpiano an Education.
Because of the playerpiano we will find in the very
near future that only musical enthusiasts with highly
cultivated ears, will buy what we call nowadays
"straight pianos." The public wil prefer players.
Therefore straight pianos must be primarily satis-
factory as to tone quality, must have a pure musical
quality which will at once captivate and grip the soul.
The good salesman will study how to bring that
about with his prospect.
And now a few words as to the playerpiano. It is
one of my most interesting studies to observe a
salesman selling a player. And surely your Mr.
Tatroe is an excellent instructor in the art of selling
these instruments, I need not spend any time on
that subject, but permit me to give a few observa-
tions.
I have seen sales lost over and over again because
the salesman did not pick out the proper rolls. I
have seen salesmen feeding their customers on Pad-
erewski, Bauer, Ganz and other celebrities, playing
Bach, Beethoven and Brahms, all of which was
Greek to the listeners. The salesman's talk and dem-
onstration was that the most difficult compositions
could be played by anybody on a player. The pros-
pect was not in the least interested, and went to
another store where perhaps by mere accident popu-
lar airs were played for him, which he understood,
and then he bought.
When the salesman has succeeded in gauging the
mental attitude, the musical learning of the prospect,
let him play some heavy classical stuff to impress
the buyer with the big names, but don't let him over-
look the psychological point that the prospect's heart
will be touched by the "Last Rose of Summer," or
''Home Sweet Home," or any other of those beau-
tiful songs or lullabys which children learn at schoot
and mother sings at the cradle.
LEARN TO TUNE PIANOS
hands in order.
C] Every Practical Tuner should know how to
correct the irregularities of the player-piano.
fl| Every Piano Salesman who aims to be thoroughly
proficient should learn to tune.
It Doesn't Cost Much-
Age Is No Bar to Learning-
It Doesn't Require Much Time,
Write for Booklet
POLK'S SCHOOL OF PIANO TUNING
VALPARAISO, INDIANA
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).