Presto

PRESTO
IMPORTANCE OF
OUTSIDE SALESMAN
It Is Shown in the Attention Given by Leading
Piano Houses Throughout the Coun-
try to the Education of the
Force.
That salesmen are not born but made is a fact
modern business has shown.
Furthermore, their
systematic instruction has become a vital matter with
the progressive houses. The most successful piano
sales managers believe that a close supervision of
men with practical suggestions while they are on the
job is the modern road to sales excellence. They
realize that the problems of piano salesmanship are
many and frequent.
Why does one man sell successfully while another
in the same field, presenting the same instruments,
fails completely or gains only meager results? Scien-
tific study and application of principles are consid-
ered in giving the answer by the wise sales managers.
Personality, address, manners, all the items which
contribute to put the piano sales over, may be cata-
logued, studied and added to the intellectual equip-
ment of the salesman. All the possibilities of its
employes for improving the potency in sales are con-
sidered by the big piano houses which make periodic
meetings of its sales forces a rule.
Methods Vary.
The experiences related by salesmen at one of these
periodic gatherings may be similar, in certain ways,
to the experiences related in another; but there are
also points of distinction that make both more in-
teresting. The facts related at the meeting of sales-
men and managers of the Baker Music House, Al-
bany, N. Y., week before last, were no doubt differ-
ent from the sales facts told at a recent meeting of
the salesmen of the O. K. Houck Piano Co., Mem-
phis, Tenn.
In selling the goods in New York state and in
Tennessee the alert sales scouts on the outside for
the piano houses certainly observe the fundamentals.
But in procedure the pursuit of the prospect and the
approach are different. Sales managers in both places
know the requirements for success in interesting the
customers and leading them up to the proper con-
clusion—the closing of sales.
Wanted One Kind.
In a Chicago piano wareroom this week a young
man of good appearance asked the manager for a
position as salesman. The manager said "If you
want an inside position, I must disappoint you. That
division of our staff is complete. But if you can go
out and find prospects, and close sales, I can sign
you up. That's the kind we are looking for."
The manager's words sum up the standing of the
outside man in the piano field. The floor salesman
usually handles the customers drawn to the store by
advertising.
Of course, there are inside salesmen
who have developed a following, and many of this
kind are encountered in the larger cities. Through
church affiliations, membership in fraternal organiza-
tions, through cultivating a big circle of friends, even
by activity in neighborhood politics, piano salesmen,
considered floormen, have built up a clientele indis-
putably their own.
Proving Ability.
The outside man must be able to-go out into any
territory, without a name for sales to work on, and
not only dig up prospects, but also close the deals, or
at least have enough influence to bring his prospects
within range of the inside force. The outside sales-
man is literally on the firing line and dependent on
his own natural acumen, reinforced by the instruc-
tion of his chief. To succeed he must be filled with
the enthusiasm of the sales combat. The prospect is
his antagonist; victory is getting the name on the
dotted line.
Of course, to succeed, the outside salesman must
have natural selling ability, must be thoroughly hon-
est, not in money matters alone but in the statements
he may make to his customers.
The live outside
salesman is, first of all, honest with himself, for he
knows that involves honesty to everybody concerned.
He knows that his future, depends upon results, and
that a waste of time or effort detracts from his value
to the house.
It is the experiences of the older men, related at the
periodic meetings, that are so beneficial to the young
salesmen.
A Salesman's Qualifications.
Any young man possessed of natural ability, in-
itiative and persistency can become a first-class piano
salesman—outside salesman. The ability to perform
well is not essential. The understanding of music is
not necessary—in the sense of either creative ability
of knowledge of counterpoint. The history of the
old masters will not help much, if at all. It is the
capacity to work, and then work some more; to
classify prospects; to obey orders where the customs
of the house are involved; to win the possible cus-
tomers by creating an atmosphere of confidence, and
to seem sincere and earnest in a way that really is
sincere and earnest that makes the successful piano
solicitor. Nothing else—save the right line of pianos.
Piano salesmen, especially young ones, too often
start out with the notion that, in order to close sales,
they must "meet competition." They mean that they
must be ready to sell cheaply as the cheapest. That
kind of a start will not get the salesman anywhere.
The piano salesman must be, in a sense, an educator
of public taste in things musical.
The cheap salesman, who represents his instru-
ments for just what they are, is all right. But the
worst piano salesman, on earth is the one who tells
his customer that there is "no difference in them,"
and that his pianos, even if cheap, are as good as the
best. He is a falsifier and can not last long. No
self-respecting house will have him around.
Salesmen Are Wanted.
To men qualified there is no business better than
that of a piano salesman. It is an open business.
It is a free lance profession. It possesses possibili-
ties of profit. It gets the young man somewhere
worth while. And just now there is a demand for
good piano salesmen. In whatsoever part of the
country, and in whichever city or town the young
man thinks he would like to locate and work there
are plenty of opportunities for the right kind.
SUCCESS WITH PLAYERS
IN BRIDGEPORT STORE
H. S. Piquette Piano Co. advertises Special Sale with
Big Results in Sales.
The H. S. Piquette Piano Co., Bridgeport, Conn.,
is one of the most active piano houses in that section,
and its widespread and persistent publicity keeps the
merits of a fine line of instruments constantly before
the public. Generous advertising is a rule with the
company. It believes a special sale requires particu-
lar efforts to impress its opportunities on prospective
buyers.
Two weeks ago the company announced a special
sale of five carloads of playerpianos and did so in a
manner lively enough to arouse interest. The favor
of customers for the higher priced instruments was
a feature of the special sale. The line of the com-
pany includes the Kurtzmann, Sterling, Weaver,
Huntington, Mathushek, Lester, York, Livingston
and others.
LOOK PLEASANT.
We cannot, of course, all be handsome,
And it's hard for us all to be good.
We are sure now and then to be lonely,
And we don't always do as we should.
To be patient is not always easy,
To be cheerful is much harder still,
But at least we can always be pleasant,
If we make up our minds that we will.
And it pays every time to be kindly,
Although you feel worried and blue;
If you smile at the world and look cheerful,
The world will soon smile back at you.
So try to brace up and look pleasant,
No matter how low you are down,
Good humor is alw r ays contagious,
But you banish your friends when you frown.
STEINWAY DEALER MOVES.
The Matthews Music House, Ltd., Calgary, Alta.,
Canada, last week moved to new and larger quarters
at 334 Eighth avenue, West, where important remod-
eling changes had been made. ' Handsome display
rooms have been provided for the Steinway piano
and the piano and playerpiano display arrangements
generally are very effective and helpful to sales. The
piano department is on the ground floor. The offices
are on the same floor and the second floor is devoted
to the phonograph department and the repair shops.
INDUSTRIAL MOTION PICTURES.
Eighty different industrial motion picture films,
valued at nearly $200,000, are now in the possession
of the United States Bureau of Mines. These films
were produced at small cost to the Government, prac-
tically the entire cost being borne by the various in-
dustries filmed, among them being the piano, talking
machine and band instrument industries.
DOWNSTATER IN CHICAGO.
C. M. Buchanan, piano dealer of Cairo, 111., visited
The Cable Co.'s offices in Chicago last week. Mr.
Buchanan is local representative for The Cable Co.'s
line of pianos.
July 7, 1923
W. C. HEPPERLA WANTS
RADIO FANS' OPINIONS
President of Premier Grand Piano Corpora-
tion, New York, Desirous of Hearing Re-
ports on WDT Programs.
W D T is the identifying mark of what is fast be-
coming one of the most popular radio broadcasting
services in the eastern part of the country. Radio
Broadcasting Station WDT, at the Premier Grand
Piano Corporation, 510-532 West 23rd street, New
York, and operated by the Radio Ship Owners' Ser-
vice, Inc., is rendering unusually high class, diversified
programs each day, and the vocal and instrumental
music and other features listed in these programs, are
being heard by thousands of radio fans in stations
and homes.
The character of the W D T station (405 meter
length) programs may be judged from the list of
artists, among whom are Ted Barron, the song
writer, and a company of Broadway stars, Aldo Ricci,
Italian violinist, Charles Purcell, of Swanee River
company, Marion Doran and Ernest Priest, Cana-
dian basso.
A special program for the Fourth was given under
the auspices of the American Legion through the
courtesy of Colonel Simmons. Besides band music
were included songs by Arthur Belvor, baritone of
the Chicago Civic Opera Company; William Gibbons,
baritone, and Phil Baker, star of the Passing Show.
Other features were songs by Sidney Silvers and Abe
Olman.
Piano merchants and their patrons are cordially
invited to write to Broadcasting Station W D T at
Premier Grand Piano Corporation, 510-532 West 23rd
St., New York, expressing their opinions of the vari-
ous programs, as Walter C. Hepperla, president of the
Premier Grand Piano Corporation, is anxious to hear
how the great variety of offerings via radio is appeal-
ing to the trade and the public the country over.
Mr. Hepperla reports that one night recently, im-
mediately after the conclusion of the radio concert,
twenty-five physicians phoned in, from various parts
of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Dela-
ware, expressing their great pleasure at the concert.
This, evidently, demonstrates the fact that physicians
are very much interested in listening in at the radio,
especially after the stress and exactions of their pro-
fessional duties.
VARIETY IN ENJOYMENTS
AT PIANO CLUB LUNCHEON
Earl L. Hadley, Advertising Manager for The Cable
Company, Was Guest of Honor.
A. B. Cornell was program chairman of the day
for the weekly luncheon of the Piano Club of Chi-
cago on Monday of this week, and provided two de-
lightful numbers: Miss Rose Fallon, coloratura so-
prano, in a group of songs, and Miss Marguerite
Cheval, dramatic reader, in impersonations with cos-
tume.
Earl L. Hadley, advertising manager of The Cable
Company, was the guest of honor of the day, in rec-
ognition of the victory of The Cable Company in the
Better Advertising Contest, held under the auspices
of the Better Business Bureau of the Music Indus-
tries Chamber of Commerce.
The regular monthly meeting of the Board of
Governors was held after the luncheon.
The winning Deep Stuff was a gem by Matt J.
Kennedy: "You can get them from the country, but
you can't get the country out of them."
BRANCH STORE SUCCESS.
.
The Fairbanks Piano Co., 521 Washington street,
Boston, Mass., recently opened a branch store in At-
tleboro, Mass., which is already called highly success-
ful by Almon J. Fairbanks, president of the com-
pany. Since the opening Mr. Fairbanks has taken
special charge of the branch and a very satisfactory
number of sales have been made through his personal
efforts. His musical abilities have been a strong
factor in influencing prospective buyers and his high
business aims are made clear in the large number of
grand pianos already sold in the branch store.
A USED PIANO DEPARTMENT.
The completion of remodeling plans in the Oak-
land store of Kohler & Chase, San Francisco, provides
the company with very important additional facilities.
Not the least is the bargain basement devoted to used
pianos and players. This department is spacious,
airy and well lighted, and the arrangements generally
are very conducive to sales. Every instrument shown
goes through the repair department and is in first
class shape.
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