Presto

July 7, 1923
PRESTO
One good thing about the piano business is that
it is seldom that a dealer, or salesman, says to his
customer: "Let me show you something just as
good—or better!" The piano man who tells a pros-
pect for a piano that he should buy a playerpiano is
going ahead wrong. And vice versa. Most people
have at least a faint notion of what it is they want.
The wise salesman sells his instrument, first, because
he knows it is worth selling, and, second, because
he knows that he has what his prospect wants.
* * *
The war between radio and the things of music.
is raging. General I^agan, of the radio army, has
What about the store in the hot summer days? sentatives of the instruments concerned appreciate made a counter attack upon the forces of General
Are you going to sit back there and see the things in
Friedsledt of the music roll phalanx. Today the lat-
it. Do it right or—don't!
the front window curl up and fade? Or are you go-
ter seems to have the better of the argument, but the
* * *
ing to put in some special licks by which to keep up
When a great piano industry—a combination, say radio is improving and in time it may seem more like
appearances and attract the tourists who may pass, of piano industries—puts special effort into several a good thing to more of the music store gentlemen.
even if not many of them come in. If none are suffi- of its famous instruments, the demand upon the pub- Anything that is musical must be good. And even
ciently interested to stop, your neighbors will notice licity department is of peculiar nature. To say the the interfering blah-blah of the political speech need
that you are alive. That's a good deal. Put in fresh
right thing, in type, about each of the leaders with- not wholly ruin the sound of a great performer com-
displays, even oftener than in the cool days, when out seeming to discriminate, or to, by contrast, do ing by the mysterious route of radio. It takes a
folks seem to care more about pausing to take a look. injustice to any, is not an easy matter. It requires little time.
And keep your awning down when the sun hits your
* * *
more even than command of language. The dic-
store front. But—perhaps you're going away for a tionary doesn't contain all the beauty or excellence
Get out your tackle, your gun and your golf sticks.
week or two. Very well. Leave some one in charge of all fine pianos. But it does contain every ad- The time of the call of the streams, the forest and the
who will still make the store attractive. At least jective by which these excellencies may be described. summer resort is here. But don't hurry. If you do
put in a fresh window-display before you go.
To select the right words is an art. It is harder to you'll be sorry it's over—too soon.
* * *
* * *
write four good advs. about as many fine pianos, of
By the way, is it "gofT," "golluf," "gulph," or what?
Drowsy days are good days in which to tell the the same industry, than it is to write four good-
farmer folks about the things of music. Not all of poems. It is easier to make a fine piano—not a small We heard it all those ways, and more, during the
the farmers' families will think of buying just yet, matter—than it is to tell why the piano is so fine recent convention-time contest of the piano men.
but the days of long evenings are coming again, and in a way to convince the public, and especially so as
it's the prospect of the sumrrier that becomes the to satisfy the trade without in the least suggesting
ONCE WAS TOO MUCH.
buyer in the fall or winter, even if no sale eventuates that some other equally good piano, in the same line,
A single vacation through the South in a motor car
earlier. No successful salesman expects to sell pianos may be even a better piano. Can you name the men was enough for Charley Smith, manager of the retail
just as he would peanuts. He knows that the desire in the advertising department vrho can do that fine store of the Straube Piano Company, Hammond, Ind.
must be started, and the facts or easy terms, and work? We can.
And that single vacation was last year. This week
other advantages, or opportunities made known.
* * *
and next Mr. Smith will sit placidly on his front
Drowsy days are fishing days. All business is in a
A young man left his employment, twenty years porch while the units of his 1923 vacation roll by.
degree a matter of fishing. Throw out the line in ago, and took an interest in a small piano factory. Last August he trustingly took the advice of a friend
the drowsy days of summer and you may get your
He soon bought out his partner and moved the fac- and motored down South. The Weather Man took
haul later along. Be a fisher of piano prospects!
tory to a smaller city. He worked hard for ten his spite out on him, with the result, to-wit: A lot
* * *
years. Then he "let up" some, but still worked. He of perspiration and no pleasure. This season the
A few years ago there was a lot said and written would consider nothing less than that he was mak- Straube retail manager refuses to budge as he sits
about "advertising music." Not so much of it now. ing as fine a piano as could be made. The young close by an electric fan. "Once is too often," Charley
sighs, whenever someone asks him why he isn't out
But music goes right along advertising itself and man is still not old. He has retired and lets younger
everything else that it touches—all things and every men do the work. He looks on, from a distant haven motoring.
enterprise that is worth the time of intelligent people. or rest and beauty, and his advice still "goes." He
You may advertise pianos, and advertise radio, and is comparatively wealthy. Who is he?
PREMIER GRANDS FOR THEATER.
* * *
advertise everything else, and deep down underneath
The Strand Theater, New York, the well-known
Another young man started in to make pianos at
you will find that music is doing a great deal to help
you advertise. Every twitter of the smallest bird, about the same time. He grew tired of the strug- moving picture house, recently selected four Premier
and every call of the robin, advertises music. You gle to win quick fortune. He sold out and tried Baby Grands, manufactured by the Premier Grand
can't go out into the woods, or stroll through a city something else. Finally he thought he saw something- Piano Corporation. The selection of the Premier
park, without hearing the busy little advertisers. better than piano making and tried it. It didn't Grand Piano was due to the fact that the manager of
And they make you think of the things of music, work so well. Today he is running a small type- the Strand Theater heard the ten Premier Baby
whether you want to or not. Music is the only thing writer repair shop. There are men who think they Grands played by twenty nationally known com-
that advertises itself in every sound and almost every are not in the best business in the world. And yet posers, at the Century Theater, during the recent
they are in the piano business! Do you know any Songwriters' Benefit.
thing you see.
of them? We do—and we wonder that they are
* * *
even as successful as they are. Love your work if
E. Curson Mason; the Bellows Falls, Vt., dealer,
Selling harmonicas doesn't call for a high order you would win!
has sold his business to A. D. Brazil.
of salesmanship. But harmonicas are worth selling,
nevertheless. The "small" piano store may as well
carry a line of harmonicas—and of other things that
are practically imperishable and sell themselves. Any-
thing that will bring the boys into the store helps,
aside from the profit in the selling. If more music
stores were what the music implies it would be better.
Every piano store should sell sheet music—not nec-
essarily all the stuff that is printed, but a good se-
lection—and the "hits." And every piano store must
sell music rolls. The player-pianos should not be
permitted to starve to death for lack of the only food
they can digest. Put in more music rolls.
* * *
An advertising manager in a big music store told
a space salesman that he "hadn't time" to consider
the proposition. The solicitor asked why and was
invited to vacate. All wrong. The solicitor told a
friend who wanted a grand piano. The prospect
thought that the music house with the hasty, or
thoughtless—or something—ad-man was the same
all through. Any way, another house sold the grand,
notwithstanding that the buyer had intended buying
the instrument represented by the house of the un-
wise man of the publicity department. Big mistake
somewhere! Advertising has no limitations, and
courtesy runs all through it.
* * *
Good printing is the only kind of printing that
fits the piano industry. Many of the manufacturers,
and their promotion departments understand that.
Some of them don't, as the smudgy, poor type of
printed matter proves. Among the kind of piano
manufacturers who do realize the need of the best
printing, when their instruments are to be described,
notable recent examples are evidenced by the new
Mason & Hamlin catalog; the latest' Aeolian sou-
venir of the Tremaine celebration; The Cable Com-
pany's late literature; the Story & Clark booklet, and
the Cable-Nelson blue-black folder telling of the
INTERIOR, GUEST PIANO CO.'S STORE, BURLINGTON, IOWA.
new style ZP player. It would be difficult to point
to better printed matter, and no doubt the repre-
(Story in another part of this issue.)
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