Presto
Issue: 1940 2293 - Page 31
KNOW YOUR C O M P E T I T O R . . . HES ALL RIGHT
A HUMAN AND CLEVER TALK
The following address was delivered at the Minneapolis Sales
Clinic by Charles H. Jackson, Manager of the Cable Piano
Company of Minneapolis. It struck us as being so good
that we are publishing it in full.
[EDITOR'S NOTE]
KNOW YOUR COMPETITOR
I mean know him in a human, friendly sort of way. If you
will get acquainted in this manner, with your competitor, it is
my humble belief that your business life will become a much
more pleasant existance.
You will find your competitor as a rule to be just as fine
a chap as you are, and perhaps just as much entitled to be in
this grand and glorious business as you are—believe it or not.
It is when we do not know or understand propositions
that we reject them without a hearing. By not knowing our
competitor, and only brushing up against him on the com-
petitive sale, a genuine dislike for him may be worked up.
Things might be said on deals that would be far better left
unsaid.
Now then—if you know your competitor well enough to
call him by his first name, I am sure you will confine your
talks to the customer, to the merits of your piano, instead of
talking about the competitor's piano, and sometimes maybe
about the competitor himself.
Boost Your Product: Don't Knock Competitor
A sale that illustrates this happened some four years ago
right here in Minneapolis. A man and his wife and two daugh-
ters came into a certain store one evening and asked to be
shown a certain style of a certain make of piano. The salesman
took them to the piano inquired about. In a short time the
customer asked this salesman what he thought about another
make of piano. The salesman stated that he knew it was a
fine piano, but that he, the salesman, would rather point out
the fine points of his piano, that the customer had come in to
see, and let the people who carried the other piano tell him
about the superior qualities of their piano. The customer then
said, "Well, that's pretty good". The salesman then proceeded
to demonstrate his piano to the full extent of his ability.
This conference ended by the salesman being invited to
the customer's office the next morning to consumate the deal.
When the customer passed over his check, he said to the sales-
man, "I have been trying to buy one of these two pianos for
the past five years, but the salesman at your store would not
let me buy the other piano, because of the things he said about
the other piano. And by the same token, the other house
would not let me feel safe in buying your piano. I wonder
how many deals are being held up by this kind of procedure
today."
I believe if I were associated with a salesman whose chief
qualities were wielding a hammer I would be more interested
in the sales he lost rather than the sales that he made.
The days have passed when competitors were supposed
not to speak to one another, when they would cross the street
to avoid meeting each other, so that they could avoid even
looking at each other.
Let's Get Together — It Pays
The time is here when we should realize that we all have
the same kind of business, problems. We should get together,
talk things over, and perhaps make a profit, instead of, well—
you know—
— BY CHARLES A. JACKSON
I was seated in the office of a friend of mine one day who
was the owner of an automobile agency. One of his salesmen
came into the office and stated he had a prospect on the
floor and he could not get any place with him because another
house was making an over-allowance on the old car in trade.
My friend, the owner, said, "Wait a minute!" He called up
the other dealer, gave them the customer's name and asked
them what their allowance was on the car. The answer came
back in a little while that it was $50 less than the customer
was telling the salesman. Now you see, by cooperation of that
nature one of these dealers saved $50 on the trade.
Of course, many of us will scream "UTOPIA", to even
think that anything like that could ever work in the piano
business. But I do believe that many times, we are fooled by
the customer in telling of allowances he is getting elsewhere.
So I say again—Let's get together and talk things over. These
get-togethers could be arranged in ways best suited to all
concerned, such as luncheons, a piano club, a ways and means
committee, etc.
The reason for giving the illustrations I have mentioned
was simply to show the value in knowing your competitor.
The automobile dealer knew his competitor. The piano deal
was held up five years because these piano salesmen did not
know each other in the right way.
But Don't Imitate Ferdinand The Bull
In knowing your competitor in a friendly way I do not
mean that on hearing a customer is also considering another
piano one should assume the attitude of Ferdinand, the Bull,
and bow himself out of the picture. Certainly not; for this is
a competitive business. Keep pitching—but confine your
efforts to the good qualities of your piano, and I am sure that
the customer at least will come through the ordeal with a
better taste in his mouth. Certainly, with a higher respect
for our business.
By knowing each other on a friendly and cooperative
basis, much good can be done, for each and every one of us.
Almost every obstacle can be ironed out. But first we must
have the spirit of friendship to proceed from. Let us be friends.
The Fraternal Feeling
I do know that there is a true fraternal feeling among the
members of our trade. This feeling is always manifested at
all the annual national conventions, and I do not mean the
kind that is generated only by the flowing bowl. Dealers will
get together from all parts of the country and discuss their
problems, and by a concensus of opinion are able to do much
good for the trade in general.
I do know that there is a fraternal feeling in our trade
for the very work that the National Piano Manufacturers
Association is doing in sponsoring these Retail Sales Clinics
over the country.
The problem, it seems to me, is to get this fraternal feeling
to manifest itself in our own baliwicks. This is largely true of
every town in the country and is, by no means, stated as a
criticism on the local trade alone—So, again I say let's be
friends at home.
ENGRAVERS AND LITHOGRAPHERS
PRINT ANYTHING IN MUSIC - BY ANY PROCESS
ESTIMATES GLADLY FURNISHED
ESTABLISHED
187b
RE F ERENC ES, ANY PUBLISHER
THE OTTO Z I M M E R M A N &-SON CO.,INC.
CINCINNATI
MAY, NINETEEN
FORTY
•
OHIO
PAGE
THIRTY-ONE
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/
A HUMAN AND CLEVER TALK
The following address was delivered at the Minneapolis Sales
Clinic by Charles H. Jackson, Manager of the Cable Piano
Company of Minneapolis. It struck us as being so good
that we are publishing it in full.
[EDITOR'S NOTE]
KNOW YOUR COMPETITOR
I mean know him in a human, friendly sort of way. If you
will get acquainted in this manner, with your competitor, it is
my humble belief that your business life will become a much
more pleasant existance.
You will find your competitor as a rule to be just as fine
a chap as you are, and perhaps just as much entitled to be in
this grand and glorious business as you are—believe it or not.
It is when we do not know or understand propositions
that we reject them without a hearing. By not knowing our
competitor, and only brushing up against him on the com-
petitive sale, a genuine dislike for him may be worked up.
Things might be said on deals that would be far better left
unsaid.
Now then—if you know your competitor well enough to
call him by his first name, I am sure you will confine your
talks to the customer, to the merits of your piano, instead of
talking about the competitor's piano, and sometimes maybe
about the competitor himself.
Boost Your Product: Don't Knock Competitor
A sale that illustrates this happened some four years ago
right here in Minneapolis. A man and his wife and two daugh-
ters came into a certain store one evening and asked to be
shown a certain style of a certain make of piano. The salesman
took them to the piano inquired about. In a short time the
customer asked this salesman what he thought about another
make of piano. The salesman stated that he knew it was a
fine piano, but that he, the salesman, would rather point out
the fine points of his piano, that the customer had come in to
see, and let the people who carried the other piano tell him
about the superior qualities of their piano. The customer then
said, "Well, that's pretty good". The salesman then proceeded
to demonstrate his piano to the full extent of his ability.
This conference ended by the salesman being invited to
the customer's office the next morning to consumate the deal.
When the customer passed over his check, he said to the sales-
man, "I have been trying to buy one of these two pianos for
the past five years, but the salesman at your store would not
let me buy the other piano, because of the things he said about
the other piano. And by the same token, the other house
would not let me feel safe in buying your piano. I wonder
how many deals are being held up by this kind of procedure
today."
I believe if I were associated with a salesman whose chief
qualities were wielding a hammer I would be more interested
in the sales he lost rather than the sales that he made.
The days have passed when competitors were supposed
not to speak to one another, when they would cross the street
to avoid meeting each other, so that they could avoid even
looking at each other.
Let's Get Together — It Pays
The time is here when we should realize that we all have
the same kind of business, problems. We should get together,
talk things over, and perhaps make a profit, instead of, well—
you know—
— BY CHARLES A. JACKSON
I was seated in the office of a friend of mine one day who
was the owner of an automobile agency. One of his salesmen
came into the office and stated he had a prospect on the
floor and he could not get any place with him because another
house was making an over-allowance on the old car in trade.
My friend, the owner, said, "Wait a minute!" He called up
the other dealer, gave them the customer's name and asked
them what their allowance was on the car. The answer came
back in a little while that it was $50 less than the customer
was telling the salesman. Now you see, by cooperation of that
nature one of these dealers saved $50 on the trade.
Of course, many of us will scream "UTOPIA", to even
think that anything like that could ever work in the piano
business. But I do believe that many times, we are fooled by
the customer in telling of allowances he is getting elsewhere.
So I say again—Let's get together and talk things over. These
get-togethers could be arranged in ways best suited to all
concerned, such as luncheons, a piano club, a ways and means
committee, etc.
The reason for giving the illustrations I have mentioned
was simply to show the value in knowing your competitor.
The automobile dealer knew his competitor. The piano deal
was held up five years because these piano salesmen did not
know each other in the right way.
But Don't Imitate Ferdinand The Bull
In knowing your competitor in a friendly way I do not
mean that on hearing a customer is also considering another
piano one should assume the attitude of Ferdinand, the Bull,
and bow himself out of the picture. Certainly not; for this is
a competitive business. Keep pitching—but confine your
efforts to the good qualities of your piano, and I am sure that
the customer at least will come through the ordeal with a
better taste in his mouth. Certainly, with a higher respect
for our business.
By knowing each other on a friendly and cooperative
basis, much good can be done, for each and every one of us.
Almost every obstacle can be ironed out. But first we must
have the spirit of friendship to proceed from. Let us be friends.
The Fraternal Feeling
I do know that there is a true fraternal feeling among the
members of our trade. This feeling is always manifested at
all the annual national conventions, and I do not mean the
kind that is generated only by the flowing bowl. Dealers will
get together from all parts of the country and discuss their
problems, and by a concensus of opinion are able to do much
good for the trade in general.
I do know that there is a fraternal feeling in our trade
for the very work that the National Piano Manufacturers
Association is doing in sponsoring these Retail Sales Clinics
over the country.
The problem, it seems to me, is to get this fraternal feeling
to manifest itself in our own baliwicks. This is largely true of
every town in the country and is, by no means, stated as a
criticism on the local trade alone—So, again I say let's be
friends at home.
ENGRAVERS AND LITHOGRAPHERS
PRINT ANYTHING IN MUSIC - BY ANY PROCESS
ESTIMATES GLADLY FURNISHED
ESTABLISHED
187b
RE F ERENC ES, ANY PUBLISHER
THE OTTO Z I M M E R M A N &-SON CO.,INC.
CINCINNATI
MAY, NINETEEN
FORTY
•
OHIO
PAGE
THIRTY-ONE
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).