The talking machine world (July-Dec 1924)

26 THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD December 15, 1924 Principles That Built Widener's Business L. A. Dexter Describes the Type of Salesmen He Has Found Most Successful and the Collection and Advertising Methods He Uses [In the following article L. A. Dexter, manager of the Newark (N. J.) branch of Widener's, Inc., gives some interesting and constructive facts regarding the development of his business to the large proportions it enjoys to-day. His many years of experience in the retail field makes his statements authoritative and they should be of practical value to retailers. — Editor.] The most successful store, and this applies with special force to the talking machine business, is that which employs salesmen with real personality and sales ability. The individual salesman of this type can build up a large personal following among the store's clients. This has been an important factor in the success of our phonograph business, especially noticeable during the last year when so many dealers were complaining about lack of business. Time and again have I seen customers and prospects insist that they be waited upon by a certain salesman in whom they had confidence, or to whom they had been recommended by other customers of our establishment. The Salesman Linguist In every city there is a fertile field for sales among people of foreign extraction and the salesmen best suited to secure business from among these prospective customers are the ones who have an understanding of one or more foreign languages. We have two men who speak about ten different languages between them. Each of these men has a large following among the foreign-born, who like to hear the mother tongue ' spoken, and this following is steadily growing larger through the personality of each man, who studies his patrons and handles them in the way they understand and like. To my mind this is very important in handling this class of trade. There is plenty of phonograph business to be had but the dealer must make an effort to get it. Our phonograph sales have been considerably larger this year than last because we are continually trying to close sales and following up prospects. The trouble with many retailers seems to be that they have unbalanced organizations in that they devote the bulk of their attention on other products, such as radio. We handle radio and thoroughly believe that the music store is the proper place from which to merchandise it. During the last year since we have been selling radio our sales have averaged 80 per cent phonographs and 20 per cent radio^ People still are buying phonographs, but how much of this business the individual dealer gets depends largely upon himself and his methods of going after it. Personal Letters Get the Money Like most dealers by far the bulk of our business is through instalment sales. Naturally, too, occasionally we experience trouble in securing the money when due. Experience has taught us, however, that the personal collection letter written in an original way gets the best results in exceptionally hard cases where the usual collection forms have failed. I recall at the present moment two very concrete examples. In one case a young married woman had neglected to make a payment for some time and repeated notices elicited no response. Finally our credit man called the mother's, attention to her daughter's irresponsibility by a diplomatically worded letter. The mother immediately made the payment for her daughter and advised that -she .would see to it that in the future the payments would be made regularly They did. In the second instance a young man, who was in business for himself, paid absolutely no attention to our form letters asking him to pay some L. A. Dexter thing on his balance of $68 until the following personal letter was sent: Dear Mr. Blank— What would you do if one of your customers owed you $08 for the past four months and had broken his promises of making payments and did not even have the courtesy to answer the notices you sent him? We should be pleased to get your advice in a case like this. Yours very truly, : We received no answer to this letter, but wc did get the money by return mail. These arc just two of many similar instances which prove to us the importance of the psychological personal collection letter. Window and Other Publicity One of the greatest forces in successful retail business is publicity and this is so whether it be newspaper, direct mail, window or any of the other forms of advertising. Consistent newspaper advertising is getting results for us as it will for other dealers who plan their campaigns carefully, and make use of all the means at their command. Window displays, properly arranged, are business producers that should not be overlooked. The public will not know what you have for sale unless you tell them and show them at every opportunity. Greeting from Burt Reynolds Burt Reynolds, manager of the house of Jake Graham, old-time Edison dealer in Liverpool, Eng., and one of the oldest subscribers of The Talking Machine World, in a recent communication says: "Your paper is still as great as ever. Have started in the radio field. Business in England is good all round. Kindest regards to the staff." Patents Fibre Diaphragms A patent was recently granted to John M. Taylor, Bridgeport, Pa., to make diaphragms of a combination of iron filings and celeron, which is a fibre and bakelite compound. The new diaphragm is more delicate than metal, it is claimed, in that it more nearly approximates the human vocal cords, and it has the quality of improving with age. It Is an easy matter to promise quality and delivery. It is another — and vastly harder — matter to produce and maintain them, in large-quantity output. That Doehler quality and delivery are facts, and not mere claims, is a matter of experience with hundreds of die-casting users. They have found that Doehler standards of quality are as exacting: as their own. They have found that their own production schedules are never Interfered with by Doehler's failure to deliver die-east \ uk* in the quantity needed, on time. BROOKLYN. N.Y. TOLEDO. OHIO. POTTSTOWN. PA BATAVIA. N.V.