The talking machine world (Jan-June 1928)

Efficiency in the retail store can be increased by placing the salesmen where they will do the most good. Men who can sell talking machines best should be placed in that end of the business penalization Will Add to Your Sales Volume ONE of the biggest mistakes a phonograph and radio business can make is to have no line drawn between the radio and phonograph sales force. Many sales managers will, doubtless, disagree with me on this point, but I want to point out that the radio and phonograph are two different and distinct instruments, and each one requires specialization. Specialization by Salesmen I do not mean to make the two organizations entirely separate and distinct, but there are some men who "lean" more to the radio, and others to the phonograph. Divide your organization up in this manner and let your radio men specialize on radio sets, and your phonograph men specialize on the phonographs and combinations. Turn over only radio prospects to your radio salesmen, and only phonograph and combination prospects to your phonograph men. This applies to floor men as well as outside men. Of course, a radio salesman should be privileged to sell a phonograph and receive the regular commission and a phonograph man can likewise sell a radio, but keep each organization specializing if you would get the greatest results from the entire organization. It is not necessary to have a large organization in order to divide the force into two separate organizations. Even though you have only two men, you can get the utmost from those men by having them each specialize. You'll find that by doing this each man's sales will increase, and consequently your total volume will be increased to a considerable extent. Increasing Talking Machine Sales Most stores that handle both phonographs and radios are doing a larger volume in radio than they are in phonographs and combinations. By Clarence H. Mansfield Fitzgerald Music Co., Los Angeles If this is true of your store, then divide your organization and your phonograph volume will immediately increase, and your radio volume C. H. Mansfield will also show an increase. One reason that more radios are sold than phonographs is because Mr. Average Salesman thinks radios more than phonographs — and another reason is that the public is thinking radios more than phonographs. So phonograph specialists have to be Dulce-Con Radio Talking Jiachine Speaker Get In On These RADIO PROFITS WITH radio almost universal, it's easy to include a Dulce-Tone in every talking machine sale — and you might as well get that extra profit. Or sell Dulce-Tone to former talking machine buyers. Dul ce-Tone makes an ideal loud speaker of any phonograph, and it fits any make and any radio set. Simply set the talking machine needle in the Dulce-Tone reed, plug in, and you have the full volume, the beautiful clear tone that only Dulce-Tone and a talking machine can give. The General Industries Co. Dulce-Tone Division Formerly named The General Phonocraph Mfc. Co Elyria, Ohio a little heavier as salesmen, for they have to either overcome or add to the radio desire which seems uppermost in the mind of the public at the present time. When a customer does come into a store to see a phonograph the chances are ten to one that the average salesman will immediately suggest a combination— this for two reasons— the first is that the salesman's mind is naturally on radio, and the second is that he wants to make a larger sale. And nine out of ten salesmen in showing combinations demonstrate the radio considerably more than the phonograph, when the opposite should be the rule. I asked a salesman recently who had been doing this his reason. He said that people were more interested in the radio than in the phonograph. And this is the situation in most cases.' The salesman rides along with the current — the old "path of least resistance" — and it never does make for high-class specialty selling. Careful Salesmanship When a customer asks to see a phonograph the worst thing a salesman can possibly do, at first, is to even suggest radio, even in a combination— if he does he automatically suggests that maybe radio is more desirable, and if the prospect already owns a radio no deal whatever may be consummated — or if he does not own a radio, the chances are that a radio only will be ultimately sold and not a combination or a phonograph. A great many customers come into the store and ask to see a phonograph, when all they are trying to do is to find out if they really want a phonograph or if, as they suspicion, a radio will entirely fulfill their musical needs, and most salesmen, by their attitude and actions, definitely confirm these suspicions during the first few moments of the customer's visit to the store. Even if a customer asks to see a combination, the first thing to do is to convince him of the importance and desirability of the phonograph side of the combination. This can only be done by emphasizing the desirability of the phonograph, and touching upon the radio side later in the sales talk. Radio does not require the heavy end of the selling or demonstration; nearly everyone is more or less sold on the radio idea or at least is thinking about it. That's why I say divide your sales force into a separate radio sales organization and a separate phonograph organization. A man thinking nothing but radio all the time can't very well emphasize the importance of the phonograph, and vice versa. Up to the Salesman It is up to the. salesman to sell the phonograph or record idea to the prospect, and to sell it strong. Once you have sold your prospect on the record idea, then the selling of a combination is comparatively easy. But if the salesman himself thinks only radio, and has no strong sales arguments for the record, then the chances are ten to one that the customer will end up by purchasing the radio only. Result: One-half as large a sale, and less than one-half as much profit. As before stated, since the phonograph and combination sale, as a rule, averages much (Continued on page 11) 8