The Edison phonograph monthly (Jan-Dec 1909)

Edison Phonograph Monthly, Jan., 1909 5 Selling the Goods ADVERTISING: — One of the most important and often one of the most neglected branches of a dealer's business. The Christinas rush being history already, it is possible and highly important to give a little time to plans for increasing sales of both Edison Phonographs and Records, being the first of the year, it is especially important to ''ginger up" the selling game. We offer you a few suggestions to which you may apply the "ginger." The Mailing hist. If for no other reason than the sending out of the New Phonograms each month, every Edison Dealer should have a mailing list. Every owner of an Edison Phonograph in your locality should receive a copy of the Phonogram every month. The most practical method for you to distribute them is by mail whether you have few or many customers. If you have only a few Record cuscustomers, their names and addresses can be kept very conveniently in a book. If you have been an Edison Dealer for some time and have therefore a large list of Record customers it pays to keep a mailing list by the card file system. The card system is especially useful to the Dealer in the large town or city, where he does not know personally all his customers. If Dealers so located have no better plan for keeping in direct touch with customers and prospective customers the following directions on making up a mailing list should prove valuable : Purchase two card index boxes for holding 3x5 inch cards. Also get about 500 of the blank cards that are sold with the boxes and two sets of A to Z index cards. This outfit can be secured at any stationer's or book store for a dollar or two. Enter the names and addresses of Phonograph owners on the cards — one name to a card — and arrange them alphabetically in one of the boxes, using one set of the index cards to subdivide them. This makes one mailing list. And a very valuable one it is too, for you are to address the monthly supplements and all lists of new Records from the cards. You can also enter your Record sales on the cards, and it will then take only a few seconds to see who of your customers are buying regularly. When addressing or at any other time make it a rule never to remove the cards from the boxes except when making entries. Xow, for mailing list Xo. 2. Enter the names of all Phonograph prospects on the cards the same as you do with the list of Phonograph owners, and put them in the other box. If you have never made up a list of "prospects'' start to make such a list by taking down the name and address of everyone wrho calls if they display interest in a Phonograph. Ask machine owners for names of their friends, who think of buying, and enter the names acquired in this way on cards. You can also add to vour list of "prospects" by carefully selecting names from the tax list, R. F. D. Route lists and the city or telephone directories. So much for the mailing list; now, for its uses. The Phonogram. The most important use to which the Dealer's mailing list can be put is in connection with the Phonogram. Every Dealer who is interested in his Record sales should order from his Jobber a sufficient quantity of Phonograms to cover his entire list of Phonograph owners, his list of prospective customers and enough for general distribution throughout the month in his store. Considering the expense to the retailer the Phonogram is his best advertising medium and should be taken advantage of in every way possible. To send the Phonogram to the Phonograph owner every month is to assure the Dealer of many Record sales that would otherwise be lost. The Phonogram does more to maintain the interest of the Phonograph owner in his machine than any other one thing and is equally effective in stimulating the prospective customer's interest. The most practical way to get the Phonogram into the hands of the owner or the "prospect" is by mail. This is a simple matter if there is a mailing list to address from. To get full value for postage the monthly Supplement should be mailed with the Phonogram, together with