The Edison phonograph monthly (Dec 1914-Dec 1915)

EDISON PHONOGRAPH MONTHLY, MAY, 1915 3 business. If one of the two couldn't get his business, then the jobber was constantly trying to get us to establish another dealer in that town or locality. We are not yet ready to consider the idea of prescribing zones of operations for dealers as we have done with jobbers, but it is our disposition to give every good dealer enough room to justify him in putting forth the sales effort essential to win the highest mark of success and profit on the Edison line and we shall expect our dealers not only to cover their own town thoroughly but also cover whatever territory is naturally tributary thereto. It will be of interest to every dealer to know that the Edison jobbers, at their Convention last month, were practically unanimous in endorsing the Zone Plan. Some of them will necessarily lose valued customers, but, nevertheless, every one of them has subscribed whole-heartedly to the Zone Plan and acquiesced in the conditions. These conditions are intended for a dealer's benefit, and to insure that he will receive, in every instance, the very best service and co-operation from both the jobber and the Edison factory. As stated above, (commencing April 1st,) every Edison Disc dealer should send all his orders to the jobber in whose zone of operations he is located. He should also send there his orders for disc printed matter. In short, it is to that particular jobber to whom he should look for Edison service. Each dealer has been advised by a personal letter of the jobber's name in whose zone he is now located, and instructed to deal directly with him hereafter. With the opening of the Spring season before us every jobber and dealer should put his best energies into the work of active canvassing in his locality. Never before has the Edison disc been so favorably regarded by music-loving people. The several critical tests made by the artists themselves should convince the most skeptical that the Edison disc has a very bright and prosperous future ahead of it. Getting right after prospects is the. important work of the hour. CREATING AN EDISON SENTIMENT IN YOUR COMMUNITY Every Edison dealer in a community is responsible for promoting in every nossible way an Edison sentiment. How helpful and valuable to him is such a sentiment may best be observed by noting the publicity which certain dealers have acquired just because of their broad way of looking at things. Some dealers never get beyond their own door-step in Edison publicity. If they are given an opportunity to demonstrate the Edison at a public or semi-public function, they at once begin to size it up and say "What's in it for me?" And in some instances (perhaps from a fixed custom) turn down all that is not strictly business — business with a direct and immediate sales end to it. This is a mistake; a narrow view. We appoint a dealer with much care and forethought. We give him elbow room to grow in. We expect him to be the Edison representative — the "Minister Plenipotentiary," so to speak — in that community. We expect of him a broad, comprehensive policy; we ask him to take such a view for his own sake as well as for that of the company he represents. There are several ways of creating and maintaining an Edison sentiment in a community. The dealer himself should be an Edison enthusiast. He should be loaded to the muzzle with Edison arguments, Edison ideas, Edison information. He should welcome every opportunity not only to demonstrate the Edison but to talk about Edison. He should be well informed about Mr. Edison's career and his many inventions besides the phonograph, so that no one in his community knows Edison better than he does. Right now we have in mind one enterprising Edison dealer who has become a sort of local lecturer on things Edison. He has talked to school teachers, to school children, to clergymen's conventions, to mothers' meetings, to the public at large on holiday occasions. He is a representative of Edison in every way and thoroughly informed. He reads a good deal about Edison, keeps posted on the doings at the Edison plant and can tell much that is timely and important. Everybody knows him in the community and knows where his store is, too, and, best of all, knows he is "Edison" through and through. We also have in mind an Edison jobber, an enthusiast, who never gets back from the Edison works that he is not at once interviewed by reporters of metropolitan dailies and asked to furnish for publication his impressions of the work at the Edison plant. He has given enough interesting data at times to nearly fill an entire page in a daily, which is printed in the news section, credit being given to him. More than one Edison dealer maintains a scrapbook or two in which items of general Edison matters are kept ready for use in talks, lectures, circulars, etc. Creating an Edison sentiment in your community is a part of your privilege and responsibility as an Fdison representative. That it pays is undeniable The wonder is that many more Edison dealers have not taken hold of the matter.