The Edison phonograph monthly (Jan-Dec 1916)

EDISON PHONOGRAPH MONTHLY, OCTOBER, 1916 merchants, but whose business, for some reason or other, had dwindled to practically nothing. Without doubt, the cause of Blank's deterioration was the cause of the failure of many other dealers to do the amount of business they once had done and sfill should do. He would visit Blank and determine what was wrong with him. He told the Sales Manager of the Musical Phonograph Division of his decision and left. Three days later he returned. He walked into the General Sales Manager's office. "Well, what did you find up in Blank's store?" the man in the revolving chair asked. "I found out what is the matter with many of our Amberola dealers," the Amberola Sales Manager replied. "Let me tell you just what I found and you can judge for yourself where the trouble lies. What the Trouble Was "Blank's store, when I entered it, was in charge of a gangling boy who did not seem to possess even ordinary intelligence. He informed me that the boss was out. He did not know 'xactly where. I told him I would wait and, while I stood there trying to look out of the streaked windows, he edged around me and looked at me curiously as though I was some strange specimen, the like of which he never had seen before. I went over to the remains of what you told me was once the best and most efficiently kept stock of Amberolas and Blue Amberol records in nine-tenths of the State. I asked the boy if he had a certain record. He raised a lot of dust, pawing around the box in which they all were thrown together, and finally gave me a negative reply. I asked for several other selections, but each time a cursory search and a drowsy shake of the head was the only reply. " 'Wouldn't do no good if I did hav'um,' he stated at last. 'The old man never showed me how to run the darned thing.' "Just then the 'old man' came in. He was a pretty seedy looking specimen of merchant and I would not have recognized him from the description you gave me. I introduced myself and we got down to cases. I did not waste any time in preliminaries. I just asked him point blank what the matter was. He answered me truthfully. " 'I don't know,' was his reply. 'There must be something, though.' "This was encouraging. The mere admission that his condition was not natural — that there must be something wrong — gave me hopes of being able to locate the source of the trouble. And I felt that Blank was not without some ability to analyze himself and his business. " 'Sometimes I've thought that I went at it too heavy at first,' he said. 'I don't believe that there ever was a more enthusiastic dealer than myself for the first two years I was in business. I would sit up nights to address supplements and write advertisements and there was a time when I preferred a Blue Amberol catalog to a newspaper or a magazine for reading purposes. I waited for monthly lists with more anticipation than any of my customers and I believe that I took more delight in listening to an Amberola than the majority of owners. And the most entertaining mathematical problem that I could devise was that of figuring out how much I could afford to spend in advertising each month. " 'What a business I did in those days,' he continued, reminiscently. " 'Well,' I said, 'what made your business begin to dwindle?' " 'That's what I'm coming to,' he replied. 'I wonder if it wasn't because I became familiar with all there was to learn about the line. I got to know it like I know the alphabet and about that time it commenced to lose its interest. As long as the line was new and novel to me, I was enthusiastic and successful. Two years seemed to take the novelty out of the work. And, when the novelty passed my enthusiasm passed with it. And when I lost my enthusiasm the business just seemed to bust up. That's all I know about it. Perhaps that's the reason. Perhaps it's something else. I don't know.' " 'You don't have to go any farther,' I told him. 'You have got it right. It is lack of ENTHUSIASM that nearly has put you out of business and that has placed other once-successful dealers in the same position that you are in. Whether this lack of interest is the result of knowing too much or too little about the business, the results are just the same. And the results are: no stock, no business, no profits. That is what lack of enthusiasm does to a merchant. It proves itself. When you first went into business you had unbounded enthusiasm and you were highly successful. Today you are the same man, with the same capabilities for selling, as you were then. Only now you are minus your enthusiasm — and your profits.' Forget the Disc 'The disc instruments commencec feebly. " 'Never mind the disc instruments,' I said. 'There are new Amberola dealers starting in business every day. They are just like you were when you started in — optimistic, enthusiastic and successful. They are selling Amberolas just as you did five years ago and just as you would now if you had not gone into the business until the present time. And you can get right into the race with them and do just as much, and more, business than ever before. But you have got to wake up and jump into the work with the same zeal and energy that you