Radio Broadcast (May 1929-Apr 1930)

Introducing the "Junior Salesman' Plan of Merchandising As told by MYRON W. CRADDICK A JOBBER LOOKS AT HIS DEALERS s she next few years in radio merchandising will see a rapid development of what can best be described as the "Naborhood Radio I Store," a standard-price store carrying I recognized lines and giving reliable service HHl^ ml to a well-established local clientele, according to Myron W. Craddick, vice-president and general manager of the Mackenzie Radio Corporation. That prophecy, together with an explanation of his novel "Junior Salesman" system for maintaining close jobberdealer contact and first-class service for dealer customers, formed the closing part of a recent interview with Mr. Craddick on present merchandising trends and practices. As managing head of the Zenith distributing organizations in Connecticut, southern New York State, northern New Jersey, Westchester, and the Bronx, Mr. Craddick has an intimate knowledge of merchandising methods in the entire gamut of markets: metropolitan, urban, suburban, and rural. In weighing the worth of present trends in radio merchandising, he balances two sound ones against two unsound ones. The increasing recognition by individual dealers that a small number of lines can mean more business than a large number of lines, and the recent efforts by progressive dealers to build up a permanent clientele, he considers sound. The frenzied price-cutting by some of the chain-stores, and the continued apathy of dealers toward the radio service problem, he terms unhealthy. The "Junior Salesman" scheme, which will be described in later paragraphs here, was evolved to stimulate dealerinterest in the first two trends, and to offset as much as possible the deleterious effects of the latter two. A Word of Warning Before we start," Mr. Craddick warned, "remember that while my experience with dealers gives me intimate views of their problems in practically every type of community and market, what I say about one market doesn't necessarily hold true for another. Some of the policies that my dealers in New Jersey towns have found most profitable, for instance, are not acceptable to d alers in the Bronx. And there can be no attempt to impose a majority precept on the minority dealers; each dealer has his own problems for which there can be no text-book solution." More and more dealers in all types of markets, however, are coming to realize that they can do more business, with greater satisfaction to each customer and a corresponding increase in prospective customers, by handling one or two lines of radio receivers than by handling eight lines, according to Craddick. "A floor salesman can learn all there is to know about a couple of good makes of sets, where he can't hope to grasp more than a superficial knowledge of each of seven or eight makes. And, of course, a floor salesman who knows his sets inside out can explain and sell any one of them to a customer with conviction and assurance. No customer is easily sold when a salesman talks about a set like an advertising pamphlet, but is unable to answer particular questions about its construction or operation. "Again, no dealer's serviceman can be expected to become an expert in each of seven or eight different makes. And a dealer's serviceman who makes a service call and can only stall around until he admits that he'll have to get hold of a factory serviceman, has done about all he can do to lose for the dealer the prospects that that customer, if pleased, should normally provide." Radio Vs. Automobile Trade There is a close analogy between the radio dealer and the automobile dealer, as Mr. Craddick sees it. The day of the general motor agency, where one dealer handled as many different makes of car as he could contract, has long since passed, even in small communities. Automobile dealers now have one or two different lines, and their salesmen are thoroughly familiar with the product they sell. Furthermore, the man who purchases an automobile to-day has absolute confidence in the dealer's service department, since he knows that the garagemen are experts in that particular make of car. In the early days, the automobile purchaser learned by sad experience that the sales agency's service department was only a tinker-shop, no more wise in the ways of his car than • AUGUST 1 9 29 • • 193