Radio today (Apr-Dec 1939)

Htetkeds IM Ctkked What successful dealers are doing to promote the sale of more and better radio sets Let electric-light company help "Solicit the cooperation of your local electric light and power company in a campaign to get radio owners to have their defective sets repaired," advises Harold Davis, radio parts jobber of Jackson, Miss., who stimulated such a campaign in his own city. "The power company will be interested because — 'Dead radios not only tell no tales, but burn no juice,' " adds Mr. Davis. In Jackson the power company sent solicitors from door to door, leaving at each home a card with the names and addresses of dealers and servicemen on one side, while on the other was a list of all the popular radio programs the owner of the dead set was missing. Record dealers profit by ad tie-in Victor and Bluebird record dealers in small towns have developed an effective means of capitalizing on RCA Victor's nation-wide advertising program in leading magazines by placing marked copies of the issues carrying RCA Victor ads in barber shops, dentists' and doctors' waiting rooms, and beauty parlors. Printed labels pasted on the magazine covers call the_.reader's attention to the page on which the RCA Victor advertisement appears. On the pages opposite the ad are pasted sales messages featuring the names of recording artists and the latest records, with the store's name. Study each prospect; sell intensively "Start to size up your prospect the minute he steps into your store," says Philip F. Yahn, owner, of the Yahn Radio Co., 1929 Palmer Ave., Larchmont, N. Y. "That's the way to sell radios. If he looks like the kind of customer who would like Tchaikovsky, don't give him Benny Goodman swing!" Mr. Yahn's salesman, J. F. Straus, had just sized up a casual customer correctly — and had made a big sale. The man had just come in "to look around." Mr. Straus had just talked with his prospect at first. He had told him about what was new. Meanwhile, as he talked, Mr. Straus sized up his prospect, found what points seemed to interest him and which didn't. Mr. Straus found out that Thirteen dealers and servicemen from Allentown, Pa., visiting Arcturus Radio Tube Co., Newark, N. J. Trip was sponsored by E. M. Frank Electric Co. of Allentown. the prospect showed most interest in records — series of symphony recordings that could be played without interruption. Having determined roughly from the man's speech and his appearance what he might be willing to pay, Mr. Straus determined the course of his sales effort. Immediately he showed the prospect a big, new combination radio-and-record player. Inside of five minutes he had made the sale without wasting the customer's time on things in the store in which he would not have been interested. Incidentally, agree Mr. Yahn and Mr. Straus, the trend today in their community is definitely toward phonograph combination radios. The store has sold more of these in three months than it has in the preceding three years. Office radios During the European war crisis, one enterprising radio man minted a young fortune by going to business offices in the Wall Street district, and offering to install a small desk radio and one of the new steel-rod window antennas complete in working order for $75. He got more business than he could handle, and had to press in several assistants to install the jobs as fast as he sold them. Business houses ordered these radios readily when the possibilities were explained about keeping in touch with flash news. Some concerns even assigned special employes to sit at their radios all day, to listen in and report any important news. After the crisis eased, the demand for these office radios fell off, but the salesman still finds enough office customers to keep him busy. A business man in the Grand Central Palace has his radio connected to a rebuilt desk telephone, so he can listen to news silently without disturbing office routine. Picking the telephone off the hook-switch, turns on the radio-set. Anyone seeing him at his radio, would think he is merely waiting for a long-distance phone call. After using this arrangement for a year, he declares that this is the ideal form of office radio. 52 RADIO TODAY