The talking machine world (Jan-Dec 1906)

26 THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD. THE PLEASED CUSTOMERS HOLD THE BUSINESS. Will F. Hull's Excellent Paper on Victor Selling, Whicli Carries Off the First of Ten Capital Prizes of Fifty Dollars Each. For some time past the Victor Talking Machine Co. have been conducting a series of prize competitions for the purpose of drawing out from the dealers and salesmen, ideas and experiences which will be of use to everybody handling the Victor goods. The winner of the $50 cash prize in competition No. 1, just announced, was Will F. Hull, of 2317 Winter street, Ft. Wayne, Ind.. whose contribution read as follows: "Every pleased customer you make is like putting money in the bank." This is one of the surest laws of business and doubly true in the talking machine business. First — Because the satisfied customer buys more records, and Second — Because the satisfied customer brings you more customers. In connection with this it must be remembered that the boy who keeps most persistently in the foreground is the one who sells the most papers, and when the inevitable "fake" concern strikes your town, giving away machines with a certain number of records, the man who advertises and keeps his business prominently before the public is the one who will retain the most business — the holding of that business depending on the number of pleased customers he makes. The man who is nearly as energetic will get the business that is left, and the one who stands around on the edge and handles talking machines just because a person now and then calls for one will get just what he is looking for — some one to call for one every few months. His stock stays on hand until it is shopworn and ill-appearing, and the records receive all kinds of careless handling, putting them into a condition next to impossible to sell. SLOW dealee; quick stock. An old man, a music dealer in this town, ordered a Victor talking machine a year ago in October. He never unpacked it until two months after, trying to get some other dealer to take it off his hands. Finally his daughter prevailed on him to unpack it and set it up. During the day some of the "Old Guard" dropped in, and at 3 p. m. the Victor was carried out of his store — sold! The old man got partly awake then, and since that time has ordered a machine as fast as the last one was sold, never having samples of different styles nor over twenty records at one time, and while that old man now considers the talking machine a great money-making branch of his business, I am selling every one of his customers their records, because they want a stock to select from. In this connection I will say that every live dealer will find record selling the great and profit-making end of the business. I have among my record customers the owners of every other make of disc machines, and I have found that in Toledo, Ohio, a great many people have a talking machine of local manufacture, but without exception, so far as I know, they are all using Victor records on them, outside of the few they buy with the machine. It is true that the Victor talks for itself, but while it talks it does not think, and in every sale you must do the thinking for it. The first principle of pleasing the customer in every line is to convince him that he is getting something superior for his money, and then have an article that will prove that superiority the more he uses it. For this purpose there is notliing so safe to sell as Victor goods. Every Victor dealer has people come in who argue that some other machine talks just as loud and just as distinctly, but if he makes a sale the person invariably returns in a little while and tells how mistaken he was and how glad he is that he has a Victor. "GRAFT MACHINES." During the past year a number of people have called on me who have been visited by agents that were giving away talking machines, the customer agreeing to take a certain number of teninch records at ?1 each. In such a case I find out v/hat records have been supplied with the "given away" machine, and play the same music on the Victor. Then I play some of the specially magnificent Victor records, calling attention to the range in pitch and the perfect regulation of speed possible in the Victor, ana that the machine neeas no starting by hand, and only a small part of tne winding that the cheap machine needs. Then I make my second argument, which is that the incomparable superiority of Victor products keeps the Victor plant running night and day to rill orders at Victor prices, while the cheap concern has to give the greater part of its stuff away. If I should really attack the cheap machine and tell the truth about it, pointing out what an entirely disordered, weak-springad and altogether "rotten" thing it actually is, I would antagonize six out of ten average buyers, but after nearing and seeing the Victor work, you can make comparisons without offending. When the customer again meets the man who wants to give him a machine free, he feels an antagonism toward him, and in almost every case tells the "give-away" agent that he would not have his cheap outfit if he could give him the records for twenty-five cents apiece. Of course I am maning mighty good use of the people who have bought these "graft" machines, and am selling stacks of Victor records to them every month. People used to talk about being tired of the phonograph, and I know of dozens of old-style machines laying away in garrets and closets, where they have been, some for months, some for ages. Do you know where there is a Victor machine laid away anywhere? No! nor does anybody else. Whenever a person finds that you have a good stock of records and a proper way of showing them ( the best is in a separate, sound-proof room, set apart for this purpose) , that person is from that time on your pleased customer; far better pleased than if you had won him by "throwing in" a horse and buggy, or something else, because he is legitimately pleased, and not so likely to come back in the fall to ask for a lap-robe also. A pleased customer expects to come back and get the same satisfaction in dealing with you that he had before. I have sold people seventyfive records the second year, who thought it was an extravagance to buy fifteen the first year. "FROJI $40 TO $50, A DOLLAR AT A TIME." There is one important feature I wish to mention, because it has a psychological connection with the subject, regarding quoting prices. If I am selling a $40 style Victor, I tell the customer that the machine, with a dozen records, will cost him $50. This is different from quoting the bare machine at $40 and then giving mm to understand that each record will cost him extra besides. Fifty dollars at first blush really looks no larger to him, as a rule, than $40, but if he stops to count his way from forty to fifty, $1 at a time, it seems a great deal more. Do not confuse this with the idea that I make him think I am giving him a dozen records, I simply quote the price of all machines, including one dozen records. THE GAME W0N"T WAIT. From my own experience and observations I have made in other houses, I consider the first and greatest point in satisfying customers and riaking money out of doing so, the keeping of ji!£t as large a stock as is possible to handle, of I oth machines and records. You will sell a great many times the amount you otherwise would by having the stock to show and tempt people with. Why, I would as soon be caught trout fishing v.'ithout the proper fly as to be without certain records that I know in many and many a case have sold a machine; and I would as soon go luinting without a gun, and tell Mr. Squirrel, or Mr. Rabbit, or Mr. Mink that I would be back ii] a few days with my gun as to tell a customer who comes in to see my stock that I have no machines of a certain style just now, but there are some on the road, so please call next week and I will have them to show. Mr. Squirrel or Mr. Mink might wait for me to come with a gun. and the customer might come in next week instead of going to some more wide-awake dealer, but it would be better to be piepared to make the "killing" when everything is ready, than to put your chances back in a box and try to shake the same thing over again. Let me add. that by pleasing the customers I have been able to build up a business which makes it necessary for me to get into larger and better quarters the first part of the year, so that I can take care of orders by the hundreds instead of by the dozens. On the 10th of the month the United Hebrew Disc and Cylinder Co. removed their laboratory from 261 to 414 Grand street. New York, where larger quarters have been leased to accommodate their increasing business. A list of about ten additional titles will be issued within the next few weeks. B. Dronsick is the manager, vice P. Ijong resigned. The concern will be conducted by Perlman & Rosansky, the owners of the company, who are the largest piano dealers in that part of the city. They are handling the Victor goods. The Leeds & Catlin Co. advise The World that they have received an export order for 1,000,000 of their Imperial records. The company are developing a slot machine department, in charge of George W. Blake, who will also look after their advertising and correspondence. C. G. Andrews, of the Boston Cycle & Sundry Co., Boston, Mass., who was in New York on Lincoln's Birthday, left for home the following day. As elsewhere stated, the company have stocked up with an entirely new and fresh line of Edison and Zonophone goods, besides supplies and general essentials and specialties. The One Thing required to make the phonograph a perfect instrument is a PHONO CONSONATOR. Removes all harshness, rattles and metallic vibration, and regulates the sound while the machine is in motion. Sold by all wide=awake dealers. Price $3.50. LEWIS MFG. COMPANY 379 6th Avenue, NEW YORK CITY