The talking machine world (Jan-Dec 1907)

The Talking Machine World Vol. 3. No. 4. THE POWER OF SUGGESTION. One of the Great Essentials in the Art of Salesmanship— How the Customer's IVIind Can be Moulded and Business Materially Helped — An Illustration Points Out the Possibilities in This Connection When Properly Utilized Have you ever consklered the power of suggestion as relating to salesmanship? It is as important to be able to present an article in harmony with the customer's ideas as it is to prove thai the quality is suitable and price right. Where a customer is confined to a number of selected items a choice is made much more readily than if the confused contents of the whole shop are thrust upon him at once. The power of suggestion in salesmanship was well illustrated recently in the wall paper field. Two women, one of whom had purchased a house with nearly a score of rooms which she desired repapered, went into one store, wliere the salesman was polite, but far from diplomatic. The parlors came first on the list. He simply placed two or three sample books of parlor papers on the rack and turned them over rapidly without comment. The array of a hundred or more papers so confused the ladies that they had to postpone immediate choice, and the same plan on the part of the salesman in relation to other rooms had a similar result, and the possible customer walked out of the store without any clear idea of what had been shown. Strolling down the street the ladies were attracted by the window exhibit of another company. Going inside, "just to look around," they were approached by an affable young man who persuaded them to be seated, and was not long in getting the plans of the rooms. When it came to the parlor papers he took one book and began by showing heavy bronze papers. The ladies were not very enthusiastic, but when the heavy flowered patterns turned up they became interested, and at sight of a series of light and dainty French patterns they expressed their delight quite audibly. That was the salesman's cue. He had suggested various styles until he found what was wanted and confined himself to that. Instead of showing several hundred patterns for different rooms he confined himself to perhaps fifty of the light flowered order. The ladies were delighted, and when they were undecided between the shades he simply contrasted them with the papers picked for other rooms, when the one most in harmony was quickly chosen. •The salesman did not force his superior knowledge and wider experience upon the customers, just studied their tastes and suggested only such things as he knew would most likely suit them. A few clever words in favor of or sometimes against a paper made the task of tne ladies comparatively easy, and he took the order for paper for the entire house before they left the store. What that wall-paper salesman did should interest many "talker" salesmen, even if the lines are totally different. When a customer drops In, don't hand him or her a catalogue and play the Sphinx. Better find out what style of music is preferred, a very simple matter, if the same party has purchased records before at your store, and then pick out a few desirable selections along that line from the latest lists. Instead of becoming weary of listening to records of his own unguided choice — perhaps only one out of three of which will appeal to him to the slightest extent — he listens to records, every one of which has some interest for him. If he likes light opei'a of the better sort he is bored with either extreme, "ragtime" or grand opera. If he likes vocal selections, don't make him listen to a band or vice versa. When he has picked out a number from which his final choice is to be made, suggest reasons why he needs every one; this because it is the hit of a popular opera; that be New York, April 15, 1907. cause if is Ihe work of a |)0|)uhii' coiiijioser, and he will he Ihus prevailed upon lo purchase several records at least beyond ihe number he originally intended to order, l^earn to mould your customer's mind to Ibc extent that it helps your business; don't a|)pear insistent, simply suggestive, and you have another grip upon the art of salesmanship. OPPORTUNITIES IN PHILIPPINES. Rare Chance to Develop a Good Talking Machine Business — A Musical People Who Are Prospering — Interesting Chat on Conditions by a Recent Visitor to the Far East. Talking the othei' day with a United States army officer who had just returned from the Philippines, he stated to The World that there were a great many opportunities for a live talking machine jobber in the city of Manila. "Any bright young American, after a six months' study of the country, could work up a business in talking machines and records that would be simply astonishing. The Filipinos are intensely musical. In the larger cities they are refined ;nid cultured in fheir tastes and are rapidly accumulating money. Among these people grand opei'a records and high-priced machines could be easily sold in large numbers. Among the poorer classes there is also a good market, and in this connection the instalment plan may be tried with success. It is difficult to go to any large town throughout the islands and not find a band that plays far better than any to be found in a town in the United States of the same population. Moreover, there is a great anxiety prevalent to get the latest and best music, instrumental and vocal, from the United States. Wherever a talking machine is heard it is the center of a crowd large enough to cause a riot. "On my last visit to the Philippines I took over a talking machine and a large number of records, and il would be impossible to describe the commotion they caused. One peculiar trait of the Filipino is his ability to memorize. I heard one of them whistling a song which hehad heard two days before through the medium of my talking machine. It is a mistaken idea to believe that the Filipinos are savage, uneducated or unprogressive. The country is making splendid headway, and while the iieople have not lost their aspiration for independent government yet they are becoming greater admirers of American ways and American ideas, and it looks as if the Filipinos are in for a good long period of prosperity." There is meat in this for the talking machine manufacturer and dealer. Are we covering the talking machine market in that country as we should'? If not, the matter is worth remedying. HOW HE HEARS FROM HIS FAMILY. New York Traveling Man Is Up-to-Date and Receives Records from Home. A man went into a music store in Kansas City recently with a phonograph record, which he asked the clerk to place in a machine and reproduce it for him. When the machine was started the sound of a baby's words and laughter came from the horn. "Hello, papa! 'Ere's a tiss fum me en little Bob. I wusht ood tum home. ' For a full minute the baby's voice talked. Then came a few words in a woman's voice. The man dabbed at his eyes with a handkerchief and said: "That's my wife and baby talking." ■ He was a traveling salesman. His home was in New York. "I wouldn't have missed that for a twenty dollar bill," he said to the clerk. I've been away Price Ten Cents from home kIx weeks now, and every Saturday evening I have received a record from home. 1 tell you, there's nothing so good uh the Bound of their voices. It heats a letter 200 city blocks. An' that's goln' some, too." "How did he work that scheme?" the clerk was asked. "Easily. In his home in New York is a talking machine. His wife simply puts a blank ri-cord into it and she and the baby talk into it. Then she malls it to him, anrl lie has simply Uj put the record into another machine to bav it reproduced." The clerk said that it was becoming quit': a fad for parents to have their babies talk into a l)honograph record. Then the record was carefully put away to be kept until baby grew up. "There'll be lots of fun with those records," Ihe clerk said. "Imagine an old man listening to the prattle of his own baby voice!" INDIA A FERTILE COUNTRY For Talking Machine Trade — Great Interest Being Manifested in American Machines and Supplies — Class of Records Best Liked. India is a great country for the talking machine, and every month thousands are being shipped to that point. That the dealers in these instruments are also growing in number, and that they can read English, is evident from the rapidly growing clientele of Talking Machine World subscribers in India. Every mail brings either inquiries anent advertised specialties or subscriptions. All this is a healthy sign and shows how the American machine and supplies stand abroad. Indeed, it is a matter of common knowledge that the talking machine trade with India is more extended and more profitable than with many other countries. The native who can command the price wants a talking machine, and the records he delights in are those which reproduce the native songs. A correspondent of the "Zeitschrift fiir Instrumentenbau" points out that records in the four or five different Indian languages command a ready and permanent sale; he also advises record companies to record the songs of the Indian dancing girls. In support of his advice he explains that the sales to the European population are very much more limited than to the indigenous peoples; and even if the western nations refuse to class the screams and cries which pass for Indian songs as music, it must be remembered that they gratify the taste of the majority of record buyers in India. MUSIC IN THE CHURCH. Talking Machine Rapidly Taking the Place of Choirs in Churches — Moving Pictures Next. The Rev. L. G. Leggett, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, in Nebraska City, Neb., who has become famous as the first minister to substitute the talking machine for a church choir, has had hundreds of communications from churches all over the country, asking particulars regarding this move. It is not improbable that within the next year hundreds of churches, particularly those in the smaller towns, will enjoy first-class singing through the medium of the talking machine. In Ohio. Indiana. Missouri, parts of California, and in a number of the eastern States the ministers are putting in talking machines with a full equipment of hymns, while several Catholic churches have secured the music of entire masses by several eminent composers. We notice that the Rev. Byron G. Olatt.. pastor of the Central Christian Church, of Marion, O., has now gone further than having an automatic choir — he has been illustrating his sermons with stereopticon pictures throv,-n on the screen exemplifying the teachings of Christ.