The talking machine world (Jan-Dec 1913)

10 THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD. EDWARD LYMAN BILL, Editor and Proprietor. J. B. SPILLANE, Managing Editor. Trade Representatives : Glad. Henderson, C. Chace, L. E. Rowers, B. Brittain Wilson, A. J. Nicklin, August J. Timpe, L. M. Robinson. Boston: John H. Wilson, 824 Washington Street. Chicago Olllce: E. P. Van Harlingen, 87 So. Wabash Ave. Philadelphia: R. W. Kauffman. Minneapolis and St. Paul: Adolf Edsten. San Francisco: S. H. Gray, 88 First St Cleveland: G. F. Prescott. St. Louis: Clyde Jennings. Cincinnati: Jacob W. Walter. London. Eng., Olllce: 1 Gresbam Building, Basinghall St. W. Lionel Sturdy, Manager. Published the 15th of every month at 373 Fourth Ave., New York. SUBSCRIPTION (including postage). United States, Mexico, One Dollar per year; all other countries, $1.26. England and her colonies, five shillings. ADVERTISEMENTS: $2.60 per inch, single column, per insertion. On quarterly or yearly contracts a special discount is allowed Advertising Pages, $76.00. REMITTANCES should be made payable to Edward Lyman Bill by check or Post Office Order. NOTICE TO ADVERTISERS. — Advertising copy should reach this office by the first of each month. By following this rule clients will greatly facilitate work at the publication headquarters. Long Distance Telephones — Numbers 5982-5983 Madison Sq. Cable Address: "Elbill," New York. NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 15, 1913. TRADE reports from dealers for January show a very excellent condition of business for the first month of the new year. Usually a very quiet spell is looked for following the great activity which prevails around the holiday period, and naturally the prospects are not over-brilliant for a large volume of business in the succeeding weeks. This, however, has not obtained to any large degree this year, and trade as a whole has been better than for the same month of last year, with an unusually large call for records. This is a natural sequence to the sales of machines around the holidays. The sales of high-priced machines have been most noticeable for January, and this despite the efforts being made by dealers to concentrate the attention of the public a little more on the lowerpriced products. There is one peculiar trait of the American, however, and it is when he has money he wants the best, hence he selects the high-priced talking machine when he comes to make a purchase. The outlook is excellent for better business conditions as the season advances, and it is now expected that the change of administration in Washington will have no disturbing effect on business. ONE of the essentials to success in the merchandising field is to carry a complete stock to meet the demand of purchasers. This is of special importance in connection with records, and it is a mighty bad thing to let one's stock of machines and records or supplies run out, because it creates a bad impression when people make a demand for goods that are not carried in stock. And true as fate, the very day a dealer runs out of some particular record someone calls at the store and asks for it. Haven't you often had it happen that way? If you haven't you are an exception to the rule. When a person makes up his mind that he is going to buy something he usually buys it at that time. If he comes into a store, asks for some particular article and is unable to get it, he goes away disgusted, visits a competitor's store around the corner, finds the desired article, makes his purchase and thus a customer is lost. Hence it pay and pays well to keep a full stock at all times. People soon learn to know the store that has the goods, and that store is the one they visit. Salesmen should be trained to the necessity of not allowing stock to run down. There should be a "want" book in every department, and if such is not employed it will be found a mighty convenient aid to good stockkeeping. This book should be hung in a convenient place where the salesmen can have ready access to it. -Whenever there is a call for any article that the stock does not contain it should be written in the book. This book should be inspected every day, and it will keep the head of the business well posted on the condition of the stock and the nature of the public's demand. This "want" book scheme is well worthy consideration where it is not already used. It will be found a great help, and through its aid much benefit may be derived. It insures a house having the goods the people want and when they want them. NO one factor in the retail sales domain is of more importance than enthusiasm. A salesman may possess honesty, wealth, ability and initiative, knowledge of the business, tact, sincerity, industry, and open mindedness — in fact, ah the virtues, but without enthusiasm he would be a statue. Contrast the enthusiastic, magnetic man with the one of every day attributes, and you will know the reason why one succeeds and the other drags along. Hugh Chalmers recently put this very clearly when he emphasized that enthusiasm is the white heat that fuses all the qualities above referred to into one effective mass. He thus illustrated his point : "I can take a sapphire and a piece of plain blue glass, and I can rub the plain glass until it has a surface as hard as the sapphire. But when I put the two together and look down at them, I find that the sapphire has a thousand little lights glittering out of it that you cannot get out of the blue glass if you rub it a thousand years. What those little lights are to the sapphire, enthusiasm is to the man." The man who works merely for his salary without interest or enthusiasm in his business is not a great producer, nor is he a great success. For the man who doesn't get some comfort and enthusiasm out of his daily work is in a bad way. Some men are almost irresistible, and it is because enthusiasm radiates through their expression, beams from their eyes, and is evident in their actions. In brief, enthusiasm is one of the great assets of value to a man, no matter what his mission in life may be. In salesmanship enthusiasm -is of primary importance, and in no business is it more essential than in selling talking machines. The man who can convert the prospective purchaser of a low-priced machine into buying the highest priced machine in the house, and a goodly roster of high-priced records, is the fellow who employs well considered arguments, backed by enthusiasm and conviction. It affords the keenest pleasure to watch such a salesman handle a customer — -to note the transmission of that magnetic force called enthusiasm. The viewpoint of the prospective buyer is so readily changed that one can easily understand why a man possessing enthusiasm can win out as compared with a man who moves along stereotyped lines. SIX weeks' experience with the parcel post has demonstrated its value to the community at large. For the first four weeks forty million packages were handled throug'hout the country, while in New York City alone nearly three million packages were handled, which undoubtedly meant a saving in cost to the senders of from twenty to forty per cent. In the talking machine field the parcel post can be used to good advantage, at least by those who keep closely in touch with their customers. Records, needles, reproducers, etc., can be sent by mail expeditiously and cheaply, and in this way customers can be presented with the latest records and enabled to try them over in their home without visiting the store. This, of course, only applies to reputable and recognized purchasers. Every wideawake dealer has on his books such people — steady buyers of records, who watch the new issues with the keenest interest. Dealers short of stock can also utilize the parcel post to get supplies from their jobber, and so it works from the jobber to the manufacturer — all along the line. Any and . every means that enables the dealer to get in touch with the purchasing public should be given immediate and serious consideration, and no dealer who desires to be up to date can afford to overlook the possibilities that exist in the parcel post. It is a current complaint that the parcel post has been designed largely in the interest of the mail order houses, and the big department stores. Without discussing this issue, the fact remains that the parcel post is conceived for the best interests of the public, and for every merchant, and -it is up to each and every one, no matter