The talking machine world (Jan-June 1918)

90 THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD March 15, 1918 FROM OUR CHICAGO HEADQUARTERS— (Continued from page 89) The Perfect Automatic Brake New Styles To fit All Makes of Tone-Anns, Now Ready for Shipment. Patented Anj. 28. '17 Simple construction. Easily attached. No Talking Machine complete without it. Samples $1.00 each, cash with order. Stale ma\e of tone-arm used.' Write for attractive quantity prices. PERFECT AUTOMATIC BRAKE CO. Room 400, 425 S. Wabash Ave., Chicago W hat conditions can be wrought out of these twenty-six little letters of our common alphabet! Words have been called 'terrific engines' since they can either serve or destroy. The salesman's mission is to use his words to serve. A customer, yes. every customer, judges the house with which he trades by the treatment he receives. If the salesman handles him in the proper way and in turn he is handled by the credit department in a businesslike way and lastly if" his purchase is delivered in a satisfactory manner, he has only good to speak of your house. The requisites of a successful salesman are many. Successful salesmanship is a condition of the mind more than anything else. A salesman must believe in his goods just as implicitly as he believes that water is wet — this measure of assurance will produce the proper effect on the customer. A heated argument is the worst weapon. No one would argue that water is wet because he knows that it is and the moment a salesman begins to argue, the customer realizes that there is evidently need of the argument. Moral: Never argue with your customer. If he makes some remarks about the competing line, agree with him as far as you consistently can, but at the same time point out to him in convincing language that your goods are much better. 'Again, a salesman must humanize his talk. Never talk over the shoulder or above the eye. James Whitcomb Riley, the noted Hoosier poet, was asked one day what made his every day, homelike poems, for example, 'The Old Swimming Hole,' 'The Old Man and Jim,' and others, sell so well, while the world's great sonnets written by the most noted poets grew dusty on the booksellers' shelves. He explained that there were only a few thousand people in this great land of ours who knew anything about the classics while everybody did know about the human heart, so in writing his poems he wrote more of the heart — in other words, he understood the masses and how to reach them. "How many salesmen talk too technically? The personal advertising of your business is done by your salesman. He must make the talk personal and he cannot do it in the language of the rhetorician, it must be done in every day common sense language. He must get on intimate grounds with his customers. "Another silent but effective argument in salesmanship is that of integrity. 'Honesty is the best policy' will no longer do as a motto, it should be 'Honesty is the only principle.' "Nothing drives away customers like an indifferent salesman. When a man or woman calls at your store it is because he or she is interested. They may want to buy. If you show no interest in them you certainly will not get their orders. People will frequently buy a different make of talking machine from the one they really desire rather than buy from a dealer or salesman who does not seem to care. And where is the man who has not gone out of his way to buy a thing he did not want simply for the pleasure of dealing with a certain salesman who was so courteous and considerate and took so much interest in his wants? The real business man goes in a straight path. He finds out the wrong in his business, then he rights the wrong, not haphazardly, but scientifically. There is as much science in the retail talking machine business as there is in the test tube. Business conditions of 1917 are different from those of 1916. and in the coming years they will be different from what they are to-day. "Service, first, last and all the time is the twentieth century business motto. Should your business not conform to this truth you must pay the penalty in the subtraction from the otherwise possible total of your success. And please dc not imagine for one moment that just being honest, loyal and truthful alone will enable you to serve nobly. It is a poor argument to say 'business is business' and proceed to take advantage of your customer. The first of all arguments is service well rendered. Connect personal advertising with service. Give good service to your trade, sell them what they want, make satisfactory delivery, handle their accounts in a businesslike way, be ever ready to look after their needs, no matter how trivial; by doing this you will deliver that character of service that will give you more opportunities to serve. Again, can you see, and do you realize the necessity to make every customer feel that he is getting the best for his money, not only in merchandise but in service. A dissatisfied customer can do you irreparable damage while a satisfied customer can speak more good words and bring you more business than many a good newspaper ad. I have known instances where salesmen by poor tact and poor salesmanship — yes, credit me, through lack of knowledge how to handle a customer — have lost sales that cost money to create. "There are only two ways of advertising — printers' ink and the personal equation. Personal advertising must be done by a clean-cut representative of the house, therefore it be Hiawatha Phonographs The extraordinary success of the Hiawatha Phonograph in the past few months is an exact measure of the Ottawa Pianophone Company's success in achieving its purpose. The Hiawatha is a machine unusual in refinement of finish, remarkable in tone qualities and embraces a greater number of new and distinctive features than has ever been offered to the trade. We are demonstrating QUALITY to our dealers and not "Talking" it. We do not take the dealer's orders and then let him shift for himself, but help him in selecting the models that will appeal to his particular clientele. Models $40, $60, $85 and $115 Retail Capacity 300 Machines per Day Tone chamber made of genuine Spruce. No metal. Cabinets made of 5-ply stock. Constrin tion guaranteed. Motors and equipments, using double spring motors, highest standard of Quality. Electric motor $25.00 extra. Tone modifier, built in as part of the machine, not an attachment. Patent applied Jor. Plays all records with the same attachment. The Home of Hiawatha OTTAWA ILLINOIS "All Orders F. O. B. Factory" OTTAWA PIANOPHONE COMPANY City Address: 802 Republic Building, Chicago, 111.