new piano

[Warren Fisher]

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Dear Les & Susan,

I worked for several New Orleans dealers for a whole lot of years and prior
to that sold chemicals for a national corporation for fourteen years. So I
think I can give you a view into the sales-oriented mind.

First, the sale is the only thing that keeps them in business initially.  The
mind of a customer is carefully nurtured until he or she believes that this
piano is the solution to all their musical problems (whatever they are!).
The customer is carefully kept in a positive state of mind until the sale is
consumated.  A great deal of care is taken to avoid ANY problems which may
crop up (like regular tuning, etc.).  They don't necessarily lie, but
sidestep carefully around any land-mines in the process. They are deathly
afraid that by being too truthful about these things, the customer will be
scared off to one of their competitors and the sale will be lost.  If they
lose too many sales, they go under.

The savvy dealers, have a lot of work done on the pianos before they are even
seen by the customer.  My favorite dealer in this area tunes and completely
regulates every piano that comes in before they are put on the floor. They
are retuned regularly on the floor until they are sold.  Several of his
customers have bought two or three pianos over the years as theirs means
increased.  In my mind this is what makes a successful dealer.  Repeat
business.  It's the core of our business!

When I first started doing these tunings, I would tune it where it was and
repair what was broke and walk out.  Then I found that six-months or a year
later when I was back in there to re-service, that the problems were still
there, and were worse.  Then I had a great deal of trouble explaining why the
thing needed a pitch raise or loss motion adjustment to "work right".  When I
thought about it, I realized that these were now my customers and not the
dealer's and it was up to me to make sure that the piano was correct.  For a
while, I just took it on my self to do whatever was necessary and chalked it
off to customer aquisition, and planned on making it up later.
Unfortunately, neither of the dealers for whom I worked, sold very good
pianos.  About half of the customers, for whatever reason, did not need or
want additional service for two to five years. I'm sure some of the problem
was the lousy tunings I was doing then, but not all.  When I realized what
was happening, I talked to the managers of the stores explaining the problem.
One of them was astounded that the pianos were in such poor shape out of the
factory (the brands shall remain nameless. Most of them are dead now anyway).
We set up a pricing schedule for stuff I could go ahead and do without his
authorization and others, I needed to call him about. He praised me for
making him understand, because he wasn't aware of the problem and he had
wondered why he wasn't getting the after-market sales he had expected.  We
talked for about two hours about the problems I was seeing.  He made careful
notes so he could talk to the manufacturers about them.  He told me later
that they told him that it was his problem. Deal with it!

Dealer margins are eroded quickly by overhead and the floor plan expense that
they owe on their inventory each month, so they often get into cash flow
problems.  So the bottom line is to sell it quick to have the best profit.
Don't let anything mess up the customers mind.  I heard several times that
customers were told that the piano wouldn't need anything done for four or
five years. Usually, I lift the lid, take out the owner's manual and let them
read the manufacturers recommendations about service. Many say four times the
FIRST year.

It's our job to educate them on what the piano needs to stay healthy. Don't
bad-mouth any dealers.  Eventually, you will regret it.  They have a lot of
influence in town and you may find that doors close on you unexpectedly.

The second dealer, looked at me like I was from Mars. Told me he wasn't
paying any more for tunings and that was that.  I told him goodbye.  He
called me for a year after that, but I didn't do any more work for him.

Warren

Leslie W Bartlett wrote:

> I tuned for a new customer today, a Kawai baby grand.  Low part was out
> about 35-cents, top out about 65 cents.   New piano.  I told them it
> would take more tunings, showed them why, etc. etc., but they were
> incensed that their piano, major investment, was so unstable. Shouldn't a
> major investment be "ready", and not require all this extra
> cost?????????????- they inquired.
>
> The relationship between stores and techs in this town hasn't been
> incredibly positive, at least in the seven or so years I've been around
> the business.  What's a guy to say to these people??????
> les bartlett
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--
Warren Fisher RPT
fish@Communique.net
1422 Briarwood Dr.
Slidell, LA 70458-3102


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