Daniel Pink begins his book, To Sell is Human, with the story of Norman Hall, the last remaining Fuller Brush salesman – on Earth. At age 75, Norman routinely transverses the halls of modern office buildings in San Francisco, selling his wares to his longtime customers. An echo of days gone by. He is… The. Last. One.
There were once 8,300 “Fuller Brush-men” making fifty million house calls annually selling cleaning supplies and housewares from a suitcase. I remember many house calls made by these door-to-door salesmen to my mother in the 1960-‘70s. Who would believe in 2014 that an antiquated and inefficient distribution model that blossomed in the 1950s would still be in existence?
Believe it or not, there were once salesmen who, each morning, would load up their vehicles with musical supplies and travel from school to school offering repair services, free delivery (“I think I have one of those in my van”), and a helping hand to music educators in their area. Surely, this model has been rendered obsolete, replaced by the wonders of online ordering and free next day shipping! To survive, companies today must embrace the power of the Internet and vacate all the old, rustic rules of door-to-door salesmanship, right?
In chapter three, Daniel Pink also shares a “word cloud,” a graphic representation of the most frequent responses to the word “salesman.” The most frequent responses are the largest in the cloud (pushy, yuck, ugh, difficult, et cetera), while the smallest are those least common responses (the least derogatory being important and essential).
Today’s school music dealer realizes that we must embrace the “new world” of technology. We also realize there is still a need for some “old world,” time-tested methods.
Our company has run a contest on Facebook each spring for the last four years. Contestants simply complete the following phrase: “I Like My QF Rep because…” Our customers, notably band & orchestra directors, take time from their busy lives to write poems, tributes, songs, and create clever videos to express their gratitude for their school rep to win a unique prize – a tandem bobblehead of themselves WITH their QF Rep!!
Time is the most precious commodity we all have. Why would today’s young B&O directors choose to allocate this valuable resource to express their appreciation for… a SALESMAN? After all, salesmen are to be loathed, not celebrated – right? Maybe, there’s more to it. Maybe good salesmen go unnoticed. Bad salesmen are remembered. Maybe the relationship between a band or orchestra director and a road rep transcends the typical buyer/seller relationship. Maybe it’s an opportunity to celebrate the work of that very special person…
· That person, much like Norman Hall, who provides much more than simple goods & services for them
· That person who is willing to offer help, move equipment, fix instruments on the spot, or maybe just listen when the “customer” has had a bad day
· That person who “shows up” at local concerts, festivals, and performances… often with the latest solution to an emergency
· That person willing to seek and share solutions learned from others to help solve a problem
· That person who cares more about them as a person than as a customer
· That person who loves his/her career and “suits-up” every day for the love of the game
· That person who knows the race they run is not a sprint, but a marathon
· That person who values the relationship knowing it is more important any transaction
This old, outdated, antiquated road rep distribution model continues to be the most effective model for the B&O sector of the music industry. Despite all the odds against it, road reps continue to be the lifeblood for companies like ours dotted around the United States.
Each year, the National Association of School Music Dealers (NASMD) meets for three days of educational opportunities sprinkled with some fun social events. Many of us are, deep down, road reps looking to share ideas, search for solutions, and improve our “game.” We love to “talk shop” for three days and have some fun together too. “Road Rep Olympics” celebrates the mundane, yet important activities road reps encounter day-to-day. What better way to embrace this “new” art form of salesmanship?
Like the Fuller Brush Company, the school music sector has seen dramatic changes over the decades. Unlike the “brushmen,” there are still hundreds of us still on the job – ready, willing, and able to learn more ways to better serve our customers. We urge you to join us in March 2015 in New Orleans by visiting
www.nasmd.com.
(Note: “Salesman” is used throughout this article as an homage to those people – both men and women – who serve others through the art of sales.)
