VISIONARY - Music Inc. Magazine

Prior to the convention, industry
consultant Danny Rocks surveyed
a range of print music dealers to
find out what’s working in their
stores. He revealed his findings
during “This Works for Me and My Print
Department, Today,” offering up a range of
useful, in-the-trenches advice.
Rocks also received this year’s Dorothy
Award, the print music industry’s highest
honor.
Here are highlights from his session:
WHAT TO STOCK
WHAT’S WORKING? A LOT
b Pender’s Music’s Richard Gore: “We
eliminated carrying guitar tab folios and
sheets and went to print on-demand for
the most requested titles. If a customer
wants a book, we special-order it.”
b Ward-Brodt Music’s Dave Karbler:
“It’s more important than ever to have
38 I MUSIC INC. I JULY 2011
the right merchandise in stock to compete
against Internet competition. You can do
that by having experienced buyers and
knowing your customers — their interests
and buying habits.”
HOW TO DISPLAY
Danny Rocks
b West Music’s Valerie Johnson: “In our
solo and ensemble section, there was old
material that sat there, and customers
didn’t look through it after a while because
it looked tattered.
“We cleaned up the area, we put the old
[music] into clearance, ordered selected
solo and ensemble music. We are now
having more sales in this area.”
b Bookmark Music’s Marcia Stearns:
“We have been very diligent about changing
out our window displays every two
to three weeks. Tie-ins to holidays, local
events, employee whims of the week —
they are making people stop and look and
enter the store.”
b Beacock Music’s Gayle Beacock: “We
are trying to talk to our customers more
like in the old days — homemade signage
telling customers why they need to buy
these books. Also, the old idea of drawing
attention to the new items is really working.
Product tends to get lost in the bins.”
HOW TO MARKET
b Stearns: “Off-site sales are our best income
producers right now. We bring our stock
to potential and existing customers by attending
their [music teacher association]
meetings to show and tell — and sell.
“We set up booths at local music festivals,
workshops, concerts and community
events to sell selected music there. These
events are keeping us alive and busy.”
b George’s Music’s George Hines: “We
can’t wait for the customer to come to
us. We have to give them a good reason
to come into our stores. We need to invite
them to be our special guest.
“We have tripled the number of events
that we offer in our stores.
“We make it easy for our customers
to self-select the specialized newsletters
they wish to receive.”
HOW TO SERVICE
b Johnson: “Having specialized people in
specific areas to e-mail, market and educate
our sales staff has been extremely
helpful in improving our customer service.
“Processing special orders in 24–48
hours has been extremely beneficial. We
three-day [ship] anything from slowermoving
publishers.”