BY GEORGE QUINLAN, JR.
What Do Word Association Surveys and Bobble-Heads Have in Common?! Popular author Daniel Pink opens his book To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others with an interesting tale about Norman Hall, the last surviving Fuller Brush salesman in existence. The Last One—a genuine “old school” salesman! (If you’re not familiar with this company, we’re not surprised. The Fuller Brush Company flourished during the mid-20th century using a door-to-door sales model.) Daniel follows with a discussion about a wordassociation survey he developed entitled “What Do You Do at Work?” He posed a simple question: When you think of “sales” or “selling” what’s the first word that comes to mind? More about this later… If you ask a typical classroom teacher, “What Do You Do at Work?” their response might be, “I teach 4th grade” or “I teach High School Spanish.” But, we realize as band and orchestra directors, you often wear many hats. You are often an emergency instrument repair technician, a fundraiser, a career or academic counselor, a motivational speaker, a logistics coordinator…and, oh, you also teach music—often all before noon on any given day!
You’ve Got a Friend in Me... As a retailer devoted to school music service, our goal is to help make participating in band and orchestra easier for students, parents, and teachers. Recognizing the busy lives of the parents and students, we help by providing service at school on a dependable weekly basis to save them time and travel. School music dealers provide high-quality instruments at affordable rates, large selections and inventories of music and supplies, customized websites for your ensembles, and most importantly, dependable, high-quality repair service with quick turnaround all coordinated by your friendly educational representative. That person is known for being service-oriented, prompt, and having a strong musical background. 20
Often, educational representatives become more than just our rep by sharing best practices and ideas learned from other schools in the area. They also take time to get to know your school secretaries, business office and administration personnel, custodians, and other important people in the district to navigate and facilitate the varied ordering and delivery processes for your school. It’s not uncommon for our reps to pair “like-minded” directors together to learn and share ideas based on conversations during their weekly visits. Sometimes, it’s the intangible things they do that create the most loyalty. Often, it’s just “being there”—a trusted colleague to listen when you’ve had a challenging day. We realize that our visit together might be the only adult conversation you may have the entire day!
ISO—Instrument Shaped Objects One delicate subject we often discuss with educators relates to sub-standard, poor-quality instruments available on the market, particularly online. Often referred to as an ISO (Instrument Shaped Object), it will usually set a student up for failure when not properly monitored. Parents always want to do what is best for their child, but they need expert information to make good decisions. Teachers ARE experts at knowing which instruments perform best for students. Even first-year teachers may have twelve years experience as musicians, far more than most parents. Without proper guidance from you, parents will make decisions based on other factors like online reviews, fancy colors, or clever advertisements… not to mention a free pair of gloves! Please stress to parents that your goal is to have their child succeed in music, and their instrument is a key part of their success. The instrument must be of high quality, easily repaired, and play with — Continued on page 21 W I N T E R 2021
