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George Hines, owner of George's Music Stores, Inc., provides valuable tips and insights through these sales training materials, videos and course.  Website: http://www.georgesmusic.com/  The course is structured to allow you to start and stop as needed, and to easily get back to the area of interest. The course index below shows the topics in each chapter. ChaptersThe course is set up as individual chapters to make it easy for you to move through the selling process and understand the importance of each stage. Each chapter should take approximately 7 to 20 minutes (maximum) to com

Listen as George Hines, President of George's Music Stores, Inc., discusses the three key concepts of the Participative Selling method for Music Retailers, his sales training course: 1.  The Three “P’s” of Retail 2.  Physical Needs vs. Emotional Needs 3.  “Participative Selling” vs. Selling the Customer   

Mark Hiskey, President of ILIo, reveals the changes his company made to meet the challenges of the current financial climate.  1. Refocus on core successes. As a distributor of virtual instrument software and soundware, we represent several developers, but when we first noticed the market contracting, we retrenched and focused on maximizing the potential of our core products, rather than diverting too much of our attention to fringe, unproven or riskier items. We also implemented programs that built on the strengths of those core products, such as a hard disk pre-installation prog

In addition to increasing foot traffic in your store, print music sales and consumables sales, Pete Gamber describes some of the many additional benefits to having music lessons in your store.

Finding qualified teachers is a major challenge that many stores face.  Pete Gamber reveals some of the resources he uses to find experienced teachers. 

After you gather the basic elements for your store’s lesson program such as an engaging teaching staff, practical lesson rooms and a level of student interest, you need to turn your attention to execution. A well-thought-out plan has vision, creativity and the ability to maintain that student interest. Listen as Pete Gamber describes what he likes to call the “vibe” of a lesson program and some of the ways he uses the program to foster his student’s passion to play music.

Signing up for music lessons should be an easy process for both your customers and your staff. Since lessons can be a great source of revenue, everyone on staff should be capable of quickly signing up new students.

What if you have a customer inquiring about taking lessons at your store, but no available time slots to offer? Instead of turning away a potential student due to scheduling conflicts, Pete Gamber recommends keeping a waiting list as an alternative solution. Waiting lists can help you avoid losing future business in case your lesson schedule changes, or if you acquire new teaching staff.

Pete Gamber gives some tips on how to make your lesson rooms a safe, comfortable and productive environment for your teachers and students.

When selecting new teachers, in-person interviews should be a crucial component in your decision-making process. In this clip, Pete Gamber summarizes some of the key points to remember when conducting interviews for teaching staff.

Pete Gamber discusses some of his tried-and-true ways to find students to fill his store's lesson program.

Okay, so you’ve finished teacher interviews and you are confident you hired a great staff for your lesson program. In this clip, Pete Gamber cautions you to be careful of your first instincts to randomly schedule lessons for your teachers. Instead, schedule your teachers’ lessons with a plan in mind to set up your store for long-term success.