The Music Man went to River City, Iowa, and sang a little ditty about trouble to seduce the town into buying his musical instruments. In the movie, it worked like a charm. But would such tactics work in real life?<\/p>\n
Aside from the very basic idea that no, singing a song will not get a client standing in front of you to buy (generally speaking, unless you are a musician), there are a couple other fundamental problems with how professor Harold Hill sold to his audience. He loves to tell them the problems of their city, and what they need to do to fix the city. But a fundamental start to a good sale is not telling the consumer what their problem is, but rather, interacting with them and asking them what their problem is.<\/p>\n
If River City was filled with normal people, there would not have been success for that swindler Harold Hill that day. But without it, we would miss out on a great story.<\/p>\n