20 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



December 10. 1916 



What Las been said o( the pre-eminent need of knowledge for the sales 

 manager is equally true of the traveling salesman. Not only must he 

 know how lumber is manufactured and handled, but he must also know 

 how to impart information to the customers in a convincing manner 

 and carry conviction to the point that destroys doubt and allays sus- 

 picion. This is especially true it new uses of our products are sought 

 and an expansion of our present markets secured. 



In all that is done, in all that is said, there is no extenuating excuse 

 for a lack of courtesy. The human, friendly attitude Is often a greater 

 factor in making a sale that all of the so-called clever ruses so fre- 

 quently resorted to by the smart salesman who plays upon the credulity 

 of the customer with the long bow of cleverness, rather than the 

 straight-£rom-the-shoulder honesty and simplicity of manhood. Tempo- 

 rary advantages gained by questionable methods are the forerunners of 

 certain failure. No substantial or permanent advantage was ever ac- 

 quired by subterfuge or conscienceless trickery. 



Mr. Butts was followed by A. L. Osborn of the Scott Sc Howe 

 Lumber Company, Oslikosh, who was well ciualified to speak on the 

 topic of ' ' Selling of Lumber — Past, Present and Future. ' ' His talk 

 was a fiue resume of comparative methods from the early days of 

 lumbering in the Xorth down to now, an<l what may be expected. 



O. T. Swan of the association then gave a talk on the "Eelative 

 Durability of Competing Woods," which was supplemented with 

 lantern slides. 



The Salesman's Side of the Selling Problem 



"The Salesman's Side of the Selling Problem" was the topic 

 very ably handled Ijy Harry Wilbur of the Ross Lumber Company, 

 MUwaukce. A summary of his talk follows: 



Unlike prevailing conditions of a few yeai-s ago, the ethics of all busi- 

 ness have improved, and it is particularly to be noted in the lumber 

 trade, consequently reflected in the salesman. 



The lumbermen generally have been the last to realize that their sales- 

 men were assets, and there are still some manufacturers who arc labor- 

 ing under the belief that these men are liabilities. The different locali- 

 ties have salesmen's associations, but for some reason their possibilities 

 have lain dormant. 



We have been offered employment under the supposition, and thereby 

 complimented, that we could sell anything. Many of us have been handed 

 an order book and price list and turned loose. There are among us 

 men, who, when started on the road, were not acquainted with the vari- 

 ous kinds of lumber ; men who were not at all conversant with the 

 grades ; and some who could not scale. There are very few of us who 

 can Intelligently interpret a house or barn bill, and the ones who are 

 able to talk of the cutting up value of a piece of hardwood arc rare 

 indeed. How many among us, and we will include the manufacturers 

 and s.nles manager, who are as able to discuss their produce as scien- 

 tifically as the steel, sash and door, cement, and other salesmen both 

 allied and in competition with us. Through good fortune alone, and in 

 spite of his employer, has the lumber salesman been able to rank with 

 the foremost in other industries. 



Generally we are apportioned a certain territory, and the business 

 derived from this territory, we arc credited with, the general presump- 

 tion being that our efforts have made the volume possible. We are thou 

 In position to sleuth around our particular preserve, and with tireless 

 energy, hunt out the poacher. .\n expense account when correctly fig- 

 ured becomes a part of your salary instead of a gratuity. The proper 

 way to cut down the expense is by securing enough increase over the 

 asking price to take cai-e of your expense and part of your salary. This 

 can be done in many ways without impairing your elBclency. Substitu- 

 tion, with the consent of the punhaser, is one, which can be accom- 

 plished only through your familiarity with the s\ipply of other woods 

 with which you are competing. We would generally find it difficult, and, 

 perhaps, unremimerative to boost the price on a constant consumer, but 

 to take the market advantage of a buyer whose wants are supplied by 

 lumbermen outside of our particular territory Is not such a grievous 

 <?rror. There are many ways in which a price may be legitimately raised 

 ■without detriment. 



Correspondence, wisely Indulged In, Is of the greatest benefit to the 

 salesman. You have your salesman's route sheet every week, or think 

 you have. Would it accomplish anything for the general office to send 

 out an occasional letter advising the arrival of their representative? By 

 such a letter some good results might be accomplished ; it might create 

 In your customer a receptive frame of mind ; it might lead him to suspect 

 that he was trading with something other than a saw mill ; it might be 

 the means of creating an interest in some weather-stained stock you were 

 about ready to move for the freight. 



Should not the salesman be the last word between the misunderstand- 

 ings of the consumer and the producer? By showing your customers 

 an unlimited amount of confldonce in your representative you increase 

 his ability in their estimation. 



The market price, the conduct of the firm and the salesman are in 

 this order the biggest essentials in marketing the product. It docs not 



require any great amount of ability to sell lumber at a little less price 

 than the best recognized of your competitors, but to obtain a standard 

 price with the best producers should be the aim of both the manufac- 

 turer and the salesman. 



A thorough knowledge of competing woods is very essential to the 

 salesman. As a general thing ho is conversant with the prices of com- 

 petitive grades, but as a usual thing he is unaware of the underlying 

 cause for a noted increase or decrease in the price. We have all experi- 

 enced times when a certain wood was bringing a price out of proportion 

 to what our other species were doing, and in cases of this kind It is not 

 always policy to advance the price readily, for the reason that when the 

 competitive wood comes back we will encounter an abnormal reaction. 

 We are all liable to lay particular stress on the statement that we will 

 have our day, and when the opportunity affords itself we generally take 

 advantage of it to the utmost, losing sight of the fact that the consumer 

 cherishes the same idea. A better average price could be maintained con- 

 sistently b.v a judicious study of the fluctuating values. Your salesman 

 may keep you informed as to prevailing prices, but a systematic research 

 is necessary to keep informed as to the cause of a rise, whether it is a 

 temporary boom or a healthy advance. We have all experienced certain 

 times when a sharp advance was encountered, but very few lumbermen 

 anticipated it. There are times when we will predict an advance to a 

 customer, when our only argument is "because." An Intelligent buyer is 

 better able to call the turn on the market, because he has access to figures 

 which we have not. 



Alfred Klass of the Holt Lumber Company, Oconto, told of the work 

 of the sales managers' comniittee and outlined how that work could 

 lie improved upon. 



The Sales Manager's Side of the Selling Problem 



G. C. Kobsou closed the afternoou program with an interesting talk 

 on the "Sales Manager's Side of the Selling Problem." He said 

 in part: 



I shall first take up the sales manager's position of the past. It is un- 

 necessary for me to recite the changes that have taken place In the man- 

 ner of selling northern lumber from the days when it was largely sold at a 

 flat price per thousand feet for all grades better than cull up to the 

 lirescnt time when wc are striving to see the dawn of u new day and 

 merchandise our stock to the best advantage by sorting everything into 

 its proper grade. The sales manager of hemlock and hardmood mills of 

 the past occupied a very nominal position in the average case. His title 

 up to a short time ago was largely a figurehead and, to a more or less 

 extent, he was paid accordingly. It was not expected and he did not 

 require a very broad knowledge of the lumber industry for the reason 

 that he had very little to say concerning how the lumber was manufac- 

 tured and handled, and his policy of selling was outlined to him by his 

 employer. 



Under such a condition It was not entirely his fault that he did not 

 develop or broaden out. that he did not study the problems of merchan- 

 dising and possibly consider sjilesmanshlp questions. Did he not reason 

 that it his employer was satisfied with the manner in which the stock 

 was disposed of It should be satisfactory to him? 



There was little incentive and no real reason for him to make a study 

 of the lumber industry to learn about grades, to find out how lumber 

 should lie manufactured to obtain the best merchantable values, how it 

 should lie handled to keep it from depreciating through the process of 

 drying, how it should be sorted Into grades to make it ready for the 

 market, and what the effect of competitive woods and substitutes was 

 having on tJiis product or where the best markets might be to sell the 

 stock he handled. 



The same condition that made the sales manager a disinterested em- 

 ploye is, to a more or less extent, the position of the manufacturer with 

 reference to his sales department. He has looked upon it as one of the 

 least important of all branches of his industry. To very little extent 

 did he take his sales organization into his confidence, or encourage them 

 to broaden out in their merchandising. 



This same manufacturer has been busy trying to reduce the cost of his 

 logging a few cents or reducing the cost of manufacturing his lumber a 

 little, entirely overlooking one of the main features of his business that 

 could and should bring him results. Were not our lorests fast becoming 

 depleted and was not one of his worries what the future generation 

 would do for building material? Should he not reason that the consump- 

 tion of lumber would go on from year to year and would take care of all 

 that he could produce and that If he manufactured it the public would 

 consume it? Why should he consider a change in his manner of selling 

 his output? 



One dark day a few years ago he awakened to the fact that other mate- 

 rials than lumber were going into building construction where lumber 

 had formerly been used, that substitute materials were coming into the 

 market and with a remarkable display of energy, the spending of hun- 

 dreds and thousands of dollars for advertising, the employing of the 

 most skillful and Intelligent minds In the sales and advertUing world 

 nnd, in fact, he found that they were carrying on such a vigorous cam- 

 ]iaign that the public became convinced that lumber would, in a few 

 years, be a thing of the past and they must hasten to use these substi- 

 tutes before this timber supply was entirely gone. When he found that 



