HARDWOOD RECORD 



57 



EDWAUD L. DAVIS. E. L. DAVIS LUMBER 

 COMPANY, LOUISVILLE, KY. 



J. J. I.INEIIAN, riTTSBURG. VA., RESOLU- 

 TIONS COMMITTEE 



T. J. MOFFETT. CINCINNATI. O.. MAHOGANY 

 GRADING AND STATISTICS COMMITTEE 



world over and is largely guided by first impressions. A small amount 

 of poor lumber on top of a shipment, whether taliied or thrown in with- 

 out charge, will start trouble, though the balance of the car be fully up 

 to grade. On a customer's first impression much depends. If the car 

 opens up well the customer's inspection is likely to be fair and reasonable ; 

 on the other hand, if the car has been carelessly loaded, and the top 

 courses show low-line boards, the customer gets a bad first impression, 

 the result being, most always, a complaint — he being likely to ask for 

 and insist upon a reduction much greater than he is actually or fairly 

 entitled to. This is also human nature. It is very important to see 

 that the car is nicely loaded, that the stock is up to grade, and that 

 line boards, whether tallied or not, shall not appear on the top of any 

 shipment. " 



Territory akd Salesmen 



The question of territory should be carefully considered by every firm 

 having lumber to sell. There are two avenues through which lumber 

 may be disposed, that is, foreign and domestic trade. Unless a firm is 

 represented abroad by its own salaried employes, or unless It handles 

 its lumber through high-class brokers, it will do well to let the 

 foreign trade alone. Above all things, consignment of lumber abroad 

 should be discouraged. It will not only bring, except in a few instances, 

 small returns to the shipper, but it demoralizes foreign markets and 

 similarly affects the markets in this country. The firm who in working 

 domestic trade gives a salesman a large territory which he cannot properly 

 work makes a serious error. A man can make more money on a piece 

 of ground large enough for him. by exerting every effort to properly 

 tend, than he can on a piece of ground so large that he cannot give it 

 the proper attention. Small territories closely worked where the house, 

 salesman and customer deal fairly with one another, will bring much 

 more profit than large territories improperly handled. Don't make the 

 mistake of thinking that the salesman who produces for you the most 

 business is necessarily the best man. Conditions in different territories 

 should be carefully considered. We are too prone to praise the salesman 

 who sends in a large number of orders each month, regardless of the 

 conditions and demand in his territory, and think too little of the hard- 

 working, discouraged fellow whose territory will not, because of the 

 demand, produce so large a volume of business. Work hardest and 

 closest the territory which is, because of freight rates, natural to your 

 mill. 



In employing salesmen effort should be made to secure sober, bright, 

 energetic, honest, enthusiastic men with clean records, who not only 

 know the grades of lumber but who W'ill be an honor to the concern for 

 which they travel. With this kind of a salesman it is the best duty 

 of the house to furnish him with information, properly and carefully 

 gotten up, to enable him to intelligently and profitably sell the lumber 

 which they have to offer. This means that he is not to be furnished 

 with information gotten up in poor form in the way of innumerable 

 typewritten letters which he may receive from day to day, but should 

 have the information furnished him in a concise and compact form, the 

 party employing him bearing in mind that sales depend largely on the 

 manner in which information, as to stocks for sale, -is placed before the 

 salesmen. 



To this end each pile of lumber at the mills should be marked as 

 to thickness and grade and the date on which it is finished. At the end 

 of the month a careful inventory should be taken by the manufacturing 

 end of the business, showing the amount of dry and the amount of green 



lumber of each thickness, grade and kind on hand. This information 

 .should be furnished to the sales office, who should deduct from it all 

 orders on hand, except, of course, contract orders which are to be filled 

 from later production, and the information thus obtained should be given 

 in the form referred to above to each salesman, as near the first of each 

 month as possible. He should be furnished from day to day with a list 

 of sales that have been maae, which he should deduct from the stock 

 sheet furnisli..d him, keeping fully advised each day of the exact condition 

 i>t stocks which he has to sell. This method guards against the sale of 

 stock which has already been disposed of and prevents the sale of orders 

 which cannot be filled promptly. 



Salesmen should be furnished with order forms properly gotten up. 

 The best I have seen is one having four sheets : one white, one pink, one 

 yellow, one tissue. The salesman sends the white and pink copies to his 

 house, leaves the yellow copy with the customer and retains the tissue 

 copy in his book for record. The house acknowledges the order to the 

 customer by pasting the pink copy into a blank space on a regular acknowl- 

 edgment form, thus forming a quick and accurate way of acknowledging 

 to its customers the acceptance of an order. These order forms may 

 h-; printed at little cost and are far superior to stock order books pur- 

 chased from book stores. I have been surprised to see that firms handling 

 considerable lumber use order books purchased from book stores which 

 do not suit the requirements of their business. 



Salesmen should also be furnished with a typewritten statement show- 

 ing the credit their house is willing to extend to each of their customers, 

 Ihe customer's indebtedness and the number of orders on file for him. He 

 should also be advised of customer's failure to pay bills promptly, request 

 for renewals, or other shortcomings. In other words, the salesman 

 should be as fully informed about the lumber he has to sell and informa- 

 tion the ofllce has about customers as the oflice itself. A salesman, in 

 turn, should give his employer all of the observations he makes in his 

 territory, both as regards his customers and conditions generally. He 

 should remember that no matter how efficient he may be in other respects 

 he is a source of loss instead of a medium of profit just so far as he, 

 cither because of ignorance or neglect, burdens his firm with uncoUectable 

 and troublesome accounts. 



The hard-headed dealer who is hard to sell and who discounts his 

 bills does not need watching. The man to look out for is the one who 

 places his order with a lavish hand, indicating his belief that a whole- 

 sale retirement of manufacturers and jobbers is imminent. Some of 

 those present remember such a buyer in this city who states in a meeting 

 of his creditors that he could have beaten some of them worse than he 

 did, as they threatened to sue him if he didn't take the lumber, after 

 he had canceled the order. A salesman should keep an eye on the busi- 

 ness of the man to whom he can sell without much effort, advis)i.g his 

 house immediately of any evidence of waste, lack of system or bad man- 

 agement which he sees or about which he hears. It wouldn't be amiss 

 for him to quietly watch the business of the fellow who is a lavish 

 spender, however prosperous he may appear. 



One of our men, and we have more like him. who last year sold an 

 average of fifty-one cars per month, points with pride to the fact that 

 in his over seven years of service with our company he has lost on but 

 three accounts, the total loss being $946.63, some of which may yet be 

 recovered. He is always careful to give our credit department in detail 

 all information he obtains concerning the financial standing of any of 

 his customers. 



