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Right Pay for Lumher Salesmen 



Most traveling salosnion of lumlior eoiu'erns aro jiaiil a salary aiul 

 expenses. In many other lines manufacturers and jobbers have found 

 it advisiible to put their men on a lonimission or salary and commis- 

 sion basis, believing that only by this means are they certain of get- 

 ting aggressive, enthusiastic effort from the salesman all the time. 

 The question naturally presents itself, which is the better plant 



Advocates of the commission idea point out that the average sales- 

 man, like most everybody else on tliis mundane sphere, is working 

 chietly because he has to. With his earnings fixed in advance, and a 

 iletinite limit placed upon them, for a time at least, is he not likely 

 to loaf on the job and do only as nuich as necessary, rather than 

 as much as possible f 



That is the theory of the proposition ; and in other lines of busi- 

 ness all kinds of devices have been provided as a means of stimulating 

 the salesman to greater and greater exertions. The plan always is to 

 keep the traveler from getting into a rut of self-satisfaction, and to 

 supply a mental spur wliich will keep him working at top of his 

 ability. 



It is true that in other departments of industry payment accord- 

 ing to production is getting to be the rule, rather than the exception. 

 H.\RDW00D Record has explaiueil the various pio<'Cwork plans used in 

 the lumber yard, and in this connection it is worth recalling that such 

 plans have not only enabled the lumberman to get his stock handled 

 more cheaply, but has also given the workmen more money, thus 

 benefiting both. In retail stores almost everywhere some form of the 

 commis.sion is seen in the p. m. or premium system, by which the 

 salespeople get special rewards for moving goods which are either 

 going out of style or which have proved to be " stickers. ' ' 



Did you ever notice special eagerness on the part of a shoe sales- 

 man to sell you a pair of shoes you didn't want? The chances are 

 that he had a p. m. coming to him if he sold that particular pair, and 

 of course he did his best to earn the commission. 



In the furniture business the plan is to pay the traveling salesmen 

 five per cent on their sales. They pay their own expenses out of this. 

 A few of the big houses with well-established trade send their men 

 out on salaries, but this is the exception and not the rule. One of the 

 chief advantages derived by the manufacturer from this plan is that 

 his sales cost is known in advance. It is five per cent — no more and 

 no less. Does the lumberman know how much it will cost him to sell 

 the stock on his yardf 



One manufacturing concern in another line believes in the commis- 

 sion plan to such an extent that it has worked out a profit-sharing 

 scheme, whereby each salesman is paid in accordance with the amount 

 wliich the house has made on his sales. This is one plan which it 

 might be worth while to apply to the lumber business. The house 

 knows the factory and overhead cost of every item sold, and knows 

 the salary and expense account of the salesman. These costs are 

 deducted from the sales, and the salesman is given a percentage of 

 the profits. That makes for care in placing the right kind of business 

 with the right kind of consumers, and keeps the salesman from selling 

 the easy ones without regard to pushing the profitable lines. 



Getting doivn to the facts, however, it must be admitted that tlie 

 lumber business is different from most other lines. For one thing, 

 prices aro elastic, because every consumer wants something different. 

 For another thing, there is always more or less dispute regarding grade 

 and measurement. That means that the salesman, being the ambassa- 

 dor and diplomatic representative as well as the order-taker, must 

 spend part of his time adjusting differences between the house and 

 the customer. 



Obviously, it would not do to have a commission salesman on the 

 job in a case of this kind, where the salesman must act for the best 

 interests of the house. He would probably be too anxious to make 

 another .sale to he willing to spend much time looking after the 

 customer whose business had already been taken care of. 



The matter of which lines to push is probably as important as any 

 other one consideration in deciding the lumberman to pay salaries 

 to his salesmen instead of commissions. The lumber business requires 



careful handling, so as to keep the stock moving evenly. It wouldn't 

 do to sell nothing but plain oak, even though the market on that 

 item were good, and let a big accumulation of chestnut remain on 

 the yard. The efforts of the salesman who is a real salesman and 

 not merely an order-taker, must be delicately adjusted to tlie condi- 

 tion at the mill or yard, so that he will sell the lumber which needs 

 to be sold and not merely that which can be moved most easily. 



The man on commission has no incentive to hold up prices. He is 

 out to sell lumber and he will sell it for as little as the lumber con- 

 cern will take. His plan is "quick sales and small profits," only the 

 small profits aro for the lumberman, because his own are uniform, 

 depending only on the values involved and not on the margin to the 

 handler. As stated, there are as many prices, almost, as there are 

 consumers, depending on the special requirements of each factory. If 

 the lumberman finds that his stock is beuig offered on a rock bottom 

 basis to everybody, regardless of the kind of material needed, he wiU 

 speedily realize that most of the business being turned in is of the 

 dollar-swapping variety. 



Still another objection to having a salesman on commission is that 

 of credit hazards. The home office, of course, must be the final arbiter 

 in all cases where credits are concerned, but the man who is getting a 

 salary and has no incentive to get any business except that which is 

 best for the boss is not going to offer lumber to a concern which he 

 thinks is likely to cause trouble when it comes to paying for it. The 

 commission man is always willing to take a chance, because it is the 

 house, and not he, that is taking the chance. 



From all of these standpoints it seems that the lumber business is 

 sui generis, a rara avis and a good many other untranslatable things. 

 It is done in a fashion which is dissimilar from that of any other 

 business. The man who sells a bill of goods in any other line seldom 

 has to do more than make the sale. The possible range of quality 

 is so small and the needs of the buyer are so standard that it is next 

 to impossible for even a tyro to make a bad mistake. But turn loose 

 a salesman who knows little or nothing of lumber, and see how 

 speedily he can tangle up the firm 's business ! 



"The fact of the matter is that our salesmen are more than sales- 

 men," said the head of a leading hardwood concern, which sells all 

 over the northern and eastern portions of the continent, and has half 

 a dozen salesmen covering the principal consuming centers. ' ' They are 

 our representatives in all that the word implies. They must act for 

 us, not merely as to sales, but as to matters of policy. They must 

 be able to speak for us as to many things, and then to advise us as 

 to the special requirements of each customer. 



"In order to get this kind of service we must pay for it. We 

 cannot expect a man who is paid merely to sell to spend a great part 

 of his time doing missionary work. And yet that is what we want 

 our road men to do. That means a salaried job. It is possible that 

 our men are less aggressive than they would be otherwise ; but, on the 

 other hand, they know that they must sell lumber in order to stay on 

 the pay-roll. 



In this connection it is worth noting that this house has recently 

 organized its sales department more tliorouglily, appointing a sales 

 manager to do nothing except look after that end of the business. 

 Heretofore the general manager has had to supervise manufacturing 

 and yard operations, as well as keep six salesmen on their toes, and 

 he has found the job too onerous. The man who is studying sales 

 only, like the man who is devoting all his time to running the mill, 

 can do better work in that particular capacity. 



The forestry students in the Michigan Agricultural College did 

 not encounter any of the "spicy breezes" which "blow soft o'er 

 Ceylon's isle" while engaged in this winter's field work. They went 

 up among the mountains of West Virginia where the laurel is buried 

 under three feet of snow and the spruce trees are icy pinnacles, and 

 there they put into practice gome of their class room instructions, and 

 got close to the heart of nature at a time of year when most people 

 prefer to be close to the stove. 



