November 23, 1917 



DELEGATES TO THE SECOND ANNUAL LUMBER SALESMA 



Wisconsin and Alichigan; that manufacturers, salesmen and sales 

 managers should automatically become personal members and that 

 votes should be cast one for each company in the membership. 



]1k Welcomes the Visitors 

 W. C. Hull, president of the Michigan Hardwood Manufacturers' 

 Association, woleomed the congress with a short but pointed talk. 

 Some tlioughts from his speech follow: 



Salesmanship is the dominant note of our conferences here today, 

 .ind is a suhject tliat can well tax the brains of the best of us. Sell- 

 ing' today moans a whole lot more than it did a few years ago, espe- 

 cially the selling of materials entering into extensive manufacturing 

 operations, such as the lines we have for sale. 



Big business men have ceased trying to know everything, and now 

 look to specialists for specific information. 



There was a time when a buyer tried to know more about what was 

 offered him than the seller; now he is looking for the seller who 

 knows the most about tlie lines offered for sale. 



Salesmanship today is almost worthless as a business force unless 

 it includes a keen analysis of the needs of the customer and the vigor- 

 ous intelligent application of the goods to his peculiar and particular 

 needs. The successful salesman is the one who can see clear through 

 the buyer's needs and show him better methods," better processes and 

 more suitable materials than he is using, if the possibility exists for 

 such improvement. 



Every lumber salesman must know more about the uses of wood 

 than any consumer of wood. Every lumber salesman should be able 

 and willing to study over the operations of his prospective customers, 

 and must be in a position to tell those customers how to economize, 

 and how to improve so far as wood is involved in their operation. To 

 do this means to originate business where there was no business be- 

 fore, and it means to get the order where the demand is already 

 known, but not intelligently analyzed. 



Especiallj', should lumber salesmen give shrew'd analysis to the 

 requirements of their trade in view of the aggressive operations of 

 wood substitutes. We must be able to justify the use of wood where- 

 ever it can be justified, and if we do this, we will more than double 

 its consumption. 



We will not be taken on faith; smooth talk will not get us by: 

 it's up to the salesman to prove his case; to show the consumer how- 

 to get the most for his money and still use wood; to get the consumer 

 out of the notion of thinking in wide clear boards, when narrow one 

 face stock is better for his purpose. What the consumer thinks he 

 wants and what he really can use are often widely different things, 

 and the salesman's duty is to take the situation as it confronts the 

 customer and see that he has the most suitable thing that can be fur- 

 nished, and at a price that will make him come back for more. 



But I digress; it is my job to welcome you; not to elaborate on a 

 subject you all know more about than I. 



The idea of the necessity of an address of welcome to our Wisconsin 

 brethren is a joke; for they already know they are as welcome as 

 the "Flowers in May," or as a regiment of Yankees in France, but I 

 have a personal feeling of so much satisfaction at having with us our 

 guests today that when I greet you in the name of the Michigan 

 crowd I want to shake hands with each and every one of you for my- 

 self, too. 



Why the Conferences Are Necessary 

 Chairman George Bobson then told why conferences such as these 

 are necessary. 



Gatherings of northern operators, according to Mr. Robson, are 

 necessary because both Michigan and Wisconsin lumbermen have 

 their problems and these problems are similar. Therefore, to get to- 

 gether will mean that each group may help the others overcome com- 

 mon difficulties and the trade may be advanced to a greater extent 

 than if each man and firm paddles his own canoe. 



He said that one of the problems is to learn a higher standard of 

 merchandising and to market northern forest products in such a 



way as to bring better results to the operator and less criticism of 

 the industry's selling ability. 



The truly good results of the Merrill conference last year were 

 touched upon and the spirit of that conference was the theme on 

 which Mr. Bobson played throughout his talk. 



Some Bio Thoughts on Salesmanship 



Edward Hines, of Chicago, followed with a particularly able ad- 

 dress. His subject was, "These Conferences— Perspective and 

 Retrospective." He said: 



The perspective as it is now revealed to us commends itself to the 

 thoughtful consideration of every manufacturer of lumber and every 

 sales manager and salesman selling lumber in the United States. 

 There can be no division of interest in its purposes, no curtailment of 

 its possibilities, and no lack of appreciation of the fundamental ele- 

 ments that shall make for the fulfillment of your splendid expectations. 



Mr. Hines said that the day of individualism is past and the fu- 

 ture will be marked by adherence to the principle of co-operation 

 and cohesive action, and that the inaccuracies of the past must be a 

 guide for the future. 



He said: "To succeed in your work you must have an ultimate 

 object in view — you must decide what you want and keep eternally 

 in pursuit of your object." He laid before his audience his concep- 

 tion of the fundamental principles of selling and proved the great- 

 ness and importance of proper sales methods. 



Touching on difficulties to be overcome, he said: "If in your 

 organization work you succeed only in demonstrating that trouble- 

 some difficulties may be circumvented and turned to useful pur- 

 poses, your progress will be assured and your work abundantly 

 repaid. ' ' 



He dwelt forcibly on the important place in selling that the mod- 

 ern business letter with a personality holds. He said: 



"If you suggest that you can help the reader of your letter you 

 are sure to have his attention. Tell how, and you have his interest. 

 Prove it, and you are likely to have his signature." 



He closed with an emphasis on the importance which work has 

 in success. His thought here may be summed up in one of his 

 sentences as follows: 



"The concentrated centralization of all your best efforts to suc- 

 ceed in the art of selling are spelled in just one word — Work." 

 Why Cadillac Is the City op Quality 



"How We Do it at Cadillac," was the subject assigned to 

 Charles R. Abbott, of the Cummer-Diggins Companj'. 



Mr. Abbott sketched briefly the history of Cadillac as a white 

 pine center and as a city in first rank of hardwood production. This 

 change, he said, brought Cadillac lumbermen face to face with a 

 difficult problem which they solved only by complete co-operation 

 among themselves and between themselves and everyone with whom 

 they came in contact. He told of the frequent consultations between 

 competitors in Cadillac, and of the free interchange of information. 

 He told of the development of remarkable by-products industries, 

 turning into profit what is normally waste. Co-operation in the 



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BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF CAMP CUSTER, BATTLE CREEK, MICH., 



