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Meeting the Emergency 



It has been said that the true test of happiness is the ability of 

 the individual to adapt himself to his surroundings. The man who 

 is superior to his environment and to circumstances is never unhappy, 

 nor, in most cases, unsuccessful. In fact, adaptability on the part 

 of a business man is even more necessary for the well being of his 

 business than it is for the happiness of the individual. 



Eight now conditions are different from those which have been pre- 

 vailing for several years. The war is the big factor which has been 

 introduced, and which has brought into the situation entirely new 

 problems in a great many directions. The hardwood man who is not 

 adaptable is not capable of rising to the emergency. The man who 

 is chapging his business battlefront to accord with the necessities 

 of the case is at least marking time, if not advancing. This article 

 is intended to suggest how the lumberman who has perhaps been dis- 

 couraged by inability to get business, using the same methods he did 

 before, can make headway by adopting other methods which are more 

 nearly suited to the requirements. 



In the first place, it is obvious that competition is keener, and that 

 it is harder to sell lumber. This results from two factors — increased 

 supply and lessened demand. If the individual lumberman doesn't 

 speed up his selling efforts, and doesn't work a little harder on each 

 prospect, he is going to lose out, because there are lots of others who 

 are fighting harder than ever before to get business. 



And this suggests, by the way, the folly of adopting economies 

 that are likely to lessen the effectiveness of the work that the salesmen 

 are doing. Advertising is one form of selling, and good advertising 

 helps to sell goods, lumber included. Some lumbermen have doubtless 

 been tempted to reduce their advertising appropriations, which have 

 been spent in the trade papers and elsewhere, following out the policy 

 of retrenchment which seemed necessary. But now is the very time 

 when publicity of the right kind is needed. It may be that the 

 advertising itself must be radically changed, so as to make a stronger 

 appeal to those who are reading it; but it is desirable to increase, 

 rather than reduce, the number of points of contact. 



More personal work is needed, too. The lumberman who has been 

 getting business by mail, and who has not cultivated the personal 

 feature of his relationships with consumers and others, is at a disad- 

 vantage. But he need not remain so. Instead of relying on a quota- 

 tion by mail, he may, if the situation seems to warrant it, go direct 

 to the buyer and put his proposition before him in person. 



Few business men are such able letter writers that they can present 

 their case as well on a sheet of paper as in person. Many a good 

 salesman has said, "I could tell you more in fifteen minutes than I 

 could write you in a year." This is due to lack of practice on the 

 part of the salesman, as a rule; but even the office man, in most cases, 

 has not cultivated the ability to put the "punch" in his letters, to 

 give them the individuality which he personally possesses. Hence his 

 letter often seems colorless to the man who gets it, whereas the lumber- 

 man, if he walked into the office of the prospective customer, would 

 make a good impression and would receive consideration. 



A big hardwood concern got an in(iuiry not long ago from a large 

 corporation whose purchasing agent indicated that it might want 

 Several hundred thousand feet. The sales manager of the lumber 

 company did not content himself with writing a letter setting forth 

 the ability of the concern to deliver the lumber at the right price 

 and just as needed, but promptly packed his grip and hied himself 

 to the office of the purchasing agent. He "sat up" with this digni- 

 tary, going after him largely on the basis of the ability of the com- 

 pany to give the consumer just what he needed. It happened that 

 the lumber wanted was a special proposition that not everybody could 

 furnish, and this made the service argument more effective, perhaps, 

 than it would have been if the purchaser were buying No. 1 common 

 plain oak. He impressed the purchasing agent with the facilities of 

 the lumber company, with the quality of its stock, and with the reason- 

 ableness of its prices, the other things considered. 



When he got home he kept after the business, and though the pur- 

 chasing agent had several quotations that were lower, some of them 



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suspiciously so, he finally gave the bulk of the business to the man 

 whose personal solicitation had been so complete, so thorough and so 

 satisfactory. The sales manager had told him the little things that 

 can't go into a letter, but which fiU out the skeleton of facts and 

 give them life and reality. This demonstrated, too, that even a pur- 

 chasing agent, supposed to be the impersonality personified, if one may 

 use this expression, is human after all, and is affected by the same 

 things that affect other human beings. 



In fact, he admitted to the lumberman that the latter had demon- 

 strated that his house was a leader in its field ; and when the other 

 quotations came in, some of them so much lower as to seem altogether 

 out of line, the purchasing agent realized that to insure getting what 

 his company needed, it would be better to "play it safe" and buy 

 from the house which he had learned to have confidence in, because 

 of the knowledge which had been imparted to him. From this stand- 

 point, the higher prices were a kind of guarantee of quality, while 

 the low ones eliminated the concerns quoting them by suggesting unre- 

 liability. 



And all this happened, remember, at a time when lumbermen are 

 saying that only low prices can get business. 



Another hardwood concern that has been stirring up business in spite 

 of adverse conditions has made good use of the wires. It has quoted 

 on important orders by telegraph, and has followed up the telegraph 

 by long distance telephone conversations, the latter being splendid 

 for sales work, though less effective when it comes to collections. This 

 system has resulted in some heavy tolls having to be paid, but the 

 fact that the lumberman is continuing to pay the telegraph and tele- 

 phone companies their regular rates has indicated that results are 

 being secured. 



The use of day letters and night letters has enabled more complete 

 statements to be made than in an ordinary telegram, and has likewise 

 reduced the cost, so that this lumberman is a strong advocate of the 

 wire. 



Despise not the day of small things; when business is slow, the 

 little orders look good. Sometimes a lumberman who has been gun- 

 ning for big game, and has found it scarce, can do better by getting 

 a shotgim and substituting it for his rifle. Rabbits may not be 

 attractive after a taste of venison — but they are just as nourishing. 



These thoughts are suggested by the experience of a hardwood 

 concern which has a big trade all over the consuming section of the 

 country. It has a number of high-class salesmen out, and they have 

 been able to get the big business, when any of that kind has been 

 available. Now that conditions are not so favorable to big orders as 

 they formerly were, the head of this concern has promptly made a 

 change of plans and methods that is getting results. 



He began by personally going after orders in his own town, where 

 there are a lot of small users of hardwoods — furniture factories which 

 don't consume much indiviilually but use up a good deal in the long 

 run; planing-mills which buy in wagonloads; store fixture concerns 

 which use hardwoods only occasionally but have to have the material 

 once in a while. He carefully cultivated this business, and found that 

 he was getting enough to justify the efforts which he was putting 

 forth to land it. After he had demonstrated that the small orders in 

 the locality of the office were proving to be bread-and-butter business, 

 and were at least helping to pay expenses, he instructed his salesmen 

 to try to work up similar business in other sections. 



This made it important to develop mixed carload business which, on 

 account of the inconvenience of loading, he had not previously given 

 much attention to. Small factories in towns not large enough to sup- 

 port wholesale yards were shown that it would pay them, instead of 

 buying local shipments of hardwood lumber from the nearest market, 

 to get the reduced rate involved in taking a full car containing numer- 

 ous items, though not much of any one. 



This resulted in some trade, and at the same time the local yard- 

 men were cultivated more than before, these dealers in many cases 

 controlling the less-than-carload business of consumers in their imme- 

 diate territories. 



