54 



SELLING LUMBER 



Possibilities 

 in a Knowl- 

 edge of 

 Competitive 

 Materials 



Mr. Woodhead: I don't know anything about steel. 



The Chairman : As a salesman of yellow pine, how much do 

 you consider yourself efficient on your knowledge of good sub- 

 stitutes to put it in a more general way? 



Mr. Woodhead: Well, I would put it at about 20 per cent. 



The Chairman: You are very modest. Can't we give him 

 more than that? 



A Voice: Yes; thirty. 



Mr. Woodhead : The way that question is worded, it comes 

 to theoretical knowledge. I have got no information on that; I 

 have got practically nothing. 



The Chairman: How are you going out to sell lumber 

 against steel and concrete, if you can't talk on it? 



Mr. Woodhead : Well, on modulus of elasticity, and all those 

 other technical things about steel, I can't do it. I sell lumber 

 from the practical knowledge I have. 



Various Voices : Twenty. Twenty-five. Thirty. He knov/s 

 the business sufficiently if he has sense enough to get that busi- 

 ness, and I think he is efficient. 



The Chairman: The idea is to suggest to the lumber sales- 

 man the possibility of the game ; that is the idea. We don't sup- 

 pose any man would grade very much on some of these essentials. 

 It is just to suggest the idea ; open up the avenue of thought. 



Mr. Woodhead : Just taking that point : I once had a dis- 

 cussion with a man in Mexico as to the relative merits of wood 

 ties and steel ties, and this particular road was using steel ties. 

 Well, I had no technical education on steel ties, but in the course 

 of my experience in selling ties I had heard a great many argu- 

 ments, pro* and con, on that subject, and I was in somewhat of 

 a position to argue the question with him, and did so, and got 

 away with their order for 100,000 ties. I say, to that extent I was 

 efficient. 



The Chairman : We will give him 40. 



A Voice: That proportion of 40 per cent is out of line, for 

 the business he is specializing in. 



The Chairman: As I explained to you gentlemen over here, 

 we don't presume that there is any salesman here that will grade 

 100 per cent efficient, nor do we believe, honestly, that it is neces- 

 sary. We are just trying to suggest the possibility of the train- 

 ing to round out a complete man. Now, we don't presume that 



