SELLING LUMBER 



155 



but they could take their families. The more people we have 

 boosting lumber the better will be the results. Let us try to get 

 everybody enthused over our lumber business. 



How much of the average salesman's time is wasted? I mean 

 by this, how much of his time is expended in a direction which 

 does not result in profit to him, his company, his trade or to the 

 lumber industry in general? Think how much of this would be 

 converted into an asset if he should take advantage of all the op- 

 portunities which present themselves no day would be long enough. 

 Let us endeavor to utilize our time and' energy in creating some- 

 thing. In the selling of lumber we have traveled along the same 

 old road our great-grandfathers blazed for us, with the result that 

 our live, up-to-date competitors have introduced substitutes. They 

 had to do something to introduce their product, they had to create 

 a demand for it, and it has made them more resourceful in this 

 direction, and they are crowding us off the map, so to speak. They 

 all know what their product is good for and what it will do under 

 all conditions we don't. Some one of the substitutes knocks lum- 

 ber, saying it is not fit for anything, and we cannot refute the 

 statement because we have never made a study of the merits of 

 our product we let it go, and they take our business away from us. 



We have left our selling interests almost entirely to the retail 

 merchant. The average retailer is not interested in Yellow Pine 

 timber any more than in anything else. He is interested, however, 

 in selling any product which will net him the greatest profit. Many 

 of the lumbermen are selling substitutes to take the place of lum- 

 ber when lumber would answer the purpose to better advantage. 

 We cannot blame the retailer he is working for himself; if he 

 can get more profit out of the substitute he is going to do it. The 

 representatives of the manufacturers the traveling salesmen are 

 the proper ones to see that Yellow Pine lumber is sold to the best 

 advantage, even though it becomes necessary for us to assist the 

 retailer in selling our lumber at our own expense; we cannot ex- 

 pect them to work for us unless we make it an object for them 

 to do so. The lack of co-operation among competitive salesmen, 

 and as between the salesmen and the retailers, in an effort to pro- 

 mote the general interest of the lumber business is hurting us badly. 

 I believe in co-operation in all things, just the same as in "United 

 we stand, divided we fail." I compare, in my own mind, the strug- 

 gle of the lumber industry up the hill of success, to a loaded wagon 

 being drawn by a string of mules. If we all pull together it will 



The Best 

 Utilization 

 of Selling 

 Energies 



"In Union 

 There is 

 Strength" 



