SELLING LUMBER 



205 



Volume Not 

 a Factor 

 in Grading 



departments measure the ability of their salesmen by the volume 

 they get, the price they get, and last but not least, the kind of orders 

 they take. It seems imperative that something be done to educate 

 ourselves and our salesmen as to the best methods of getting as 

 nearly perfect orders as are obtainable. 



If we could devise some clerical system that would weigh the 

 merits and demerits of every order that came in, thus accumulating 

 the net result of the standing of each salesman in a single figure 

 at the end of each month, we would likely grade the order under 

 divisions something like this : Price, adaptability to stocks, credit of 

 customer, number of items, and clerical work. 



You will observe that volume has been omitted from the rating, 

 and this partly because we are considering the single order now, 

 and partly because I firmly believe that if we could to some extent 

 lose sight of volume and put the emphasis on other points it would ^ Orders 

 be an improvement. 



The consideration of price can be passed over lightly, not be- 

 cause it is unimportant, but because it is so important that special 

 emphasis is unnecessary. I wish we could have a single invariable 

 one-price basis so that our salesman would not have to spend so 

 much time thinking about it. It may come in the future. 



In grading orders, the adaptability to stocks is the most import- 

 ant point of all. Every sales department can lay out from its files 

 one hundred orders, and every one of them, for some reason or 

 other, will have a different rating or value to the mill than any 

 of the others. The orders that call for stock the nearest to the 

 way the mill has it proportioned is the most valuable. An order 

 for a straight car one item, one length, one grade, may not rate 

 as high as another order for several items or for two or three 

 prades, because the straight car order may not fit the stock sheet 

 perfectly, or may absorb all of one length leaving the balance un- 

 proportioned, while the other order may take up the stock in the 

 same proportions as it is shown on the stock sheet of the mill against 

 which it is figured. 



A good many salesmen, and especially customers, are always 

 maintaining that there should be a substantial difference in the price 

 asked for a straight car and that for the mixed car orders. Per- 

 haps with some small mills under certain conditions this is true, but 

 for the big mill, operating practically full time with full crews, 

 there is a great deal less difference in the cost of filling mixed cars 

 and the cost of filling straight cars than is generally supposed pro- 



The Most 



Desirable 



Order 



