208 



SELLING LUMBER 



Keep 

 Posted 

 on Mill 

 Stocks 



Disposing 

 of Odds 

 and Ends 



Sales That 

 May Hurt 

 the Market 



sale, orders would be offered which you would be compelled to 

 pass up because of this fact; and the original cause of it all, in 

 most cases, was because at a previous time some one or several 

 salesmen had pre-empted more than his share. 



It is an essential part of a salesman's success to carefully keep 

 himself informed upon the peculiarities of accumulation at the 

 various mills for which he may be selling, so that in those instances 

 where it does seem good judgment and policy to accept an 

 order which will take more stock than the mill has, he can let it be 

 an item that he knows is manufactured rapidly at his mill. It seems 

 to me it is also an additional duty of every man, regardless of the 

 nature of his territory, to assume some responsibility toward the 

 disposition of over-supply. There is always enough surplus of 

 some lengths or grade so that every man in every territory ought to 

 have some small chance to do his part. 



Besides selling regular stock in its proper proportions as the 

 mill has it, salesmen are called upon to give consideration to a lot 

 of odds and ends and miscellaneous droppings which are outside the 

 standard requirements of the general run of customers. The ideal 

 way to sell this special stock is to have a large number of salesmen 

 each to assume a small responsibility for it, and include a thousand 

 to five thousand feet wherever it can be sold. This stock is gen- 

 erally shown in a great enough variety so that salesmen in every 

 territory have opportunities if they would just use their ingenuity 

 to induce some customer to handle a little of it. In many cases it 

 would probably prove a genuine service to the customer, enabling 

 him to meet some competition he could not otherwise touch. At 

 any rate, the quantity of odds and ends sold by any salesman, and 

 the price at which he sold them would have a material bearing on 

 his standing with any sales office. 



I have tried to show above the relation of good and bad orders 

 to the interest of one's own company; but I am wondering how 

 many of us have ever thought of the effect of selling stocks not on 

 hand on the whole distribution system of the lumber industry. Has 

 it ever occurred to you that the ratio of supply to demand is af- 

 fected somewhat? I believe it is, and will try to show why. 



One of our salesmen wrote us one time that there were five 

 hundred competing salesmen selling yellow pine calling on trade in 

 his territory at that time. Perhaps his estimate was high, but no 

 doubt in most territories a great many salesmen do call on each 

 customer each month to sell the same class of stock. When it 



