210 



SELLINGLUMBER 



Should Pay 

 e 



The Im- 



Writing 6 ' 

 Orders Care- 



Correctly 



this or that order, regardless of its merits, but our natural over- 

 production is sufficient to cause all the worry we want, without 

 conjuring up any more out of thin air by so much of this kind of 

 selling. So much for that part of the grading of orders coming un- 

 der adaptability of stock. 



Credit Sales made to a customer with an indifferent or ques- 

 tionable credit rating are worth less than those sales made to prompt 

 payers. The slow payer is not entitled to as low prices as the man 

 w ^ rem * ts us our monev quickly. There are, however, two kinds 

 of credit objections; a man may be slow pay because of certain 

 business difficulties and still be perfectly good and worthy of quite 

 extensive credit ; another man may be quite good pay, but his 

 character such that he had better be left alone. He may not always 

 pay promptly. 



The number of items to the car in an order has some bearing 

 in its rating, but the importance of it is less if the items are not too 

 badly scattered and are well assorted as to stocks on hand. It must 

 cost considerably more, though, to send the crew pottering out over 

 a whole yard and through several rough sheds to pick up from 

 five to fifteen pieces each of twenty-five to forty items to make up 

 one car. Most mixed orders, where so badly mixed, cannot take 

 the direct course from the yards or sheds through the planers to the 

 car that is followed by the better assorted orders. Several different 

 machines must be used on the badly mixed orders, and a little of this 

 and a little of that accumulated in a pile or stacked in a shed some 

 place until the whole order is gotten together and ready for loading. 

 The prices used in selling such orders must be greater than regular 

 prices to offset the extra cost. As I mentioned before, however, the 

 difference in a mixed order not too badly mixed, or with too great 

 a number of items and a straight car is not so much as some people 

 think. 



Last of all, I would mention in considering orders, the "pencil 

 work," or clerical work. The orders must be written up on some 

 sort of a form to get them into our sales offices, and it is absolutely 

 necessary, whether the salesman thinks he is a good clerk or not, 

 to nave tne ol "ders put on paper plainly enough and correctly enough 

 so that expensive mistakes will not occur. I do not believe that a 

 mistake is due to carelessness of a man's brain; I don't think a 

 healthv brain makes mistakes. It is carelessness of the senses your 

 eyes look but do not see; your brain is not given a chance. But 

 whatever it may be, it is certainly true that the amount of letter 



