252 



SELLING LUMBER 



Helping Sus- 

 tain the Cus- 

 tomer's Con- 

 fidence 



As to Holding 

 Up Orders 



It sometimes happens that a buyer places an order with a 

 salesman who he personally dislikes, but the high character of the 

 firm overcomes this feeling. This is the very rarest of occurrences, 

 however, but it is quite often true that an order reaches a firm 

 simply because the purchaser has a friendly feeling for the man 

 who is soliciting the order and has found him to be honest and 

 truthful and knows his promises are sincere, and relying on the 

 integrity of the firm,, as judged by its personal spokesman, he 

 entrusts the order to him, and all the efforts you can put back of 

 your man in sustaining this confidence is an investment which will 

 pay compound interest. 



Don't hold the order up for an unreasonable length of time 

 or ship inferior stock, and then wonder why a larger order is not 

 forthcoming on your salesman's next trip. There are other firms 

 which are shipping good lumber and their salesman is perhaps 

 just as capable as yours and they will get the preference next 

 time if you have disappointed customer in time of shipment or 

 quality. When customers write you, urging prompt shipment, don't 

 ignore their letters. Answer them as quickly as possible and give 

 all the information you can without committing yourselves to ship- 

 ment within a certain time which you are unable to accomplish. 

 As a general thing nowadays, lumber is bought for immediate 

 needs, and it is not strange the buyer becomes nervous when his 

 order has been out quite awhile. He is entirely out, has some of 

 it sold, and not even an invoice. You can render no greater co- 

 operation in retaining trade, after once established, than by being 

 prompt in executing orders and shipping stock of satisfactory 

 quality. 



Co-operation and confidence should be synonymous. Not con- 

 fidence of the "gold brick" or "shell game" variety, but "team work" 

 consisting of a thorough understanding between you and your rep- 

 resentative and the salesman and his customers. 



