SELLINGLUMBER 285 



dimension. The customer would have nothing to do with the stock, 

 saying it was a form of rot and that he would not touch it. It 

 looked as if the dealer was going to lose a sale. Well, I butted 

 into the conversation ; took a piece of the stock and explained 

 that the sap stain was caused by a fungus or mould which affected 

 neither the strength nor durability of the wood, and cited some 

 Government tests to prove my point. This information I had 

 gotten during my two years' forestry training. The customer was 

 convinced and bought the lumber, while the dealer to whom I 

 had never been able to sell a foot of lumber hustled me into his 

 office and gave me orders for two good cars. At another small 

 town in Ohio, I went in to see a dealer in an effort to dispose of 

 two cars of red heart boards that we had in transit and on which 

 there was accruing demurrage. I found the dealer to be in the 

 market for boards but strongly prejudiced against red heart. I 

 explained that while the defect was caused by rot, yet as soon as 

 the tree was cut and the wood placed in a protected place, the 

 rotting process stopped and that the boards were not harmed at 

 all for certain purposes if the disease had not progressed too far. 

 I had to go into a good deal of detail explaining this and eventually 

 he became interested,, so that I was able to prove to him that his 

 prejudice was unfounded in our case for zve knew our business 

 well enough to avoid shipping bad red heart. The demurrage 

 stopped on those two cars that day. 



These experiences could be continued, but they cover the 

 ground. After all, the greatest value I have found in my technical 

 training lies in using it constantly in an indirect manner. The 

 man with superior personality or with a superior organization or 

 product back of him, of course, has the edge on a man lacking 

 some of these. But, in any case the man who has an intimate 

 knowledge of what he is selling and why a certain man should 

 buy it, has a basis for establishing the dealer's confidence in him- Technical 

 self, his firm and his product. It enables him to lay down cold Training in 

 facts before the dealer, appeal for business in a logical, forceful 

 way, to stamp his own personality on the minds and methods of 

 his customers, and to make himself a fixture in their business. 

 For the last two months I have averaged three cars a week from 

 my territory from dealers who have written or phoned the office 

 giving in their order without recent solicitation. These dealers 

 are all very particular as to quality, yet I have made them know 



