286 SELLINGLUMBER 



that I appreciate exactly their requirements and they are confident 

 that the order will be filled on that basis. In other words, the 

 training has given me more orders, and from a higher class of 

 trade, than I otherwise could have gotten. I will admit that the 

 training was expensive, that it took valuable time and that it might 

 not be practicable for every salesman to take it; but in view of 

 the fact that the first year I was on the road among four salesmen, 

 my gross profit per car was the highest, that I had not a single 

 complaint, claim or rejection, and that every account was a highly 

 desirable one, it seems apparent that my training had a very real 

 value. 



Efficiency and the Lumber 

 ;,/;, Salesman / ^";,- 



By R. J. Tolson 



Auditor, William Cameron & Company, Inc. 

 Waco, Texas 



You have all heard the oft' repeated saying that "Poets are 

 born, not made." I am somewhat of a believer in that theory, 

 but I wish to qualify the statement by saying that even though 

 a man be "born" a poet he will never be able to show his talent 

 or genius until he has cultivated the finer qualities of his mind 

 and soul by education, study and thought. 



You have also, no doubt, heard the remark that "Salesmen 



are born, not made." To some extent I believe that statement 



is also true. There are certain, almost undefinable, inherent quali- 



Natural ties of mind which we know as "personality" that a salesman 



Talents mU st be born with. If he lacks these inherent qualities he will 



Cultivated. ^ e seriously handicapped in ever reaching the hundred per cent 



mark of efficiency as a traveling salesman. But on the other hand, 



even though he be born with this essential quality it will never 



be of any value to him unless it is cultivated and developed by 



experience, education, work, thought and study. 



This enviable and most essential quality for a traveling sales- 

 man can be forcibly illustrated by comparing it with musical talent 

 or genius, for I believe that musicians, like poets and traveling 



