SELLING LUMBER 



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this business of selling lumber as a life work. It is very easy, in 

 looking over the monthly statements of the sales department, to pick 

 these men out; and there is a constant effort being made, I pre- 

 sume, by a lot of manufacturers to eliminate men of this kind from 

 their field force. If it is your ambition to sell lumber, you will 

 find every day something new that is useful, something that will 

 help you and your firm, and if your ambition is to sell lumber, you 

 will be a booster, and a booster gains friends everywhere. If it is 

 your ambition to sell Southern Pine lumber, you will be so vigorous 

 and will spend so much time in developing your territory that the 

 people for whom you work will have their eye on you constantly, 

 and when an opportunity presents itself you will be recognized as 

 a man of ability, and your future will be secure. 



The only way to know your territory thoroughly is to visit 

 every manufacturing plant and every lumber yard that has been 

 assigned to you. How many times during the past year after having 

 made a thorough canvass of your territory have you written your 

 firm asking 1 them to stop the production of certain sizes which, 

 from your observation, were in surplus in your territory? If you 

 don't give your firm such information, the probabilities are they 

 will continue manufacturing these sizes and a little later on, when 

 they are not moving readily, you will write them that there is a 

 surplus of these items and in order to move them it will be necessary 

 to reduce the price ; while if the information had been passed along 

 to your firm when you first noticed the items in surplus it would 

 have undoubtedly saved them considerable money. 



How many times during the past year did you write your 

 firm to advance the price on certain items that from your observa- 

 tion at the retail yards were getting scarce? You are the eyes of 

 the industry. If you use them to advantage, your companies will 

 be successful. Every time you visit one of your customers you 

 ought to look his stock over and in a general way find out what 

 items he is short of and what are in surplus, and after a week 

 spent in your territory visiting all parts of it, you would probably 

 be able to advise your firm of the sizes that are getting scarce. 

 It is the items that are in surplus that cause depression in prices. 



How many times have you wired your headquarters during the 

 past few months asking for permission to reduce prices, with the 

 statement that it must be done to meet legitimate competition ; while 

 the same fifty cents spent on this day or night letter would have 

 taken you fifteen or twenty miles on any railroad and probably 



What Is Your 

 Ambition? 



Salesmen Are 

 the Eyes of 

 the Industry 



