SELLING LUMBER 371 



portunity to run over to the lumber yard and book orders for 

 several cars. But those days are gone, and gone forever. There 

 is no more catching of lumber salesmen by the coat-tails to give 

 them orders. Today lumber as well as everything else has to be 

 sold intelligently. It is a day of standards, classifications, grades, 

 brands and comparative analytical tests. Tomorrow will bring 

 with it still higher standards and more exacting tests things that 

 are synonyms for tremendous accelerated competition. Today the 

 successful salesman to overcome these problems should have a 

 thorough knowledge of the product he is attempting to sell, not The Demands 



alone the finished product, and by this I mean that he should o fMod f. rn 



Competition 

 have a general idea of the wood, the peculiar character of it, its 



particular good qualities, defects allowed if any, what it is 

 especially adapted for, wherein it differs with other woods he may 

 come in competition with. He should have knowledge of the 

 timber in the forests ; the general length of the trees ; average 

 sizes ; extreme sizes ; percentage of large and small timber ; a 

 general idea of the logging problems with reference to what is 

 practical, etc. Should have a good idea of the manufacturing 

 end of the business ; how the logs are cut up, not as regards 

 ordinary country trade entirely, but with reference to what special 

 stock can be gotten out of certain kinds of logs, also what waste 

 there would be in order to know relatively what price special 

 stock should bring over ordinary yard stock of about same dimen- 

 sion. He should possess a sound knowledge of what it costs to 

 do all kinds of planing-mill work, so that when called upon to 

 figure on any special working he will know whether it is prac- 

 tical or not; just what is involved in the uses of machinery an^ 1 

 the rough lumber to make the finished product satisfactorily and 

 with profit. In order to give a buyer a finished product that The Technical 

 would be satisfactory for a certain purpose, he should know how Knowledge 

 much extra to ask over and above the price for that same size Re< l uired 

 worked for ordinary yard trade. He should be able to approach 

 the buyer of an ordinary retail yard calling for ordinary sizes, a's 

 well as the buyers of the larger manufacturing concerns. He must 

 be able to approach the buyers of these larger concerns to a large 

 extent as an efficiency man, to show not only the buyers of lumber 

 but the mechanical man of these larger industries how to cut up 

 and utilize the lumber with economy. He should be able to sit 

 down with such a man and show him along practical and intelli- 



