386 SELLINGLUMBER 



large percentage of replies, possibly as high as 75 per cent. These 

 inquiries are referred to the local office covering the territory and 

 a salesman makes a call at an early date. On reaching the town, 

 our salesman first covers those plants where interest has been shown, 

 or from whom we have received inquiry. After these calls, he 

 makes a call on every manufacturing plant in the town, regardless 

 of size or apparent prosperity. You never can tell where lightning 

 will strike, and the superintendent of a small plant today may be 

 the superintendent of a large one tomorrow, and your promotion 

 talk will not be lost. New plants offer attractive prospects and 

 our work on these must be early, generally with the president, vice- 

 president, general manager, superintendent, engineer or architect. 

 We prefer to work through the high operating official rather than 

 the engineer or architect, as the latter two are governed by the de- 

 sire of their principal. The results we obtain in this way are sur- 

 prising and men of large affairs and the heads of successful plants 

 lend a willing ear to our arguments. 



You will see, however, that we do not wait until \ve hear of 

 a new plant to be built, but we find a far larger field in old plants, 



Getting a where floor areas subject to replacement are of greater importance. 



"Prospects" ^ e watch the trade and building news items closely for mention 

 of new plants to be erected, but we give equal attention to the old 

 building. 



Generally, our salesmen go 1 directly to the superintendent or 

 some other high operating official and interest him in our product. 

 Pictures of installation play an important part and it is seldom hard 

 to arrange to go into the plant with the superintendent. In the 

 majority of cases, once on the ground, we have little trouble in 

 showing where a creosoted block floor will be an asset in securing 

 efficiency. We do not try to do more than this on our first call 

 and seldom do we leave literature on the subject unless requested. 

 Foundation However, our salesman reports each day on the calls he has made, 

 for an Order and the district office writes confirming the conversation and send- 

 ing literature. Our idea being that when accompanied by a letter, 

 a booklet will be filed for future reference and possibly studied, 

 whereas, a large percentage of the booklets left during the first call 

 find their way into the waste basket. Another means of securing 

 results is to make direct reference, stating names of officials oper- 

 ating other plants, in kindred lines, and request that the superin- 

 tendent com ' unicate with these parties and secure first-hand in- 



