OPERANNG OPPORTUNITIES

WALLY LYNCH Paid Associates PO.8ox741623 Dallas,Tx.75243

l|lle-cof-foE-ME is a four syllable, 9nine letter word spelled D-l-C-H-OT-O-M-Y meaning division into two parts. Like there are two sides to every argumentl there is no back without a front. lf 5000 people attend and visit the 400 booths per trade show, the question "What's new?" is asked 2.000.000 times during each event, lf there are 100 shows each year, the query will be made 200,000,000 times. lf each question and the answer covers five minutes, one billion minutes will be expended annually. This is 16.666.666 man hours, but because at least two people are involved, it doubles to 33,333,332, each year. lf there were an Olympic event in harping on advertising and pricing, almost any retail entrepreneur in our industry could coach the team and sweep the medals. Such talent is generated because no one can figure out how the other guy sells it for less. Along with this frustration, no one can afford the kind of advertising needed to compete. No alternatives short of flour color multiple page tabloids are acceptable. The dichotomy of this is that virtually every retailer in the country outside of this industry uses some sort of telemarketing to generate business, goodwill and service. Through reputable telemarketers such services cost from 150 to 200 per call. Basically 1000 customers can be contacted each month for $150 to $200.

The word also has a paradoxical meaning: the glass is half full and half empty or partly cloudy or partly sunny.

Our industry is full of costly dichotomies that are easily corrected. Here are a few of the more ironic and amusing.

At $5 per hour, our industry spends $l66,666,600 a year talking about what's new. The dichotomy here is not the cost of the conversations, but the inquiry. What's new is a crap-shoot at best. Whal's old is what's sold! Our business is selling and planning to sell, not buying. lts priorities are: plan to sell, sell and buy a few more!

In terms of reaching a targeted audience this media has no peer. For every 100 calls placed 500/o cannot be completed because people have moved or are not at home. Of the other 500/0, half will listen to the total message. The other half will listen to all or part of the message. This is a 370/o share of the audience contacted, equal to or greater than this country's most tuned in radio station. These figures hold for telemarketing whether the message is live or recorded.

Most dealers regard this media as no good because when they get such calls they hang up. They believe such calls oflend customers. There's a multi billion dollar industry in this country generating an offense for little guys who don't know it doesn't work to big guys who would hate to be without it.

"We service the customer better" has long been the cry of the independent in the face of encroaching "no service" chains. A few chains have changed ownership in recent years, but there have been literally hundreds of shutdowns and bankruptcies amongst the "out servicing" independents.

Let's examine a few dichotomies in this scenario. lf you're a contractor ori- ented lumber dealer, your only customer goes to work at 7 a.m. The time your first truck leaves each morning, plus about 45 minutes, is the measure of how well you are servicing the customer. lf you're average, your first truck is making its first delivery about 9 a.m. Some service!

Even worse you miss a daily opportunity per truck to impress your only customers that you are really interested in them. If you start at 6 a.m., you can, during daylight saving time, use your trucks with a second set of drivers for almost a second shift.

If you are a lumber yard or hardware store gone home center, ask your wife to visit the store and its rest rooms in particular. Ask her one question. "Would you hostess a dinner in this environment?"

Why spend advertising dollars inviting customers into a dirty or unkempt business? Numerous studies have shown 5% of the people go into a retail store to use the rest room.

Chains cost more to operate, but they have fewer dichotomies.

Lots Of Treated SP for Sale

Since 1980 when 2.14 billion b. f. of southern pine was treated, the figure has edged up to just over 6 bil- lion b.f. in 1987, half of the l2.4billion b.f. of southern pine production.

Of all lumber that is treated, fully 85% is southern pine, according to Jeff Easterling, treated markets manager at the Southern Forest Products Association. In addition, 700/o of all treated southern pine moves through retail channels.

New Treated Regs Due

An effort to develop a single retention standard for CCA treated southern pine has been launched by the Southern Forest Products Association.

The treated technical subcommittee originally proposed the new standard as a way to reduce confusion in the marketplace. A single retention standard would make it easier for consumers to choose materials for a project and pick treated southern pine that's adequately protected against decay and insect attack for use in a wide range of applications according to treated markets manager Jeff Easterling.

SFPA reports that it is making progress in moving the single reten- tion value standard through the proper industry channels. A decision is expected by fall.

New Charlotte, N.C., Yard

MacMillan Bloedel Building Materials has opened a lumber yard in Charlotte, N.C., to provide cedar and spruce to the Carolinas, southern Virginia and Tennessee.

The operation at 1500 Tar Heel Road includes a 25,000 sq. ft. warehouse and a 5 acre lumbervard on a rail siding.

Joint Industry Meetings

Three wood preserving industry organizations have agreed to hold concurrent annual meetings this year revolving around a core program.

The Society of American Wood Preservers and the American Wood Preservers Institute will conduct concurrent and joint sessions Nov. 1-2 in Orlando, Fl., with the American Wood Preservers Bureau meeting in the same location Oct. 31.

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