Retail Lumber Salesmanship

Men used to sell THINGS in the retail lumber business. Today they mostly sell IDEAS.

The public cares not a rap whether you are in business or not except so far as you may prove of benefit to THEM. People are interested in their own business-not in YOURS.

Selling the THING is incidental because that is what YOU are trying to dispose of ; selling the USE OF THAT THING is of importance, because that is what your customer NEEDS and may therefore be interested in.

He may need it and not be interested in it, because he may not have become CONSCIOUS of that need. But if he really NEEDS it, he can become interested in it through YOUR efforts.

There is nothing new about selling IDEAS. It is as old as the everlasting hills; but it IS new to entirely too many people. Regarding the sale of ideas, many dealers are in the position of the college boy who was asked if he had TAKEN Greek? He replied that he hadn't really taken Greek; he had merely been exposed to it.

Four thousand years ago (according to that GOOD BOOK to which several of the Apostles gave their direct attention) a man named Solbmon thought of a temple; he had an IDEA. And he wrote to a man named Hiram and contracted for some MATERIALS to materialize that idea.

Hiram took a contract from Solomon by which he agreed to bring logs by raft to Joppa, and deliver them on the job. There you have the first LUMBER DEAL on record; except, of course, the one about Noah and the Ark.

Solomon had the IDEA, he drew the plans and specifications, and bought the materials from Hirarn; and the temple was built; the IDEA WAS MATERIALIZED.

Today few men remember the name of }Iiram, the man who supplied the BUILDING MATERIALS. But all the world from the cradle up knows about the man who had the IDEA. He was the man of wisdom. There is food for thought there, Mr. Building Merchant.

IDEAS are the most practical of all things. Everything is based, and founded on IDEAS. Every great structure is simply the visualization, the realization of the IDEA of such a structure.

The only man on earth interested in LUMBER and BUILDING MATERIALS is the lumber merchant; and his only interest is to get rid of it just as quickly as possible.

Yet we BUY lumber, we TALK lumber, and we THINK lumber; and how on earth do we expect our customers to get any other idea from us if that is the only one we have to give?

The very first IDEA the merchant should get is that he is NOT in business to sell the goods he carries in stock, but rather TO HELP PEOPLE BUY THEM. That's salesmanship.

You never really sell a bill of goods. When a deal is made whereby your goods and the other man's money change hands, it is because that man has been sold on the IDEA of building something with YOUR goods.

He isn't interested in the THING: but rather in the FUNCTION of it.

Sell him the. IDEA and he'll do the material purchasing.

More building is done in YOUR town whenever you sell the people of the town on the IDEA of more and better buildings. And if you say there is not much building being done in your town you are simply stating that the people of the town are NOT sold on buildings.

Every human on earth has the desire for SHELTER either for himself or his possessions, and when you sell him on the IDEA of some particular form of shelter, he will buy the materials.

But you can't sell what you haven't got, so in order to sell IDEAS you must have some in stock; good and useful and attractive ones.

You must have the IDEA of your business before you can sell CONFIDENCE and TRUST in it.

You must have the idea of your customer's needs before you can sell building THOUGHTS.

And you must have the IDEA, the vision of your community if you are to help build that community.

So, reach out in every direction for IDEAS. Read everything and see everything that could supply you with them. Meet your fellow craftsmen and exchange IDEAS with them.

Stock yourself with building IDEASand building MATERIALS will be demanded of you.

Foll Conference for Southern Retoilers

Orrie W. lfamilton, executive vice president of the Southern California Retail Lumber Association, announces dates, location, and general plans for the regular fall conference of that organization. As usual the meeting .rvill be for owners and principals of retail members, and their ladies.

The place will be the Arrowhead Springs Hotel, located just north of San Bernardino, and the dates are October 21,22, and 23. The conference was held at this place three years ago, and was chosen by popular vote for this fall. The hotel is in the mountains at a 2,000-foot elevation, and the weather is delightful there the vear around.

Reservations can be made for either the American or European plan by prospective delegates.