l. Find Out All You Cqn About the Customer's Job 2. Suggest Orher ltems Reloted to the Specific Job

By Graham Rohrer Director of Specialty Sales

Georgia-Pacific Plyzuood Company

Most consumer-customers lr'ho drop in at a lumberyard to purchase some item of material for a job they plan to do themselves, do so without fully realizing what they will need to get the results they want. This is only naturai. For only a professional mechanic or an experienced lurnberyard salesman knou's what is really needed to do .r particular job right. Thus the luml>eryard salesman wir,r really knows his business has an opportunity to sell the average do-it-yourself customer a larger order than the customer intends to place when he makes the call.

There are two definite steps in building up the size oi an order from this type of customer.

1. Find out all you can about the job the customr:r plans to do.

2. Suggest items related to the particular material the customer thinks he needs.

Each .of these steps is sufficiently important to merit separate consideration.

Getting the Facts on the Job

Let's assume a man comes in to your yard and says he wants a price on enough plyu'ood to panel one end c.rf his living room. This actually is occurt'tng in hundreds of yards every day. For more and more consumers are becoming aware of the fact that by installing this type of paneling themselves, they can give a rooln an effect of distinction and luxury heretofore confined only to the homes of the very rvealthy.

You ask the customer if he can give you the room's dimensions. You try to get complete figures, not just the dimensions of the end of the room he thinks he rvants to panel, for later in the sale you r,r'ill try to sell him on doing a complete job.

You want to know rvhat kind of a rn'all the room has lrow. He may need furring strips to nail the panels to.

You'll want to kno'rv how much to take out for fireplace, doors and vu'indows.

Tell the customer he'll be surprised at hou' reasonablv he can do this job. So, only now you figure the cost for paneling. Figure it two ways, first for covering the wall at one end of the room, and then for covering all four u'alls.

You name your price for the paneling the customer will need to cover the wall at one end of the room. lle'Il prol;ably agree that the price is very reasonable and will be ready to give you an immediate order. But you know he needs more than just the paneling. And if you're a real salesman you'll try to sell him everything he needs to make him well pleased with the final result.

Build Up the Sale with Related Items

No'iv you start selling the customer rvhatever he'11 neecl to do the job right. If he hasn't the tools he'll need, yc'n tell him what they are-and if you handle tools, add these to his order. You sell him the furring strips he'Il need.

Then you find out hon' he plans to finish his paneling. He'll probably rvant to take advantage of the paneling's texture to get a tu'o-tone effect. So you sell him tvn'o different colors of paint, and the turpentine to thin it rviti-r. And he should have tu'o brttshes and a rviping ckrth.

Then you shou, him some pictures o{ a living rootn u'here all four u,alls have been panelecl. Get him to agree that complete paneling gives an even more luxuriotts effect than the paneling of a single u'a11. You point out (Please turn to Page 60)