t5orne Guslomers Decrlers lf,eel An Editorial

The retail salesman meets many types of buyers and prospective buyers, and he must be prepared to "handle" each of them as the necessity arises. Among the types he meets are these:

1. The Good-Natured Customer: He smiles at your efforts. Smile with him, and laugh at your own expense when you get the chance. It helps the sale.

2. The Doubting Customer: He questions and doubts every statemont you make. Definite facts and figures in con€rete form help a lot with this fellow.

3. The Disputative Customer: Welcomes an argument so he can show his knowledge of certain subjects. A mild form of combat pleases him. Cater to this notion of his, but be careful not.to overstep the mark.

4. The Taciturn Customer: One of the hardest types to handle. He puts out nothing you can turn to as showing interest. Watch the eye of this fellow, and be less talkative than with the average buyer. In the language of the bridge player, you've got to "finesse".this type of buyer.

5. The Technical Customer: Usually a professional man of some sort. Never "guess" with him. You must KNOW and BE SURE of what you tell him about your goods and materials.

6. The Impolite Customer: Rarely met by the potfe salesman. But when you do meet one, match his impoliteness with your good manners. It may not help you a lot, but it won't give him additional things to fuss about.

7. The Customer Who Cannot Say Yes: There are lots of these, and they are hard to handle. The salesman has to be smart enough to be buyer and seller both, and to close the sale when he shows weakness, sign it, and get out of there.

8. The Price Buyer: Ray Saberson says that the toughest time in the life of the average merchant is when a guy with a bill of materials in one hand, and a roll of good American money in the other, walks up to the dealer's desk, lays down the materials list, and says: "Now figger, by gummy !"

-National Foresf Products Week October 16-22-

Norby & Polmer Lumber Sqles Opens

Wholesole Offices in Fullerton

Two veteran lumber salesmen have opened wholesale offices in Fullerton, California. They are Cornell Norby and King Palmer.

"We have established offices in Fullerton in order to offer a complete service to dealers in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties," said Norby. "Our base of operation is adjacent to the freeways and all the eastside and southern industrial area," he pointed out.

Cornell Norby has been identified for more than 15 years in the wholesale and retail lumber business. For the past 11 years he has been associated with the Clay Lumber Company in lnglewood, and prior to that time spent five years in retail sales. He started his career at the close of World War II and has been selling lumber since that time. Cornell is active in social. civic and church affairs in Fuller-

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Dovglas Fir White Fir Redwood

Ponderoso Pine

Sugor Pine

Rod Cedor Shingfes Royal Ook Flooring ton, where he resides with his wife, June, and four children. He is also active in Los Angeles Hoo-Hoo Club 2.

King Palmer has also been associated in the lumber industry for the past l5 years. It was at the close of World War II, when he received his discharge from the service that King joined Wm. Cameron & Co., Portland, where he handled rvest coast purchasing for Texas and Arizona dealers. For the past several years he has been in charge of Mallco Distributing, a wholesale division of O'Malley Lumber Co., Phoenix, Arizona. King resides in Anaheim with his wife, June, and two children. He, too, is a member of the Concatenated Order of Hoo-Hoo and intends to transfer to Los Angeles Club 2.

(Tell thern Aou sau it in The California Lumber Merchant)

$4,OOO in 'Ply' Stock to Winners in USPromotion

New YorkEight aggressive and promotion-minded lumber dealers have acquired ownership in United States Plywood Corporation as a reward for their outstanding merchandising efforts. The awards to each of $500 in PLY stock (that's the N. Y. Stock Exchange ticker symbol) were made on the basis of dealer presentations following the company's recent Weldwood Vacation-Time Projects promotion.

A board of independent judges recently met in Chicago to select a winner from each of United States Plywood's eight geographical sales divisions. More than 1,500 dealers participated in the promotion, with nearly 100 submitting results of their efforts for judging. The winners included:

House of Plywood, Inc., Denver, Colo.; Van Buren & Co., San Antonio, Tex., and California Builders Supply, Oakland. Calif.

One dealer rented a pony and built a "corral" in the yard's open area to attract parents by offering free rides for children-and while the kiddies were entertained, parents shopped. It was a Win-Place-and Show Promotion, all the way.

Another used a 1910 miniature Ford as his attention-getter. The "car" was decorated with banners and streamers promoting Vacation-Time Frojects. The dealer reports that the stunt really put his yard's name in front of "thousands of people" who never before realized the firm was locatecl in their neighborhood.

"Our targets in this promotion," said Monroe Pollack, USP sales vice-president, "were the dealers who go after retail, homeown-er business with (1) showrooms, (2) advertising and plus-merchandising, and (3) specific Weldwood product displays."

By selling projects rather than individual products, he said, dealeri wound up selling "whole packages of materials, the Big-Ticket sales that mean full profit."

"They were able to do this because customers were more ir-rterested in the project's end use rather than materials tl-rat went into it," he pointed out, and referred to such end values as greater comfort and more room for the customer's family.

To back up dealers during the promotion, United States Plywood ran a two-page, full-color national magazine ad, listing all participating dealers and, concurrent with the promotion, conducted a nationwide sweepstakes contest. The traffic-building prize was a $10,000 Panelbild Holiday llouse.

According to Pollack, dealers are still making the promotion pay off,{argely through follow-up leads developed as a result of the Holiday House sweepstakes.

"Many entrants listed on their entry blanks projects or improvements that they wanted in their homes," he explained.

An optional feature of the promotion was a local Sweepstakes contest, the pattern for which was provided by United States Plywood's sales promotion department. "This developed even greater store traffic for many dealers than did the national contest," Pollack said.

For the month-long push, the company also provided store-wide promotion kits with which to dress up participating dealers' lumber yards with a "supermarket" appearance, and furnished local advertising aids.

Personal assistance took the form of sales meetings conducted by Weldwood sales representatives, to increase enthusiasm among dealer personnel by showing them how to make the most effective use of the promotion.

"Presentations submitted by dealers for judging invariably, attested to increased sales as a result of their efforts during our promotion," Pollack said.

In addition to the eight winners of United States Ply- fefephonesl