The Lumber Merchant ls The Best Paint Merchant

Many years ago we began preaching building SERVICE, selling IDEAS, selling BUILDINGS and their FUNCTIONS rather than boards and shingles. At that time very few lumber dealers in the territory we were trying to serve, were paint dealers. And almost NONE were paint MERCHANTS. Those who handled paint generally carried it on musty shelves as an unpushed and unappreciated sideline.

But our conception was that to sell building material as the shape of building THINGS and building NEEDS' PAINT must be used, because when the consumer thinks BUILDINGS, or building ADDITIONS he thinks of them ATTRACTMLY PAINTED. No doubt about that, is there ?

Then to sell building functions successfully, the lumber dealer should sell the paint to go with the material, to cover it, to beautify it, to protect it. If he sells a man a barn plan, he sell's him a PAINTED barn plan; if a porch, it's a PAINTED porch, every time, that makes the appeal.

So the lumber dealer is the best possible paint merchant because his business is selling the stuff that paint is made to cover, protect, and beautify. So why shouldn't he sell both? Who could be in better position? Who has a better right?

And besides, he is in business for profit, and there is fine return on the paint investment.

The greatest living authority on paint said not long ago: "There is no doubt on earth that the live lumber merchant is the best possible paint merchant." We have heard the same thing from many paint men.

So for many years we have been talking "PAINT" right along with lumber, because they work together like the legs on a stool-helping one another. At first the paint men took no interest in our paint efforts. They didn't think much of the lumber dealer as a paint dealer, because, as they told us frankly, the lumber dealer "Isn't a merchant and we want our paint merchandised-not just stocked'"

Things have changed mightily. The lumber dealer HAS become a merchant.

The thing that makes paint a great lumber sideline is the teamwork of the two materials. When the dealer finds lumber hard to sell "as is," he just dresses it up with a plan and some paint, and-Presto ! it sells itself.

There's no doubt about it. If ther's one thing on earth more infectious and contagious than the Bubonic plague' it's the PAINT fever on thc part of the housewife-and her hubby too.

Why, Mr. Lumber Dealer, every BLESSED HOUSEWIFE IN YOUR SALES TERRITORY IS A PAINT PROSPECT NOW. Every blessed one.

There's no use talking; during the sunny season every housewife is filled with a desire to grab a brush and paint something. It's the nature of the home loving woman to want to paint things at this time of the year. The porch furniture, the flower boxes, the fence, the back porch, the lawn swing; everything, in fact, that is looking dingy.

Tie up with this desire. You know the old saw: "A board and a nail and a can of paint, Make many a place look new that ain't."

YOU furnish the board. Why not the can of paint? Why not the nail? Why not the "new" idea' If you sell the IDEA, she'll buy the board, and the paint, and the brush, and the nail, and a hammer to drive it with.

Sell one paint job in each neighborhood, and you have everyone in the neighborhood THINKING PAINT.

Yes, sir ! Paint belongs to the lumber dealer, and if he doesn't sell it he's refusing good money. You can sell paint jobs when you can't even start a house bill, and it furnishes something to keep you eternally busy, serving your territory, and selling something at a profit.