No Predestination in Building Volume

Bg Jach Dionne

ft seems simple.

It IS true.

It CAN be, IS being, and WILL be demonstrated wherever and whenever an honest, intelligent effort is made, that there is no PREDESTINATION in the building business. Not in regard to the volume of business that MAY be done, at any rate. -

And yet, that simple, kindly, proveable fact is the hardest thought of all to successfully and permanently sell to the average retail lumber dealer.

Somehow or other his intuitive, instinctive thought on the subject is like that of the South Sea fslander waiting for the cocoanut crop toripen-the belief that there will be just as miny cocoanuts as nature produces fer that sea-on, and no more.

The lumber dealer seldom gets far away from the idea that there is going to be a certain amount of building business done in HIS territory this season, and thit his job is to see how big a share of it he can get.

Talk to the average lgmber dealer on the subject of building prospects, and see if that isn't the way he thinks of it.

And THAT, of course, is the trouble, wit'r the retail lumber business. It is the same basic, erroneous thought that has been the trouble with all departments of the lumber business, ever since there has been such a business.

There has been much improvement, it is true, but THAT is still the fundamental trouble. Thgy_[ay{t enough faith in the ability of thinking, acting, planning, working humans, to CREATE business.

TlqV have a lot more faith now than they used to have, but they are still painfully shy. They learned that wrong thinking in th: first place from the lumber manuflctureri, and while the dealer bn the whole has progressed farther along merchandising and business creating lines than has the manufacturer, he is still more or less of a doubter.

He is still more inclined to look with hope upon the chance of landing the order for Jim Smith's h9m,e, aftgr Jim Smith has decided to build the home and haJit all planned, than he is to induce Jim Smith to build, help him with his plans, with his finanies, and his building effort generally.

The man who develops.a latent idea and latent money or credit, into a BUILDING, is the man who is helping himself, his town, his industry and even his competitor.

There is a lot of mone_y th?t will be spent and invested in every town in this country thiS yCaT, WHICH IS NOT YET TICKETED IN ANY PARTICULAR DIRECTIOI\I.

There is a world ojho19 Uuildlng_ PPqIRE in every district of the country right now, that can be developed intoBUILDINGS or left dormant, depending on someon--e's activity, or lack of it, along selling lines.

There is a lot of money all over this lanC that is ticketed for building investments this yea-r, that may go elsewhere unless there is someone on the job to see that they follow their natural bent.

The answer is the old one. Know your business, know your town, know your pros- pects and have them listed, know your stocki and how to apply them to the othei fellow's needs; and then well directed activity will bring life from these sparks of animation. Show them. Advise them. Interest them. Sell them. See that they get what they want, and that the building is as good as your materials. Give them building service.

The amount of buil-ding to be done in YOUR territory this year is NOT predestined. It is subject to wonderful development'over and above its passive developm6nt. This should be a PLANNING and SELLTNG year in the lumber business.