Pine Specinlties The Denler enn Succes,fol\ Sell

"Write something about 'Pine Specialties the Dealer Can Suocessfully Sell"' says the editor. All right, Mr. Martin, but what is a specialty ?

A specialty, we can assume, is an item outside the regular line of mill products. It may be an article to which has been added manufacturing thought and labor to make a finished product ready for the consumer or it may be a raw material or semi-finished material in a new form to meet a special market.

The successful specialty in time becomes a staple and right here is the biggest thought in conne,ction with special- ties. By pushing them we are taking one way out of the present troubles assailing the lumber industry. That goes for the dealer and the mill man too.

Recall some of the basi'c facts about our business that have been pointed out many times by The California Lumber Merchant and other missionaries. The worst thing about our business is that the bulk of it is on a raw MATERIAL basis. The producer of raw materials is always up against it-look at the farmer, the stockman and the miner. All he has to sell is "price" and most of the time this is set by the buyer or "business conditions". Our worst handicap is the psychology inherited in all the traditions of the lumber business, this old raw material angle that cramps our style in manufacturing and selling.

Competing building materials can teach us a lesson. Most of them are made and marketed to suit the buyer. Analysis of the buyer's needs and preferences establish the form and the product is manufactured accordingly. In our business we go at it backwards. We make the stuff in a traditional way and try to get somebody to buy it.

The dealer takes the grief. His customer is buying a house, a chicken coop or a second story for his bungalow but all the dealet has to show him is a lot of boards. dimen- sion and other things utterly mysterious to the prospective builder. The buyer can't even understand the dealer's language.

I.magine buying an automobile or a radio and being shown a lot of pig iron and copper and a chunk of crude rubber.

The more specialties that can be developed into staples the better for the dealer and the millman. Each one is a step away from raw material and toward manufacture and merchandising as followed by every other successful industry.

The hardest thing in the world to sell is an idea. We resist them. Every specialty is an idea to start with. The non-technical public resists them less than the seller does because he knows nothing about the inhibitions and "dont" we accumulate in "learning the business".

The dealer can not be expected to undertake the expense of missionary work ahead of. a new specialty. The manufacturer must open up the way for him with advertising and sales work directed to the consumer. At the same time the dealer can well afford to cooperate with the pioneering manufacturer, provided he is sold on the idea, the quality and value of the new item.

Take a chance, stock it in a conservative way, then develop the selling angles and put some effort and a few of your own dollars in pushing it. The manufacturer has taken a bigger chance than the dealer is asked to take. He didn't get that new article from Santa Claus. He had to gamble on design expense, experiments, costly failures and development and the machines to make it with.

The profit from specialties is both direct and indirect and the far-sighted dealer will get his biggest returns from the indirect. The sale. of a specialty generally carries some staple supplies along with it and helps move all the stock, but the indirect profit goes still farther.

Put yourself in the place of the window shopper who sees your display of specialties. Remember, the women do most of the selecting and visualizing of the new home. They sell the home idea and in most cases contribute a lot of work and sacrifice toward building it.

Your window shopper is attracted by your novel display, -cute garden furniture, new color effects in a panelled wall or dbor or a handy kitchen layout with folding this and disappearing that and a tempting breakfast nook. From admiration to the desire for ownership is but a step and the long smouldering desire for a new home or an improvement to the old bursts into life.

Suppose these casual observers are habitual apartment dwellers. You have put new ideas into their heads and soon the apartment owners will begin to hear about it.

We have assumed so far that all sales are made to laymen, We have left the contractor out intintionally for he has to sell the layman if the dealer does not. Contractors and dealers can work together on new ideas. When business is quiet time can be profitably spent in selling ideas. If you set enough of these eggs some of them are bound to hatch. Even in the dullest times improvements can be sold. If property is hard to rent a few improvements and the addition of a novelty or turo will attract tenants. And once an idea like this is sold to an owner he comes back for more.

The next time a salesman tries to sell you a new idea, give him a few minutes with an open mind. If it looks good, take a chance. It may be the opening wedge for something bigger than you can foresee.

A MESSAGE To THE \(/OOD\(/ORKING TRADES

RAW MATERIAL+ SKILLED WORKMANSHIP: FINISHED PRODUCT FINISHED PRODUCTS ARE YOUR MEANS TO

Lumber is your predomlnant Raw Material. Consider the essential factors in the selection of SUPPLY

Ouality Stock

Large and aaried, stocks ol Hard,woods, Sugar and, trtr/ hite Pine redd,y for immed,iate shifument assare ol the tormer. Experienced, ord,er rnen who fill each ord,er large or sffiall with its ubimate use in mind,, asstrre you of the latter. Theref ore m)o;d d,elay and obtain satisfaction bg selecting ds lour DEPENDABLE SOURCE OF SUPPLY The-