“Aggressive Sale” Of N.Z. Wool

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31421, 14 July 1967, Page 14

“Aggressive Sale” Of N.Z. Wool

Of all New Zealand’s products, wool was the most aggressively sold, said the president of the New Zealand Woolbuyers’ Association (Mr A. V. Moulton) in reply to a letter to the editor of “The Press,” from a correspondent, “Salesman.”

The letter read:— “May I inquire how many New Zealand salesmen the New Zealand wool industry has got overseas selling New Zealand wort? Presumably the International Wool Secretariat, which has only been established in recent years, and to which the New Zealand wool producer contributes substantial funds, is an international promotion

and publicity organisation, not a marketing organisation for New Zealand wool. Over the years the New Zealand wool-grower has apparently grown the wort he can grow best and then waited each year for the overseas buyers to come and buy it, and since the war has supported a purely defensive technique of saying to them, “If you won’t buy it at our price, we’ll buy it ourselves.” Surely the most successful products in the world are aggressively sold, not defensively bought”

Reply Given A spokesman for the Wort Board said: “Salesmanship involves the ability to deliver wool according to agreed specification. The bulk of the

New Zealand clip is sold at auction.

“The salesmanship and the delivery of required types are in the hands of the buying firms operating on the New Zealand market. Although referred to as ‘buyers,* these firms are equally salesmen for New Zealand wool.”

Mr Moulton said: “Your correspondent can rest assured that there are many hundreds, probably thousands, of skilled salesmen selling New Zealand wool or its products all over the world. Virtually every firm buying and exporting New Zealand wool has agents in every corner of the world pushing the sale of our wool on which their living depends. “In turn, the manufacturers have their own salesmen on the road selling their products in all stages of production. In addition, most firms in New Zealand send at least one of their woolbuyers overseas each year to consult manufacturers on their needs, press sales, and find new uses for our many types of wool while, right through the year, the buyers in New Zealand keep up the selling pressure by cable, telephone, and telex, doing an efficient and continuous promotional job. “Without this, it would be very difficult indeed to dispose of our fast-growing clip in the face of strong competition from other wool-grow-ing countries and synthetic fibres.

“I am quite sure that, of all New Zealand’s varied products, wool is the most aggressively sold.”