RILEY'S WORLD

He’d ride an elephant to get some attention
Toronto Star May, 1963
By Samuel Campell
Staff Star Writer

Would you ride an elephant into a sales meeting…….just to get attention?

Riley Brethour would. He’s the 38-year-old director of Consolidated Building Corp.’s national sales program. Right now he says he is looking for a maitre d’ who will allow him to straddle a pachyderm and lope into a hotel banquet room full of real estate men or construction people.

Not long ago this salesman’s salesman, who heads up the sales department of the largest builder of residential units in Canada, was guest speaker at a downtown meeting.

After being introduced by the chairman, Brethour roared into the room on a motorcycle – with engines sputtering, siren screaming and red lights flashing off and on.

Shares Skills

Brethour’s idea of holiday is to gather a group of salesmen around him and impart to them the “Brethour Method” of salesmanship.

This bundle of energy, who jumped into the post-war housing boom in partnership with another realtor to form Brethour and Morris Ltd., believes that if you have found the so-called secret of success, you are morally obligated to share it with your brothers.

“Knowledge within withers and dies,” says Brethour, whose by-word is enthusiasm.

In the decade between 1949 and 1959 Brethour sold more than 35,000 homes. In 1961 he joined CBC and today directs a sales staff of more than 150 men and women.

Sales have actually doubled at CBC annually since 1961 and the coming of Brethour. The company has expanded housing operations to 27 subdivisions in 10 major cities across Canada and in the near future may become the largest homebuilding company in North America.

“We are in effect, creating and training ‘carbon copy’ Riley Brethours for all our housing communities from coast to coast,” says Noel Zeldin, CBC president.

In “the good old days” Brethour owned and operated a dairy in Georgetown. Quite often – even in the early days – he was a one-man show.

On many occasions he operated the dairy office, the bottling operation, the loading of the milk wagon and delivering along the route…all in a day’s work.

Vacation

“The real estate business gave me a vacation from so much spilled milk,” says Brethour. “I decided to make it a permanent vacation.”

Brethour, the father of five children, says selling a house is a “snap” – provided you have the right product in the right place at the right time and right price. “In the past few years,” he says, “price has often been the deciding factor in home purchasing. Today, however, we are entering a different market.”

“War babies are forming families and generally have more money in their pockets than ever before. Comfort, convenience and styling are the chief benefits now being sought. And as long as the down payment is reasonable, the end price is not as important.”