Circulars and Brochures

There is not much difference between a circular, a flier, and a brochure. Circulars and fliers are the same, and a brochure is longer and more detailed than either. Dictionaries don’t shed much more light on the subject.

There are several ways to distribute circulars and brochures. They may be mailed alone, mailed as part of a mailing package, placed in mailboxes, slipped under doors, slipped under windshield wipers, handed out at street corners, handed out at trade shows, handed out whenever lots of prospects congregate, handed out to prospects and/or customers, placed in the racks that say, “Take One,” placed on counters for general distribution, or dropped from airplanes. If you are going to distribute many of these, make them circulars, because circulars are less expensive per piece. If your plans for disseminating them are relatively limited, you might opt for the more expensive brochures.

The simplest form of one of these printed pieces is a single sheet of paper, printed on one side. Printing on both sides makes matters a tad more complex. Printing on both sides of two of two pieces of paper – each folded in half – makes a booklet that may be called a brochure. Some brochures run as long as twenty-four pages. When planning to produce such materials, remember that when you fold a sheet of paper in two, you have a total of four pages (two on each side). So generally you must think in terms of four-page units. Brochures are ordinarily four or eight or twelve pages. Some brochures have panels that fold rather than pages that turn. Usually, these are six-panel brochures – three panels on each side.

The format isn’t nearly as important as the content. And the content must be factual information, enlivened with a touch of style and romance. Unlike ads, which must flag a person’s attention, a brochure – or circular –already as that attention. So its primary job is to inform with the intention of selling. Most brochures and some circulars, use artwork. Sometimes this is intended to keep the pace interesting. But most of the time, the purpose is to explain, inform and sell.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, Line of Sight

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Evaluate

Evaluation is intimidating. Often, managers are too busy to keep up with what people are doing and how well they are doing. And when managers don’t know what their people are doing, they can’t  evaluate accurately. As a result, they feel unable to support their impressions or comments about performance—and so they avoid the task.

But when selection and direction are done properly, evaluation becomes a logical, easy-to-implement process. If you know what your people are supposed to do and have assigned each of them specific tasks, responsibilities, and objectives with deadlines, then you have criteria against which to measure that individual’s performance. In this situation, evaluation becomes a simple matter of determining whether or not a person has met those goals, and how well.

Mangers often assume that if they select good people and direct them in what is expected, things will get done. They’re right. Things will get done, but how well they will get done and how long they will take are uncertain. Evaluation lets you determine how well something was done and whether it was done on time. In a sense, evaluation is like a traffic cop. You can post all the speed limit signs in the world, but they will be ignored unless people know that infractions will be discovered and fined.

This sounds logical, but it’s surprising how many managers postpone evaluation again and again while they focus on more pressing but ultimately less important duties. When evaluation is postponed, deadlines also slip, because employees begin to feel that timeliness and quality are not important. When performance slips, more responsibilities shift to the manager—who thus has even less time to direct and evaluate employees.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, Line of Sight

Letters Dealing with Orders

Most ordering today is done on standardized order forms, purchase forms, and requisition forms, and is handled by means of standardized procedures. Together with telephone ordering, which has surged to new highs in recent years, forms have eliminated most individual letters about orders. As long as there are human beings ordering and filling orders, there will be errors, exceptions, special requests, and problems to write about.

 

If you are ordering without a form (the form is missing from the catalog, you are responding to magazine ad), include the description of the desired item, the quantity, the size, the color, personalization/monogram, and the price. Include your own name, address, postal code, and state your method of payment. If you are paying by bank card, include its number, expiration date, and your signature. If you are buying from a company in your home state, add sales tax to the total. Also include any stated handling charges. Specify shipping directions or any special considerations.

 

When responding to orders received, it is helpful to have an all-purpose form for problem orders. After saying something like, “Thank you for your order. We are unable to ship your merchandise at once because . . . “ list a series of possible problems so that one or more can be circled, underlined, or checked off. Some suggestions: Payment has not been received. We no longer fill C.O.D. orders—please send a check or money order. We do not have a complete shipping address; a description of the enclosed merchandise; a copy of the sales slip, invoice, or shipping label; an explanation of why you’re returning it; your request for a refund, credit to your account, or replacement merchandise, an expression of appreciation. If returning the merchandise is difficult (in the case of a large appliance, for example), write first and ask how it should be returned. Always ask for (although you may not always get) reimbursement for your shipping costs.

 

When you are canceling a prepaid order or when asking for a refund, give all possible information: order/invoice/reference number, date of order, description of merchandise. Specify whether your payment should be returned to you as cash or check, as a credit to your account or your bank card (if you charged it), or as a credit to your company’s account.

 

Arrange your order on the page so that it can be deciphered at a glance. Instead of phrasing an order as a long sentence, arrange the information in columns. Set off data so as to be quickly read—there will be a similar chance of error in your order.

 

If you need merchandise or supplies by a certain date, state it clearly. By making explicit in your letter the importance of the delivery date, you will in most instances be able to cancel the order without forfeiture if you fail to receive it in time; the letter can serve as an informal contract.

 

If your first order should go astray and you send in a second, emphasize that it is a duplicate order. Too often, the first order eventually turns up and is also filled.

 

Orders were made for forms, and vice versa. Although no two order forms are precisely alike, a few items are standard: customer’s name, business name or title, address, postal code, and telephone number with area code; customer’s account number; description of merchandise, page where it appears in catalog (optional), quantity wanted, size, color, type; monogram or personalization; price per unit; total price for each item; shipping and handling chart; sales tax information; amount enclosed; shipping information (options available plus approximate length of shipping time); space for bank card number, expiration date; and signature; spaces for signatures from purchasing department or other authorization.

 

Individualized letters dealing with orders are generally typed on letterhead or memo stationery.

 

If writing about a personal order from your home, a handwritten note is acceptable if clearly written.

 

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, Line of Sight