The following is an excerpt from: James Obermayer, Managing Sales Leads: Turning Cold Prospects Into Hot Customers, (Mason, Ohio, Textere an imprint of Thomson/South-Western, 2007) and Racom Books, Page 155 

The most common mistakes in literature packages are:

1. The literature arrives too late. I was at a home improvement show last year and asked for literature from about 50 companies. The average response time was about three weeks. Only a few took the time to send out what I asked for within a day or so. Some companies took six months or longer to send me what I requested. Send literature within three days of the show’s end. No exceptions.

2. The company does not put a statement on the envelope that says “This is the literature you requested” or some such statement.

3. The company sends non-requested literature.

4. They send photocopied literature.

5. There is no sales letter inside the package.

6. The letter is there, but it is poorly written and doesn’t sell. It is often photocopied.

7. Large-format brochures that should not be folded are stuffed into a number 10 or a 6”x 9” envelope.

8. There isn’t any information about where to buy the product - no list of dealers or representatives or an enclosed business card.

9. There isn’t a business reply card in the package. It isn’t unusual that a package of literature is stored for future viewing. If there is a business reply card in the package, it will be used about 2% to 5% of the time at a later date.
 

James Obermayer is a principal in Sales Leakage Consulting, Inc., an Orange County California based sales and marketing strategy consulting company, and a principal of Cerius Consulting. He specializes in helping small to medium-size companies identify sales and marketing leakage issues that stifle sales growth and waste valuable marketing dollars.

Obermayer is also an author of  "Managing Sales Leads, Turning Cold Prospects into Hot Customers" and "Sales & Marketing 365".  He is also co-author of "Managing Sales Leads, How to Turn Every Prospect into a Customer".  In addition, he has written more than 80 articles on sales and marketing management. 

He is a frequent speaker at conferences and training seminars for such organizations as the Direct Marketing Association and the American Marketing Association and at corporate sales meetings. Obermayer speaks on range of topics from Marketing ROI to stimulating salespeople to follow-up sales leads. Read more.