Do brochures — long accused of lacking intimacy — have a place in direct-mail fundraising?

By Jerry Huntsinger

To illustrate, let me go back to a summer during my college days when I sold Airolite storm windows in suburban Cincinnati. My first day on the job I was coached by a successful old geezer who smoked a pipe and never wore a necktie.

He took me with him on a sales call and said: “Shut up and just watch. If we knock on the door and they open it, that’s a good beginning. If they open the door wide and stand in front of the screen door, that’s even better. If they let us measure one of their windows, then we have a chance to make a sale.