It is time for the Spring and Summer direct sales catalogs to be published. What do you do with your old fall and winter books if you have leftover catalogues? The easiest solution is to simply have no leftovers. Work your business to talk to people every day or, at the very least, do direct mail to introduce new customers to your product offering.

Although, assuming you haven’t done that and you find yourself with leftover catalogues, now what?

I still use them.

Leave them in places like public restrooms, shopping carts, in the stands when you get up from a sporting event, or in the foyer of a waiting room. I personally wouldn’t recommend handing someone an old catalog, that just makes it unprofessional. However, leaving places to them would be acceptable, and here’s why:

Leaving catalogs anonymously does not generate many calls or sales. It’s better than throwing them away yourself; but let’s face it, the odds are high that it could still end up in the trash if you leave it somewhere. However, there’s a chance it could lead to something and it costs you nothing, there’s no risk involved, especially if it’s an outdated catalog.

If someone is interested, they will contact you. The prospect or customer is likely to first visit your website and if new products are now offered, they will see it on the website as well. If she calls and wants to order a product that’s no longer available, she just says, “Oh, you must have an older catalog; let me get you a current one.”

Some direct sales gurus will suggest that you put a corny poem on the cover of the catalog or, at the very least, a sticker indicating that it is an old book. I disagree with this suggestion, and here’s why:

Cost, time, return and image.

It will cost you money from your earnings to buy and use labels and ink. It will also cost you valuable time to print and label old catalogs, time you should have spent last month working your business to dispose of them while they were still on time.

As mentioned above, there is very little return on scattering catalogs around the city. To be effective, you really need the added element of personal interaction. Don’t throw good money after bad. They are already old catalogues; you’re just waiting for the slim chance that you might pick up a new customer if you drop it in public or if you drop it in public. leave them in your trash can.

You may think you’re being a helpful consultant by placing a poem or “this is an old catalog” notice in the book, but consider this: Instead of appearing to act in order, send a message of “I haven’t been working on my business like I should have during the fall and winter – the busiest gift-giving season for my business, even I couldn’t sell during that time, so now I have all these books left over and even though I ordered too many or just didn’t talk to anyone about the fabulous product deals I have, I hope you’ll see this cute poem, yes I know it makes me look cheap telling you I have old books, but please do me a favor and please Please buy me something because I’m not much of a sales consultant, or I wouldn’t have to sell you my old catalogues.”

Maybe you’ve never seen it that way before. Direct sales is a huge industry, but being successful requires juggling many tasks and working your business constantly, not sporadically. It requires you to work smarter, not harder. So forget about putting little stickers on your old catalogues.

Just drop them off in places where someone can pick one up and hope for the best. You now have six months of the current catalog to manage your book inventory and make sure you don’t run out of extras in the fall.