Know-How Exchange : Other

Jong,

you have been so helpful to me I would like to reciprocate by sharing real life experience from a sales positions I held.

Q) Is there an official and/or ideal format that should be used for this catalog?

A) Not necessarily. I've seen product catalogs in a couple of formats but when I sold Burglar Alarm, Camera, Access & Fire Systems as a security consultant for SBC AMERITECH our product catalogs were primarily for us but we also used them on offsite visits and meetings with clients. Our Product catalog was hard binder with tabs to separate the product categories.

Q) For example, can the table of contents be placed in front of the first tab (Company Overview)?

A) Yes our table of contents was in front of the first tab and I think a table of contents should always come before a description of product.

Again jong this is just from my experience in the security industry. However my experience in the education and the professional & personal development industry has shown table of contents before an overview or product. Is there anything else I can do for you?

Your Servant, Deremiah, *CPE (Customer Passion Evangelist)

Most of the binders similar to this which I have seen consist of a table of contents which is printed and inserted IN FRONT OF the first tab, and uses standard numbered tabs you can buy in an office supply store. If you set up each "chapter" as a separate document in Microsoft word, you can open word and input the number you would like the outline to begin with. For example, the contents of the binder would be different for a customer vs a salesperson vs a rep, and so you could easily modify the material in any packet, or use some of the same material (e.g. company overview) as part of a detailed proposal or part of a marketing plan.