Maurice arrived bright and early at the office having left
the copies of Gerald’s direct mail files at home and sat down to plan a direct
mail campaign of his own. He called the
printer and asked for a quotation on how much it would cost to print envelopes
that had a clear window and the word “Telegram” printed
on them. He decided that he was going to
send promotional passport holders to
all the people on a mailing list he had purchased all of whom had expressed an
interest in holidays.
He called Antony Showman at Zest Promotional and asked if he
had any promotional passport holders that could be printed with “Passport”
fairly high up so that it would show through the window in the envelope. Antony told him that the Belluno PU Passport Holders would probably be the best choice
because they were lightweight and came in a range of colours which included the
blue Global C.O.N.S brand colour. Antony
asked Maurice whether there had been any progress on changing the name of the
company and Maurice said he was working on it.
Within a couple of hours the quotes came in from both the
printer and Zest Promotional and Maurice was very pleased because the prices
were exceptionally reasonable. Zest
Promotional had sent him through a sample of one of the Belluno PU Promotional Passport Holders and it was ideal for the direct mail
campaign.
Maurice then called
Gerald’s mailing company in Wales and told them that he needed a price for
sending out 100,000 letters which would be supplied with envelopes and promotional passport holders that would
need to be inserted into them. A guy who
sounded like a cross between a used car salesmen and an estate agent said “Well
mate, that’s going to be a bit pricey”.
Maurice replied “I am not your mate, I am simply asking for
a quotation on this job. If it comes in
pricier than I think it should be I’ll be looking for other quotes”.
“Who are you anyway?” responded the man.
“Who are you?” asked Maurice
“I’m Gordon and usually I deal with Gerald at Global
C.O.N.S. so who are you?”
“I’m the Assistant Marketing Director” said Maurice“ and I
work for Gerald.”
“Oh right, so he knows about this does he?” said Gordon “No
problem, do you want me to add on the normal £25,000?”
Maurice had just had his worst suspicions confirmed and
nearly choked as he asked “Is that the normal figure you add on?”
“Oh yes mate, but we can put on a bit more if you want.”
Maurice told him that if this was the normal rate then he
should just carry on as usual, asking Gordon to make sure that he included a
timeframe for inserting the letters and
promotional passport holders into the envelopes when he sent in his
quotation, which was needed as quickly as possible.
After the conversation had ended Maurice sat at his desk
stunned. When he’d gone through Gerald’s
files at home he had half suspected that something like this was going on but
the scale of it was unbelievable.
£25,000 of the company’s money was being added to the price of every
mailshot and there had to be a reason for it. The problem was that now he was in possession
of this information he really didn’t know what to do with it.
A couple of days later the quote came in from Gordon and it
was astronomical. Maurice had actually
sent out for two other quotes and both were in the same ballpark undercutting
Gordon by £30,000. Whilst waiting for
these quotes Maurice hadn’t slept very well and had discussed the matter with
his wife. She couldn’t offer any constructive
advice because if he told the Project Manager about the blatant theft of
company money, he would be going over Gerald’s head. If he mentioned it to Gerald there was every
possibility that a way would be found to get Maurice fired. His wife told him to be careful because it
was possible that the Project Manager already knew about it and was taking a
cut from the money.
Ever loyal to his employers this knowledge played on
Maurice’s conscience for days. The first
thing he decided to do was give the direct mail work to a local company in
Hertfordshire, because being responsible for his own marketing budget he could
not justify paying what really amounted to £50,000 over the odds and he made a
further saving with Zest Promotional because they offered to deliver the promotional passport holders direct to
the mailing company free of charge because it was such a large order.
We are interested in what you would do in Maurice’s
position, so feel free to post your comments on our blog, and next week we’ll
tell you what he actually did ……………………………………………
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