Most salespeople send thank-you notes and Christmas cards to their clients. It’s a nice way to stay in touch, and it keeps your name in front of your clients. Unfortunately, most of these greetings are utterly routine—the same boring Christmas cards and the same impersonal thank-you notes that every salesperson sends. Most wind up in the garbage without a second thought.
Over the years, I’ve developed a unique mailing strategy that has become an important marketing tool for me. I want my mailings to send a message that I’m an informed, concerned salesperson—someone who really cares about my client’s well-being. That may sound like a tall order, but here are six ways that you can elevate your mailing above the routine:
1. Don’t send cards on the same holidays everyone else does. Everybody sends Christmas cards and birthday cards. I don’t like to get lost in the pack. I send cards to my clients on less traditional holidays, like the Fourth of July instead of Christmas. I’ve even sent out cards on Groundhog Day. Few, if any, other salespeople remember these occasions, so I really stand out when I do. I credit my friend Stanley Mills, one of the top real estate agents in Tennessee, for teaching me this technique.
2. Send a note even when you don’t get the sale. We all send thank-you notes when we close a deal. (At least I hope you’re all doing that by now!) But I will often send a note even when the deal falls through. I just want clients to know that I’m still in the market and that I will be for many years to come. You never know when they’ll need the services of a salesperson again. Often, the deal they’ve inked with somebody else falls through, and in those cases, I’m usually the first one they call simply because I’ve gone to so much trouble to stay in touch with them.
3. Send a note when you’ve been quoted in the news media. I take a lot of time to organize my press clippings. I like to send out copies by the thousands. Often I’ll scribble a little note that says, “Thought you might be interested in this issue.” Many of your competitors will send out simple thank-you notes, but hardly any of them will send a copy of a press clipping. It’s another way to help you stand out from the pack.
4. Send a note after you’ve met someone new. We’re constantly meeting new people, and I always carry around marketing material with me to give them. I hand out a couple thousand of my personal brochures a year to all sorts of people—restaurant servers, valet car parkers, people I meet at weddings and funerals. If, for some reason I can’t give something to them right away, I’ll ask for a business card from them and send something to their home or office. Remember, a salesperson succeeds in direct proportion to the number of people who know him. Even if your new acquaintance doesn’t seem like an immediate prospect, they may turn into prospects later. Sooner or later everyone needs a car, a home, a computer, clothes, insurance, or whatever you sell.
5. Send mail as a way to generate different kinds of income streams. In my office, we’ve developed a multitude of products that have proven helpful to both my clients and other salespeople. For clients, these include reports on “How to Ready Your Home for Sale” or “How to Buy a House with No Down Payment.” For salespeople, I generate training tapes and publications like “The 10 Biggest Mistakes I’ve Ever Made,” outlining how I’ve turned errors into a winning strategies. Many of my mailings include information on how to buy these products. So the mailing accomplishes two things. It keeps my name before the public while generating income.
6. Send out lots of different kinds of mailings. My mailings to clients include thank-you notes, birthday cards, press clippings, holiday greetings, follow-ups on previous contacts, and a whole lot more. You can turn almost anything into an occasion for a mailing. In my office, we mass mail an entire marketplace every month or so. It computes to hundreds of thousands of pieces of mail per year. But it’s all worth it because by now I’m the best-known salesperson in my market. When people think of buying or selling a home, I’m the one they think of first.