Do Business Well

‘It’s fun being in the same decade as you.’

Think back over the past month. Did anyone do anything for you that was kind, helpful or considerate that you now feel was worthy of a thank-you note — but you didn’t send one? Could writing a note now come more easily, realising that it makes you virtually unique in this marketplace? For the cost of a card and a postage stamp you become memorable. And I mean a postage stamp, not a swift pass through the franking machine.

Mark the envelope ‘personal’, address it as neatly as you can, put a proper stamp on it, and it will slip straight through to the recipient’s desk. Your card will give pleasure that day and you will be remembered for sending it.

Recently I received two personal notes, one to say ‘thank you’ for a lunch and the other from a dentist. Both were handwritten. The first was a very elegant card. The second was a note on a company letterhead in which the doctor welcomed me to his practice. The card is up on the bookshelf; the dentist’s company letterhead is sadly in the bin.

While I was enormously impressed that the dentist sent me a handwritten note, it was hard to put it anywhere but in the bin. Not so with the card. Grab the occasion to send cards that people will display and always remember you by.

All over the world, people have told me they have contacted everyone once and have not liked to go back because they did not know what to say next. I had exactly the same experience when I represented the Peninsula Hotel Group Hong Kong as their regional sales manager in Australia. I called on the entire travel industry, distributed brochures and price lists for the many Peninsula Group properties in Asia, received a lot of commitment to use the hotels and then nothing much happened!

The sales manager at Cathay Pacific (where I had my office) told me to go back and do the same thing all over again. I did, it worked and that is what I now recommend. Do the same thing over and over again until the message gets through. Step 8 will help you do that.

Key points to remember

• Develop an outstanding corporate sound. Ring your own company and hear how your staff-handle enquiries. Look upon your phone calls to clients and prospects as one-act plays designed to give them pleasure, thereby benefitingyou.
• Never sell on the first phone call; the first call is only to set up an appointment. Remember to use your single-minded proposition to tell your prospect why he should give youthe appointment.
• Always start with the head of any corporation with whom you want to do business. You can get passed down an organisation but not up.
• Say ‘Thank you’ in a memorable way. Always send a card when thanks are due. Use cards also to say, ‘Sorry I missed you.’ Use cards as invitations, reminders or just to say ‘Hello.’ Make sure the card matches the corporate image you display. There are some very attractive cards around — buy them, track down the publisher from the information on the back of the card, and purchase the cards from them at wholesale rates.

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Think back — and make thank-you cards your `policy’, now and forever

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