I originally posted this a while back and thought it might be time to repeat the lesson 🙂
If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you should know by now that I’m a big advocate of the handwritten thank you note!
By now you’re probably sick of hearing me say things like . . .
“They help you stand out”
“They help get you back on your prospect’s “mental radar’”
And now we get to add . . . “Save your butt”
Read on . . .
The other day, I submitted a proposal to speak at a sales conference on the west coast.
I immediately sent my handwritten thank you. In fact, gold star for Uncle Paul because I actually sent it from the road because I always carry my blank cards for just such an emergency!
The card went out on Friday.
Monday I’m off in airports flying out to train jedis in Detroit and low and freakin behold, I have a message waiting for me.
Its from the lady I sent the thank you card to on Friday thanking me for my thank you (I love that part of sending thank you’s) but she was confused.
She was confused because we had this nice chat.
She received my lovely thank you (I don’t know if she use the word lovely but I feel this urge to embrace my inner “That’s lovely” side.)
But . . .
She never received my quote.
Right away, I’m feeling like an ass.
I’m thinking that maybe, in some Nyquil induced trance, perhaps I thought I sent her the proposal. Note: Nyquil does that to sales people not to mention that for an entire day I once thought I was Conan O’Brien but I’m digressing.
I go to check my email sent box and discover I now have an email from my contact telling me she found my proposal which had been swallowed up by her spam folder.
I believe it was my thank you that made her look for the proposal.
If it weren’t for the thank you she might have thought I just blew off the opportunity and moved on!
Decisions as well as first impressions happen that quickly!
Note: I know what you’re thinking. “But if you followed up with her it would have been caught at that point”
It wasn’t time to follow up yet.
Based on our discussion and the things she had on her plate, I was still a good 24-48 hours out from that but . . .
If she had been thinking that I blew off the opportunity . . .
I might already be dead and the opportunity awarded to someone else like some dude doing shadow puppets or “Mr Sock” or something.
Business has a way of moving that fast!
I think that alone could serve as yet another reason why we must take the time to send these handwritten thank you’s.
Your turn . . .
Are handwritten thank you notes a regular part of your post call action items?
