Relationship Marketing

The power of a Thank You Card

 in Gratitude / Thank You Cards / Uncategorized  tagged Gratitude / Relationship Marketing by

The power of a Thank You Card

Expertise and Professionalism – sometimes they’re just not enough, but a Thank You Card can really make the difference.

Not long ago I met Eric. Eric is an up and coming young chartered accountant who has recently branched out on his own. He is at the stage of development and growth where he has enough clients to make it all worthwhile and risk moving into better premises and looking more professional, but with one little problem. You see, he had picked up the vibe that one of his key client companies, a partnership actually, were looking at other pastures so to speak.

His real problem had been that while their relationship had always been amenable, there has always been an undertow of tension and coldness, probably due to differences in their personalities. He knew they were happy with his expertise and professionalism but they just didn’t seem to gel.

Eric had learnt that one of the partners had a birthday coming up, and so with a little prompting from me, he sent him a birthday card and to the other partner, a thank you card, simply saying that he valued their association and having them as clients.

And remember, at this critical juncture, he couldn’t really afford to be losing any clients.

A few days later he got a call from the birthday partner thanking him for his birthday card and acknowledging the thank you card, and also how much they appreciated getting them. Things seemed to be improving.

Thank You Card

Well. At the next scheduled meeting with his clients, Eric was quite taken aback. What had happened here? They were most welcoming; he was greeted with a firm, warm and friendly handshake. He was then told how he was the only person outside of family that had acknowledged the partners birthday. Even his business partner had forgotten until he saw him opening his card.

They also thanked him for his gratitude and the thank you card. They told him they had been looking around for another firm to work with, but they now wanted to stay put. Wow, a little card, expressing a little bit of thanks saved a valuable client and built a stronger relationship. More than worth the effort I’d say! Wouldn’t you?   

If you would like more information please contact us. 

Ron and Sue

Good Luck – Could Gratitude be the key to good luck?

 in Gratitude / Uncategorized  tagged Gratitude / Relationship Marketing by

Is there more to success than just good luck?

Could Gratitude be the key to good luck?

In town, there lives a man who is very well known in the community. He is a community leader, has a successful business and he has been married for over forty years to his beautiful and only wife. He has a family who love and respect him and actually like to spend time with him. He gives generously of his time and money. Many say his success is due to good luck.  

He believes he is extremely fortunate and that life and God have looked after him very well, so he says that he likes to give back and he does this all the time and he does it well, he doesn’t hold back.

He has a little weakness though; he loves to buy raffle tickets. When he buys them he doesn’t buy just one or two, he’ll buy 20 or 30 or he’ll buy the book. Now, this is important, so take note, he doesn’t buy that many to improve his chances of winning, he really doesn’t care whether he wins or not, he doesn’t do it to big note himself or show-off, NO, instead he buys them to support the cause, it’s to pay back, to express his appreciation and as an active demonstration of his gratitude.  (more…)

Ron and Sue

Communication – How are YOUR communication skills standing up?

 in Business  tagged Relationship Marketing / Relationship Marketing Made Easy by

How are YOUR communication skills standing up?

Just like in dancing – are you doing the Tango or the Mis-fango?

This is something to seriously consider! Earlier I wrote about people not responding to modern communication systems in my piece “Are you getting through?” where essentially it was revealed that most people are just not responding to your phone calls and emails etc.

Are you one of the guilty ones and what is this costing your business?

This is a sample of some of my attempts to communicate over the last couple of weeks.

I phoned a friend and associate to give him a red hot lead and got his answer machine, where I left a message to give me a call. I’m still waiting and the red hot lead has gone elsewhere.

Contacted a company with a question that when answered would in all probability result in a sale. Since I contacted them (coincidentally?) I have received two sales prospecting calls from them, (where I deliberately did not restate my question) but I am still waiting for someone to contact me with the answer to my question. Some other company it seems will soon be getting some business.

My second car runs out of rego shortly and I have decided to retire it from service. I have rung two local wreckers who advertise in the local rag wanting to buy old cars. Both went to answer machines and both still have not returned my call. On a second call I hung up before the machine cut in to cause a missed call message. Still no answer.

I have attempted to follow up four new contacts from a recent networking event. I have left phone messages and emails asking them to make contact with me. None have! Do you think any offer of a future JV might be forthcoming?

I ran into one of them yesterday and mentioned my messages. Boy was I surprised at the reply. “I have better things to do than chase after people trying to sell me something.” I thought I was making contact to help build a relationship and sure it would be great if it lead to a sale.

By the way, perhaps I should mention that other calls have been responded to with generally a good result for both parties.

It is true that sometimes calls etc being made to us are to try to sell us something and sometimes this can be frustrating, even for those of us who make our living selling, which really is everyone in business. But as you can glean from my examples above none of them were actually sales directed, in fact in one case it was to put an easy sale in his lap.

See what I mean, if your end of a communication is not happening, it could be costing you dearly. Just like in dancing – it takes two to Tango!

communication

Ron and Sue