After the Sale

       Is your sincere thank you the end of the sale? NO. How you treat your customer after the sale is crucial to the success of your business.People do business with people who they know and trust.Encouraging them to be repeat customers is much easier, and less expensive, than cultivating new customers.

       Absolutely essential is a Thank You Note, within three days.  This applies to both business and personal transactions. If you only do business on the internet you might get away with email; hopefully not an auto responder that is cold and generic.  Someone in your Organization should be in charge of making sure this is done properly.

       Smaller Organization s can easily add this activity to their work flow. They also have more of an opportunity for personalization.  The people who actually interacted with the client should be sending out the thank you notes, or gifts where appropriate; that's all part of relationship building.

       The really smart salesperson will take the time to hand write (horrors!) and personalize their ThankYou notes.  Include a comment that indicates that you were really paying attention. Send it by snail mail; your message will stand out because hand written mail is so rare today in our electronic age.

       Then, depending on the lifespan of your product, you should contact your customer again.  I don't however recommend a Christmas/Holiday card; your message will get lost in the pile.  Try any other holiday or regular event, like daylight savings time or the change of the seasons. And, of course, don't miss their birthday or any articles you see written about them.  That gives you at least two contacts per year, three if you send holiday cards.

       Seasoned, successful salesmen/women also pick up the phone occasionally.  "Just thinking of you", "this reminded me of you", or congratulations on your new position/baby/whatever. 

These professionals have worked with these same customers or clients for several years and sometimes even multiple generations.        

       Think of the security of knowing that half your income is already made for the year because of this business that you have cultivated, tended, and watched grow.  You can now spend your time planting the seeds of new customers to grow your business.

Do You Still Know How to Write?

How often have you seen a teen without a cell phone? And how many of them are texting messages to their friends. The cell phone has definitely become a way of life. Besides the normal questions of etiquette, distraction and just plain rudeness there are two other questions to explore.

The first has to do with communication styles. I don’t understand why someone would send a text message when they can just as easily make a call from the same equipment. Don’t people like to talk to each other any more? Have we totally lost the need to reach out and connect with other people? One young man I recently saw on TV, who was getting ready to go to Marine boot camp, was perplexed about not being able to use his phone with him. He readily admitted to 17,000 text messages per month; yes 17 THOUSAND. He must never talk to anyone or do anything besides texting.

The second challenge this young man will have to face is also a problem for a lot of people. Does he know how to write a letter? One of quandaries of text messages is the shortened language form. For ease of use most words have been shortened, or just represented with letters. Will this young man, or anyone else for that matter, be able to translate the abbreviations back into proper English. How will they communicate with the folks back home or any offices or services where they need help? I doubt that the Marines will accept text messages for inquiries. The chance of him having a cell phone available on duty is also very slim. How does he expect to keep in touch with his world?

I do appreciate that cell phones, with their texting technologies are a great tool. However, there is a time and place. The technology is being abused. They have even evolved into a Twitter world where 140 characters can convey your message. It is a quick and easy way to spread the word of any event in real time. But to just use the technology on a whim, or as a toy, defeats its purpose and dilutes our communication skills to a debilitating degree.