The Conversation:
Mailing It In

By Scott Gerschwer, OutputLinks

The 2010 National Postal Forum (NPF) at the Gaylord Opryland Convention Center in Nashville, Tenn. ends April 14. It seems like a good occasion to talk some more about the power (and future) of mail.

I know a sales person who has a very high close rate. The guy is great. He closes about 95 percent of the opportunities he sits down on…a superb record. He can dissect your business needs in a matter of minutes and come up with a number of solid solutions. He’s a great listener, experienced, sharp and very funny and engaging.

Yet he doesn’t make as many sales as he should. Why? Because his company has lousy marketing with an awful approach to lead generation. They rely on email.

Oh, what he could do if they only switched to mail.

Here’s a little something for him, his VP Marketing, and all of you who aren’t currently engaging in a conversation with your customers via the mail box.

Inboxes have never been so loaded. Mailboxes have rarely been so empty.

If your company is like his, you have great sales people. Your goal should be to get the door opened so that a conversation can happen. The sales team will take it from there. And this is how you do it:

Write a one or two-page letter.

Don’t pitch anything. Don’t even talk about products. Just say hello. How are you?

With honesty and passion.

Maybe offer them an incentive to give you feedback (an iTunes gift card is generally good). Think about it:

Your competition is probably sending out glossy brochures that say little and look like every other brochure out there. Or they try to prime the pump with a white paper that is written in a dry, lifeless business-like manner that says nothing particularly interesting and offers very little insight and even fewer benefits for the reader. That’s just ego.

So you just send a simple letter and say hello how are you.

I wrote one of these for a client and got an 18% response rate. They have a very good salesperson (for whom I ghostwrote the letter) and he’s out there closing deals.

Here’s how you do it:

Put the FREE OFFER incentive right up on top. The word “free” catches the eye. “Buy One Get One FREE” out-pulls “2-1” every time. Free is the key word.

Make it a personal letter.

Say something timely about the industry or business or even about the city they are in. It’s early baseball season and many fans in many cities still have hope. That makes for a nice opener. Something about their local team. Or something else that happened there. All business is local. All business is personal.

And then just tell them who you are (personally, not your company) and that you wanted to touch base. You are also just checking in to see if they are 110% Happy with the way things are going for them….segue into some trend or business condition you have observed in the industry.

And then tell them that your success depends on you making your customers happy and that you’d like them to help you make your customers happy. Remember, it’s a personal request. 

And tell them how you would like to come in and sit down with them and see if they are seeing the same thing you are…and how you don’t want to sell them anything  and that there is no obligation or catch—you’d just like to talk about how things are going. To do your job better you would benefit from some feedback. And that you’ll give them that free gift if they reply.

“You tell me what you want from me. How you want to deal with me. When you want me to be there. How you prefer to hear from me…”

And close the letter with a thank you and a reminder that you are here for them and want to know how you can best serve them.

And in the PS mention that no obligation free gift again.

Do it in the mail. You’ll be amazed at how well it works.

And after you try it please let me know how you did. I’d love to hear all about it.

Feedback? E-mail press@OutputLinks.com.