Show Them You Know Them with #Samsales
Sales Influencer Samantha McKenna discusses why handwritten sales outreach brings in the deals.
Samantha McKenna, Founder of #samsales Consulting, LinkedIn Expert, Sales Trainer, philanthropist (and so much more!), piqued our interest when she posted on LinkedIn about the importance of sending handwritten notes for sales reps. We sat down to a chat to find out more.
I loved your posts on LinkedIn about sending a handwritten thank you note. Can we dive into why this is an essential sales tactic?
I think the handwritten thank you note applies in many different ways. I'm originally from Switzerland and then went to Swiss finishing school. My parents instilled in me very early the importance of manners; even when I was four or five, I got very upset when my friends would come over and wouldn't say hello, and goodbye.
Manners, for me, have always bled through everything in my life, particularly sales, and that's where the handwritten thank you note comes in. Even though we talk about how important handwritten notes are, people just don't do it anymore. Moreover, they feel uncomfortable asking for somebody's home address in our day and age.
A handwritten thank you note should go out when we have signed a new client without fail. Somebody has agreed to give you their business, and they want to trust you with their challenges. Let's show gratitude for that and send a handwritten note. I think it also applies to the sales cycle.
When you have an incredible first meeting, you have all your players there, you know you've got the budget, you've got your decision-makers, you've got a specific challenge - why not send just a handwritten thank you note earlier early on, especially if you are competing with other people! What a great way to stand out!
Another way to stand out is the idea of sending a handwritten thank you note when you lose the deal. It is probably one of my favorite things to do. I think moreover, because it genuinely surprises people - it shocks them! I am grateful for any conversation I have and any sales process we go through. As much as I want to win their business, we just don't all the time, and I want to show gratitude for the opportunity we even had to bid on the business.
Sending that handwritten thank you note is amazing for a few reasons:
The shock and awe - I love it.
The person that won the deal is probably not sending a handwritten thank you, so when your buyer gets that right, and they're like, wait, the person that I signed with didn't even send me anything - the person who lost the deal did it really stands out in their mind.
We know things don't go according to plan when we choose somebody to buy from. Let's say things don't go according to plan, and the prospect must go with a vendor. They're not going to go and re-farm this out and do another RFP or go back to everybody. They will remember you.
People change jobs, that buyer will change careers, and keeping track of that by sending a handwritten thank you note and building that relationship will mean everything for the future.
How do you get their home address? Simply ask to send something their way in the mail, i.e., Could you share your best mailing address with me?
Asking for mailing addresses is slightly less creepy than ‘Where do you live?’.
What types of success and relationships have you been able to build by using your handwritten notes and personalizing things a little more?
One of the things I always hear from our clients that stands out is that it truly feels like I care about what is going on in their life, and they feel like I care about their challenges.
One thing that I always talk about with how we work with our clients is it's not the idea of being able to sell our products. It's the idea of being able to solve their challenge. We have one job to do on a discovery call; tell me what your issues are, and let me figure out if we can solve them. If not, we can go and think about how we might know somebody that we can refer you to or somebody else that can help you solve it.
That's where the handwritten thank you notes come into play that I care. I really think about how to build these relationships for the long term, or that I'm a consultant, and try to think about what else your challenges are. We might not be the right fit for you right now. Let's think about what we can do to get you some help. I'm not only focused on getting to my end goal and hoping that you'll be part of that journey, but that it's really just about you. If we shift that mindset in sales, we'll build better relationships; we'll have people refer us even if they don't buy us and work with us. They're going to remember the experience of working with us.
What are your top tips for building better relationships with your clients?
Come to every engagement thinking about their challenge. The question I always like to start a conversation with is this: ‘I could tell you a million things about us. But I'd love to hear about you first. Tell me about your team, your challenges, and the overall landscape on your side, if that's okay?’ I'm saying I'm going to sit back, and you tell me what's happening. Number one, care about them.
I like to think about the manners aspect even before that first call. We've got one time to set the first impression, so if somebody writes us back or comes in as an inbound lead and says we'd like a meeting, I think about three things:
- I never ever, ever set the meeting invite before I send a note of gratitude first. If somebody writes back, I first say thank you so much for your response. I can't wait to meet with you.
- The second thing I'll do to build up a better relationship is to think about what the meeting invite looks like - making sure there's an agenda in there, making sure the name comes first to see a lot of people who say ‘Samsales initial discussion.’ I'm like, Who are you? And what's the initial discussion about?
- The other thing to think about is connecting on LinkedIn. I always like to allow them to make that connection to let them do research on me in advance and have the opportunity to get to know each other a little bit, even before the meeting.I find that a lot of reps make this very critical mistake. So let's say we write a lovely personalized email talking about somebody's hometown, for example. When the buyer writes back and connects with us on that personalization, say I'd love to meet and send an invite for this date and time. What I find most reps do is even if they write back the note before sending the invite, they write back and say, ‘Thursday sounds great, thanks.’ They forget to connect about the thing that the person responded to you about. So continue to connect with them. Make sure you show you’re here to build that personal relationship. You’re not just using this in a cheesy way to get you to the finish line.
The final thing, and I think this applies to leadership and sales. I have a little black book of facts about our clients and facts about my reports. So who are they, and where did they grow up? Do they have jobs, or do they have children? What have they shared with me if a dog is barking in the background - I'm going to show genuine interest and curiosity, and then there's only so much room in my brain. So I'll write that down. It's written down, and I can just do my research and show you that I know you before we get on the call.
Catch more of Sam McKenna’s sales tips and tricks on her website.
