Go Retro

The goal is to stay forever in the forefront of your customers' minds and to keep their positive word of mouth working for you in ways that help you sustain and grow your success. There are two very old-school ways of connecting and reconnecting that, as technology grows as the common choice for communication, become progressively more powerful and effective.

Sometimes the most powerful way to magnetize (or remagnetize) our business is through the ways we connect with our customers. Certainly, if we want our customers to be sending a steady stream of new customers our way, we have to constantly, and appropriately, reach out to connect.

There are a thousand ways to connect digitally and electronically, and by the time this book comes out, you are probably connecting with your customers holographically. Good for you. I'm all for it. Leave no connection resource stone unturned.

But in a world of texts, e-mails, posts, and tweets, there are two ways of connecting that stand out in terms of impact, power, and effectiveness, and they both are decidedly retro:

Get face-to-face.

Send a handwritten note.

Get Face-to-Face

Many years ago there was a commercial for an airline that featured a business owner telling his employees that they were losing customers from inattention. He tells them that one of their best and oldest customers had called to tell him that the company had lost touch and that the customer felt taken for granted.

The owner went around the room, handing plane tickets to each employee, telling them they were going to go see their customers and reconnect with all of them. One of his employees asked, “Where are you going, boss?” The owner replied, “To see that old customer that called me.”

It was a lovely, touching commercial that drove home the idea that there is nothing more powerful than making a personal, face-to-face connection. Do you believe truly personal connections are still that powerful in this age of texting, e-mail, LinkedIn, Twitter, and all of the electronic options we have at our fingertips? Well, please believe it, because the evidence shows that you can use it not only to remagnetize your business, but to create a distinct differentiation between you and your competition.

Make no mistake, I am the biggest fan in the world of electronic communication. My preferred method of everyday business and even personal communication is e-mail (not texting, although I do progressively more of that as time goes by). What I love about e-mail vs. phone calls is that e-mail forces the process of getting clarity on your thoughts so that you can put them in writing. Of course, the weakness of e-mail, texting, or other forms of electronic communication is the lack of emotional context.

There's no need to belabor the impact that a face-to-face encounter has in today's world of communication via screens. I'll give you two real world examples that make the obvious point.

Practice Retail Politics

As I write this book there's a mayoral race going on in Nashville. There are seven viable candidates, and the good news is that any of them would make a good mayor. There are no glaring differences in policy positions among them; most of the differences are a matter of degree. Beyond advertising, robo-calls (which we all hate), PR, and e-mails, how does a candidate in a crowded field stand out to a voter like me?

You knock on my door on a Saturday afternoon and spend 15 minutes asking what's important to us as citizens of Nashville. Then you answer any questions we might have about your positions. You take a lot of time to make that very personal face-to-face connection. That's what one candidate did, and it made a huge and very positive impression.

Before the election's over, other candidates might knock on my door and look me in the eye. I hope so. We'll see.

By the way, this particular mayoral candidate has a unique connection strategy on his campaign website. Here's his offer:

If you'd like to talk to me, all you need to do is schedule a time to have a quick call.

Here's my promise:

The call won't last more than 10 minutes.

I will give you the 30-second version of “Why I'm running.”

Then, you'll be in charge. You can ask me any question, and I'll answer 100 percent honestly.

Then, I get to ask you a question. That's it.

During presidential election campaigns we often hear the phrase “retail politics.” It means a political strategy or campaign style of meeting and speaking directly to as many voters as possible: New Hampshire is a state where retail politics makes the difference.

Every business could benefit from practicing its own version of more retail politics. Meet and speak directly with as many customers as possible. Of course, you have to determine what your version of that looks like, but it's worth the effort to figure it out.

My version of retail politics includes face-to-face connections with potential customers during the selling phase. In my business arena, companies often go through a vetting process in which a number of professionals who do what I do are under consideration for hiring. Often that process consists of a phone call and possibly the submission of written material from me and the others being considered.

If I have determined that this is business that I really want, I won't hesitate to offer to get on a plane and visit the prospect, for the sole purpose of determining whether we are a good fit. I won't say that it gets me the job 100 percent of the time, but suffice it to say that it works more than enough for it to be a regular strategy of mine.

The very fact that you are willing to spend the time and effort to seek someone out face-to-face instead of only through the Internet speaks volumes about your interest in them and your commitment to the relationship. It is, without question, one of the ultimate tiebreakers in business and one of the most magnetic things that you can do for your business.

Some will say that putting that much time into getting face-to-face with prospects is too expensive in terms of both money and time. That can certainly be true if you are selling retail and need pure volume that can only be generated by mass marketing. In my business, selling fairly big-ticket services business to business, I use face-to-face as a wildly effective and efficient way to close more business.

The Lost Art of the Handwritten Note

As electronic communication becomes more prevalent, the positive impact of a handwritten note becomes almost impossible to calculate. What used to be commonplace is now so unusual that it captures attention like no other form of communication or connection.

Earlier in the book I mentioned that I worked with a group of the top franchisees for a company, and part of our work was in sharing the most successful practices for business growth. Everyone knew who was the most successful franchisee in the room, and when it was his turn to share, there was great interest in what he would say.

“I send handwritten thank-you notes to my customers.”

That was it. In his 20 years in business, the single greatest growth strategy he had employed was the consistent use of handwritten thank-you notes. He said that it had gotten him more positive feedback and was the catalyst for more repeat and referral business than any other thing, except for the foundational element of doing exceptional work for each customer.

There's not a lot to say about handwritten notes except that they work better as a way to connect than anything else (with the possible exception of face-to-face) and you can start using the strategy now. If nothing else, if you're thinking right now that you aren't going to send handwritten notes, at least be clear on why you won't do it. A waste of time? Other things you can do that will have a greater impact on creating positive experiences for customers? My guess is that you're wrong about those two objections, but it's your decision. If, however, your reason is that you think it won't work, then I don't have a “guess” that you're wrong. You're just flat wrong.

As a final thought on the power of the handwritten note, consider using them in-house with your employees and colleagues. My friend Marty Grunder, whom I often reference as one of the best and smartest business thinkers and leaders I know, had this to say about his use of the handwritten note with his employees:

“Over last 30 years I have written hundreds of thank-you notes to members of our team—thanking them for specific things they have done well—sometimes taking a picture of what they did—with the note. I send these notes to their homes so that they can share them with family and see how much I appreciate what they do.”

The bottom line is that people are hungry to connect. Use that basic human need to build your business. Why on earth would you not?