We all have something we could improve in our lives, whether it’s going to the gym, getting enough sleep, or eating better. As a salesperson, sending out handwritten notes for customer follow-up certainly falls into this bucket for most of us. Getting started is always the most difficult part but trust me, it will pay off.
If you are considering implementing handwritten notes in your prospecting or customer engagement process, here are some tips to help you get started writing more notes and tracking the success of your efforts.
Start With Who
The first thing I recommend doing is deciding who are the top 10 people you want to write a note to. If you are an account executive, pick your top prospects that you’ve been trying to connect with. If you are an account manager, pick your top 10 current clients or 10 of your past clients who haven’t purchased in the past few months.
To make getting started as easy as possible, I recommend picking recipients who you already have addresses on file for. Writing the notes will take long enough and you won’t want to take more time mining for the correct addresses.
Create Your Message
This is where the rubber meets the road and is often the most time-consuming aspect of writing notes. Here are my top tips for creating your message.
- Keep it short. The fact that you’ve written them a note by hand and put it in the mail shows that you care. There is no need to write a full letter. Keep it short and sincere.
- Make it (somewhat) universal. Writing the perfect handwritten note isn’t easy and having to create 10 completely unique messages could take hours. Create a message that speaks to your voice and the value you add. By creating a single message will help you move through the writing process quicker and easier.
You can tweak your message copy for the next 10 recipients. This will help you hone in on which message copy resonates the best over time and help you make things easier in the long run. If possible, type out your message and record who received each message via your preferred CRM or wherever you keep your digital notes.
Write Your Notes and Follow Up
Now that you’ve done all the prep work, it’s time to write your notes. Put on some relaxing music, grab a cup of coffee and start writing. Make sure you have a few extra pieces of stationery on hand for mistakes. If you don’t write all the time you’re bound to make a couple so think of the first couple notes as practice.
Depending on what you are looking to achieve with your handwritten notes, I highly recommend adding a follow-up touch to the recipients. It can be something as simple as a quick email to confirm if the recipient received your note or a phone call to check-in and say hello. In my personal experience, these follow-up conversations tend to be much more warmly accepted and appreciated after they receive your note.
Keep in mind, handwritten notes don’t always need to accompany a motive! Sometimes it just feels good knowing you brightened up someone’s day and they will not soon forget!