1. To transition from printed mailing piece to spoken, opening dialogue.
2. The person conducting the follow up phone calls felt less like a cold-caller and more like a selling professional who is following up with a promised call, on a tasteful, relevant direct mailing! 

The most frequent question raised by attendees at my sales prospecting seminars is: how do you know this copy and this greeting card selection will work?

My answer: I do not, but I do understand Human Nature. If you do something tastefully different with a whiff of imagination and you make a relevant point, mailed recipients will most often respond in a positive fashion when you call them.

Personalized greeting card mailing campaigns eliminate the cold-calling stigma. No matter how call reluctant or green a sales person,  this process has repeatedly achieved remarkable results.

In the course of my 32 years of conducting thousands of client direct mailing campaigns, I have dropped a few real direct mail bombs! 

For one client many years ago, who was selling $500,000 ocean-front condominiums, we created a very unique mailing piece with fine silica sand to remind recipients of their beautiful new ocean-front addresses nestled on the shores of one of Florida’s most pristine beaches. The accompanying 4-color glossy mailing piece and matching copy were brilliantly creative and printed on the most expensive paper.

The recipients never received their mailings! We failed to print ‘hand-cancel’ on each envelope. The Post Office sorting machines at the mail processing center ruptured some of the interior envelopes and literally ‘ground to a halt’ when the fine silica sand jammed their sensitive gears!  It happened with a few pieces so equipment operators shut the system down before irreparable damage occurred. 

When someone else handles the entire personalized message preparation with variable name-insertion for multiple addressee mailings and mail processing is completely automated including stuffing, addressing, affixing first-class stamps, sealing the envelopes and mailing;  it is a very welcomed relief.

Pictures and cartoon drawings of animals work well on greeting card covers.  The desired response is a person opening the folded greeting card to peek  inside.  One of my most effective greeting cards pictures a cat looking down at a tiny mouse inches from its nose. “Someone not doing their job?” is the caption copy.  Inside the card copy is: “We will”!

Suppose you were trying to get the attention of Information Technology (IT) Managers at Fortune 100 corporate data centers?  This serious group of decision-makers is under constant pressure. But, they are still people who enjoy a humorous pause from their stressful daily regimen. 

Back to the cat and mouse stare-down greeting card with “Someone not doing their job?” Add a 17-word sentence, inside the card, conveying the message your company “can do the job”.  Then, a second greeting card received by this same person 5 days later with an IT Manager’s testimonial quotation serves to reinforce your ‘can do’ theme. 

And, 5 days later a third, and final greeting card, arrives with another ‘can do’ statement and an announcement to expect a phone call, soon.  This is all it takes. Three folded greeting cards inside envelopes with affixed first class stamps, direct-addressed, not a label-address on the envelopes.

Our 2006 Test Mailing response rate of 83% was no accident. Proof: multiple, 3-peat greeting card mailings to b2b decision-makers in 55 industries since 2006 with response rates of seldom less than 62%. 

In our Age of e-mail and v-mail, this is proof snail-mailings thoughtfully executed can very effectively set the stage to enable sales professionals to ethically access decision-making prospects, on the first call.

If you are inclined NOT to experiment, buy my $40 Power Prospecting® eBook. This process is well documented and includes the original 83% response mailing campaign conducted in 2006. You will also find a set of follow up phone calling scripts with all working forms and a chapter of expectations and reality performance yardsticks to guide you through the process.

I still prefer a greeting card, delivered the old-fashioned way by the mailman; even when I don’t know the sender. To me, it’s always a mysterious little package.

I’m not alone because so does most of America! NOT advertising hype from THAT card company who often pitches us to “always send the very best.” According to a survey conducted by Harris Interactive Research, 51% of Americans will direct mail at least 25 greeting cards between Halloween and year-end.

Americans enjoy being carded, even while at work. They are people first and business professionals, second. Sending cards to people at work is appropriate and attention-getting even if they are strangers and you are trying to introduce yourself.

Using greeting cards as a solicitation tool isn’t new. What is new is a lesson I learned as a result of conducting a 2006 Test Mailing. The Lesson: mail 3 funny message cards over 15 days to decision makers. Then, place a phone call within 4 days of their receipt of card # 3.

To your delight, you will discover you will NOT be speaking to a stranger. Mail 3 appropriate cards to a business person so they receive one card, 5 days later – another card, and 5 days later – another card. That person will be waiting for your call, provided your 3 cards:

1. Don’t hard sell you, your company, product or service.

2. Are tastefully funny and your message is direct and business-like.

3. Include your basic business card info: name, job title, company, cell ph

Even when they are up to their backsides in alligators, busy people will take a few minutes to speak with someone who creatively contacts them out of respect and curiosity. Respect for imagination and curiosity about the mailing. Human Nature, at work, at its best.

The Secret Sauce: link your call purpose with your 3 just-mailed greeting cards, and maybe you, too will speak with a shocking 83% of mailed addressees, as we did in 2006. No kidding, an 83% response to my Test Mailing!

Stay tuned and next week, you will learn why 332 of the 400 mailed card addressees responded favorably to my 2006 Test Mailing, in my blog titled, “Why Americans LOVE to be Carded”.