The power of the written word
For the AJC
Friday, January 16, 2009
If you’ve got e-mail, voice mail, a cellphone, BlackBerry, Linked-In and Twitter and yet still feel like you’re not fully connecting to professional colleagues and clients, it’s time to pick up the pen.
Everyone is bombarded daily by multiple forms of communication, “but when a personally addressed, quality-weight-paper envelope with a real stamp comes across your desk, you open that first,” said Robin Hensley, president of Raising the Bar and an Atlanta business development coach.
Robin Hensley inspires clients including attorney Marc Taylor (left) to tend to relationships day to day. ‘It matters,’ Taylor says.
Dave Polstra, founding partner of Brightworth, personalizes cards for clients and friends.
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“When do any of us ever receive a handwritten note in business? Taking the time to write someone is a more intense and personal form of communication and definitely a cut above the ordinary,” she said.
An Atlanta native, Hensley grew up in the time “when young ladies played the piano, took ballet and wrote thank-you notes on threat of death from their mothers and grandmothers.” She’s carried over the practice in her coaching business and encourages her clients to do the same.
Hensley writes notes to thank someone for referring a new client or helping her brainstorm a problem. She writes to congratulate people on a promotion, wish them happy birthday or just say how much she enjoys doing business with them. “I look for excuses to send people notes. If I see someone at a conference and can’t get across the room to speak with her, I’ll send them a note to say, ‘I’m sorry we didn’t get a chance to speak. Let’s have lunch,’ ” she said.
She keeps a pen, note cards and stamps in her desk at work, at home and in her car and makes it a habit to write several people daily. She’s also a voracious newspaper clipper and will send someone a story about fly-fishing if that’s his hobby. “Sure, you could send an e-mail, but it only takes an extra second or two to write a note, to show that you recognize someone as a person and really listened to him,” Hensley said. “Writing a note and dropping it in the mail immediately shows that you’re a very thoughtful and a very organized person.”
Instead of mailing holiday cards in December, which companies imprint with their company name and send out in bulk, Hensley sends out Thanksgiving cards, each with a personal greeting. She often gets calls from clients to thank her for her notes: one framed her congratulatory card about his promotion and hung it in his office. People are amazed that you are interested in their personal lives, she said.
Hensley believes that personal notes have helped her grow her business, because she’s sincere in her intent. “It’s not a marketing tool and it’s not a matter of just going through the motions. My business is about people and helping them achieve their goals. When you write to recognize people for their accomplishments, it makes them feel better and you feel better,” she said.
Marc Taylor, managing partner of Taylor, Busch, Slipakoff & Duma law firm, has always considered himself a high-touch, relationship-oriented individual. “Robin [Hensley] preaches what I instinctively believe in but had only done sporadically before. She helped me put the systems in place to be prepared to do the small things that are really important day to day. We often have good intentions, but we’re so busy, we let things slide,” Taylor said.
Now instead of “short-handing” communication with a text message from his BlackBerry, he writes a note a day on average. While he can’t chart the return on investment, he knows it has helped the firm grow from four lawyers at its founding in April 2005, to 52 attorneys today.
“In the last four or five years, a lot of people have done a lot of favors or gone out of their way to help this firm grow through referrals, advice and contacts,” Taylor said. “Letting them know how much I appreciate them is just the right thing to do. You should treat people like they matter. We strive to be a good, honest law firm that gives excellent service for value and our notes are a validation of that.”
In the recent economic turmoil, he’s written more notes of encouragement to people who have lost jobs or are struggling to keep their companies. “People often think that they’ll reconnect when the person lands a new job, but taking the extra effort to help your contacts in time of crisis will mean a lot more,” Hensley said.
“We need a lot more personal notes in these economic times when we’re going through a dark tunnel,” agreed Steve Gross, chairman of HLB Gross Collins P.C., an Atlanta-based full-service certified public accounting and consulting firm. At Hensley’s suggestion, Gross has also been sending out Thanksgiving cards to business clients, associates and friends.
His assistant addresses them and Gross writes the personal notes. “I look at the address and sit and think about that person. Then I write about something we shared in the last year,” Gross said. It takes his spare time for about 10 days. “I’m not in a hurry. When I’m writing I feel connected to the recipients, so it’s not a chore. It’s satisfying to do it.”
He knows that the ritual shows that he is willing to go the extra effort to be involved in his clients’ lives and he gets enough positive feedback to know that it’s appreciated. “People like getting a personal note at an unexpected time. It matters,” he said.
As a founding partner of Brightworth, an Atlanta-based independent investment and wealth-management firm, Dave Polstra admits to not being the best note writer in the world, but he’s found a way to do it with a twist. Polstra sends out customized birthday, thank-you and congratulatory cards with personal photos on the front. “Even though I do a lot of public speaking, I’m more of an introvert. I don’t go out of my way to work a crowd, so when someone gets a birthday card with a picture of me in a harness and hard hat on a ropes course that says ‘Just hangin’ around wishing you a Happy Birthday!’ they get a little different, more personal picture of me,” Polstra said. Another card that says, “Hope you’re reaching new heights on your birthday!” has a photo of his son pole vaulting at a state track meet on the front. He’s also sent cards of himself surfing and waterskiing. He admits that the messages inside are kind of corny, but people remember them and will call to ask about the photos.
“Robin helped me learn that the value of a client referring a friend for business is priceless, it’s huge. I make sure that a client gets a call that day to thank him, and then I send a note. After I meet with the friend, I’ll call the client back to let him know we had a meeting.”
Sometimes he’ll make a contribution to a favorite charity in that client’s name, as a way to show his appreciation.
“I read that less than 1 percent of correspondence is personal household-to-household mail, yet when we all go out to the mailbox, we’re looking for that personal note,” Polstra said. “People no longer reach out and touch others with the written word on paper, so when someone does, it carries a lot of weight and influence.”