Maybe I’m from another planet. I was taught that when you receive a gift, you say thank you. It’s polite and respectful.
I give my book, No More Cold Calling, The Breakthrough System That Will Leave Your Competition in the Dust, to many people–when I speak about referrals, attend sales networking events, or to colleagues in my business groups. I rarely receive a thank you.
What message does that send? To me it means that salespeople don’t follow through. I think twice about giving them a referral, because if a salesperson doesn’t follow through with me, how will they treat my clients?
Susan Roane has a wonderful post about thank you notes on her blog. Check it out. I am not alone in my deep-seated appreciation and value of the “thank you.”
“To paraphrase a professor I know, “If you have the time to eat the meal that I cooked and/or paid for, you have the five minutes to let me know you valued my efforts.” Hear, hear!
I don’t need a hand-written note. (Although, that would be nice.) I appreciate a phone call. It’s personal, and it means a lot.
Thank you.
It’s difficult to begin a comment to your post saying thank you without looking like an adulator or a flatterer. But that’s the first thought I had. You gave us a new point of view to examine our actions and consider the consequences of anything, as small as it can be, we can do.
A relevant factor for a salesman.
Thanks
Paolo from Italy
Fine piece. Gratitude does far more for the person expressing it than it does for the person receiving it. If a salesperson is sending out 10 hand-written “thank you”s a day, I’m pretty much assured he/she is a good, successful salesperson.
AMEN! Joanne, like you I am struck by the number of times folks don’t say, “Thank You.” We have a t-shirt we send out (not often enough!)that simply says “Thank You” on the front…to suppliers who do a back flip to get a rush job out, to clients who give us an extra special order. I think it’s time for a national Thank You movement! I have even noticed a significant decrease in folks that give a wave of the hand when I let them out in traffic. Keep up the good work.
Thank You…Haines Maxwell, Chancellor – Neat Stuff University