My wife was put on the board recently of an animal rescue.
In last meeting she learned donors were complaining about not receiving thank you’s for donations. I’m big on gratitude so she had my attention.
Surely the donors were complaining about email messages versus thank you cards or something.
Nope. They weren’t sending anything. Nada. Nathan.
I do most of the “sending” of donations in my house so I knew my wife didn’t understand quite how strange this was. I told her every organization that I have donated to has told me thank you. Even the one ran my own mama!!!!
Jim Rohn said, “Both the years and the experiences have brought me here to where I stand today, but it is the thankfulness that opened the windows of opportunities, of blessings, of unique experiences to flow my way.”
And the same is true for me. Just like going to the gym and doing push ups, I make a daily habit of exercising gratitude.
I read a book called Appreciation Marketing by Tommy Wyatt and Curtis Lewsey. I recommend you read it (or listen to the audiobook). It’s about the importance of appreciating people by sending greeting cards, hand written notes, phone calls, and messages.
As someone who has done this religiously for nearly a decade I can tell you, your competition isn’t doing this. Want another way to stand out? Start appreciatin’!
Watch out for chocolate frosted dog crap though. This is Wyatt and Lewsey’s term for sending thank you cards with your business card in the envelope. Or using it as an opportunity to beg for referrals.
Don’t disguise sales and marketing as gratitude. Give because you want to be thankful, not to get something in return.
It’s good them, it’s good for your soul, and it’s good for business.
Try it. Send out a message, greeting card, hand written note, or call one person a day for 30 days. It feels amazing. And when someone thanks YOU for their thank you. It’s even more amazing-er.
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Adam
P.S. This is the book I mentioned: https://www.amazon.com/Appreciation-Marketing-Achieve-Greatness-Gratitude/dp/B00OL8P0FM/