HOW TO BUILD YOUR BUSINESS ONE THANK YOU NOTE AT A TIME

I always send a card. Without fail. That is a part of my system and there is a thing called a seven-day window. And I say a seven-days window, for those of you who have not been to Presentation Power, you will need to learn about this, and for those of you who have attended, you are already familiar with this. Within every act of service, let’s say somebody let me use their home for a coaching call – I, now, within seven-days, will be sending a Thank You gift or a Thank You note. Seven-days is the operative time, because the more time you let pass by, the less the emotional impact is of that gift or that thank you. 

 Let’s make it extreme. Let’s say I waited 70 days and sent a thank you note. Well, how do you think that would land on them when he or she received this thank you note that’s 70-days old? She would be like, “Oh, evidently, he must not be that thankful,” or, “He really must not be that grateful of a person.” 

 So I always want to make it as quick as possible. Matter of fact, because you brought it up, I’m always thinking, “What can I do to thank them before I leave?” And I love to double that up with a thank you note that person receives in the mail. Why? Because when we check our mail, what do we normally think? Bills or something that we have to do. So when we receive a thank you note along with a bill, then it makes it that much easier to create that emotional connection with that person. 

 Do I always send a thank you note OR a thank you gift? Yes, sometimes I do send a gift. And it depends. BakedByMelissa.com does little mini cupcakes. I found that spot in New York, and it turns out they deliver. It’s going to be about $30 for whatever you send. It’s great. Now here’s the thing: You can do the seven-day window, you can something real sweet, but you have to really pay attention to that person, so when you ask, “What are some really great gift ideas?” You have to really pay attention and study that person. 

Here’s a great example of how I really screwed that up: I was in a magazine called 002 Magazine. It was a local magazine; I was listed as one of the people in Houston. It was something that – from the moment I arrived in Houston – I said, “Oo! I want to be one of these people.” Then, finally, the time came – they listed me in and I was in the magazine. I was happy and the editor, her name is Carla, and I went to the grocery store and got all of these candy bars and snickers, skittles, and put together the sweetest package I could muster up. And then I read in the next issue of 002 Magazine – her “Letter From The Editor” – about how much she loves working out and how into fitness she is. I didn’t realize until they showed a picture, she has all these ripped up arms – she is an outdoor kind of girl! She probably got my gift and was like, “Uhh, thanks? I’ll be giving these away instantly.” 

Zero emotional connection.

 After I saw that, I went to Target and I went to their health section and got all of these protein bars and those Kind Bars and all of that other good stuff that says “I care about my body” LOL. I got all of those bars, put them in a box, and sent those to Carla, and THEN she responded and said, “Wow, Jonathan! THANK YOU.” I wrote in a note in there and said, “Hey, my heart was in the right place, but my gift clearly wasn’t.”

 I didn’t study her. I gave her what I thought would have been good, not what she “told me” would have been good. 

 At Presentation Power, I have a whole hour and a half session on how to build connection and how to build more business by the way you say, “Thank you.” How you can you turn a thank you into a bigger contract. I’ve done it.

The first time I learned my lesson, there was this guy who gave $40 or so and I was doing a drive to get money for the Haiti earthquake. I said thank you to him via a video as soon as he donated, because he was the first person. He got the video, instantly opened it, and donated ANOTHER $40. Just because he loved the way that I said thank you.

This is a principle that I’ve learned for a long time, so I teach this for 90 minutes. I’ll show you how to build your business one thank you at a time. And, in that, I give you four ways to learn how to say thank you in a way that is going to guarantee to resonate with people and will gain favor in that persons eyes. I guarantee you, because I teach you how to observe and how to get that.

So my answer is there is a bunch of gift giving ideas for certain people. For example, women really, really love flowers. And it doesn’t have to be roses or romantic or anything, some women are just flower people. You can give flowers to just say thank you. It’s not like I want to date you or send any message that is inappropriate. It can just be thank you.

I asked a lady who recently got a speaking engagement for me – I asked a friend of hers, “What does she like?” And she told me and I got her a very nice sized gift card to her favorite store. It was a very nice sized gift card. Not just like a $50. She could really get some stuff with this gift card. She got me a decent size engagement and this is a very important note for everybody - always allocate a portion of your engagement to say,” Thank you,” to the person who referred you and to the meeting planner. 

If you make $2,500 – if I were you – I would take about $200-$250 and put that in a nice sized thank you. You take that back and you say thank you to the person. You better believe if you get a $100 sized bouquet of flowers, a woman can’t help but smile. If you really put your foot in it and give a really nice gift basket that that person likes or if they are into exercise or basketball or healthy eating and you give them a gift basket – it’s going to win. 

Here’s another great example, Tiffany Williams totally hit the bulls-eye. She totally hit the bulls-eye and I’ll never forget this. At last January’s Presentation Power, I was in the room while people were doing the networking power lunch and she had a bag of chips on her table, and Tiffany I are friends, I said, “Oh, Tiffany! Look over there! Can you believe that happened?!” She looked over to the left, I reached over and grabbed some of her chips because they were my favorite kind of chips. I ate some and it was kind of a joke. She was like, Oh no you didn’t just eat my chips…you’ve been shaking hands with people…you know what, I don’t even want the chips. Take them and your nasty, germ-infested hands. I don’t want them.” It was a joke and she sent to me, within the seven-day window, a whole box wrapped up in this velvet wrapping of 60 bags of these chips and I thought it was the funniest thing in the world. I took a picture of it and said, “Now THIS is a good gift!” 

Now, granted, I did not eat 60 bags of chips. Had about 48, but I did not eat all 60 bags of chips. I gave them to the kids at my church. But, nevertheless, it was the fact that she took the time to be intentional about it. I also helped her with some other things on her videos and how she can connect with some of the videos she does every week. I went by her office one week while I was guest-hosting her video series for the week, and I went by to get some details and she had a basket of some smoothie stuff for me and that hit the mark. It was her way of saying, “Thank you for being part of this series. I see what you like on Facebook and I want to thank you using your language.”

If you speak French and somebody writes you a very passionate loving heartfelt note in Mandarin, it’s not going to connect. It’s not going to mean anything to you. You might know that that person meant something nice, but it only connects when it’s in your language. 

I’ve spent more time on this than I normally would, but it’s because this is so essential to every business that I could not glance over this. You’ve got to make sure that you become a great listener. Learn how to pay attention to what people are telling you they love and do those things. Show up in small ways. If they like working out and you get them one of those cold towels that you put water on your face cold – that’s cool! It just says, “I listened to you.” It doesn’t have to be a whole lot, and when you listen well, it usually doesn’t cost a whole lot, as long as you are accurate.

That’s the key. Just hit the bull’s eye and you will be fine.