Everyone knows that sending holiday cards is a great way to stay in touch with friends and family.  But it is also a great way to build your business.

Consider the story of Joe Girard.

In 1963, he was desperate for a job so he could put food on the table to feed his family.  He begged a local car dealership to give him a job and a desk in the back.  He wouldn’t talk to anyone who walked into the showroom; rather, he’d make cold calls and bring in his own customers.

That first year, he sold an amazing 267 cars… and he learned a lot about how people make the decision to buy a car.  A car is an expensive purchase for most people, it’s something they put a lot of thought into.  Most people don’t buy a car from the first dealership they visit…. but they often send their friends and family to buy cars from the dealership they DO buy from….

To encourage these referrals, Joe started sending out greeting cards: one card a month to everyone who had purchased a car from him.

And he started selling more cars!

So he started sending cards to those who just came in and looked at cars but didn’t buy…. and he sold yet more cars!  In fact, when most dealerships were selling 5 cars a month, Joe was selling up to 6 cars a day!

His fourth year as a car salesman, he earned the title of “number one retail car and truck salesman in the world,” a title he held until he retired from car sales in 1977.  In his career, Joe sold over 13,000 cars — all at retail.

All from sending out cards.

Keep in mind that was several decades ago, back when people still received cards in the mail from their loved ones acknowledging birthdays and other special occasions. These days, most people don’t receive a single card for their birthday.  When you take the time to acknowledge people on their special day, they will remember you.

You don’t have to limit the cards you send just to birthdays.  You can use cards to reach out to your customers too, as a:

• Thank you for your business
• Thank you for meeting with me
• Thank you for your kind referral
• Thank you for taking the time to consider me (after first refusal)
• Thank you for using our service/product (sent at one-year anniversary)

You can also use cards to acknowledge your business contacts:

• Enjoyed meeting you (sent after meeting at a networking event)
• Thank you for meeting with me
• Thank you for the excellent service you have provided me

Sending heart-felt greeting cards can help grow your business in a big way.

You likely don’t have time to send 13,000 cards a year like Joe Girard, but you can still make greeting cards work for your business by creating and using a system that automates the process as much as possible.

The system I use allows you to upload pictures and custom artwork to create your own card designs, offers fonts in your handwriting, and sends out campaigns of your pre-selected cards for you.  Each card costs less than $1 (plus postage).  I use it to send all of my cards — including birthday cards to my friends and family and cards at Christmas.

Contact me for a personal walk-through of the system.