“Ed Wallace combines memorable anecdotes with a clear theoretical framework that shows individuals how to leverage their hard business skills with the often-overlooked soft skills of relationship building.”
In this edition of “Ask Dr. Mark,” featured in Tribune newspapers, Ed Wallace shares some helpful tips for a person who is new to building relationships.
Credibility is the quality that makes others believe in you, your words and actions. Credibility is the gatekeeper quality. If you don’t first establish credibility and competence with your prospect or client, you will struggle to create anything more than a transactional relationship.
A unique way for you to follow up with someone after an initial contact is to send him or her a handwritten note…even if the meeting doesn’t go well, and even if you don’t have a follow up meeting.
Send that person a handwritten note.
I talk about this in my latest book, Business Relationships That Last, about how this small act of writing a personal note leaves a lasting impression.
A Personal Perspective
What do you usually receive in the mail? Now days, most of us receive bills, junk mail, and catalogues or advertising materials.
When you open up the mailbox and pull out an envelope addressed by hand, to you – what goes through your mind?
Most people respond to that with, “Wow, this person took 
the time to think about what they wanted to say, to write the note, to address it, to put it in an envelope and put a stamp on it, to address it and to put it in the mailbox.”
When you really think about it, it takes just as long to compose an email as it does to write a handwritten note.
The distinguishing difference? It’s visual – and personal.
The email looks just like every other email on the recipient’s screen. With a handwritten note, you create more of a personal contact; you make more of an impression on someone because they are touching something that you created with your hands and sent specifically to them.
It’s a kinetic experience, and in today’s world of digital media, it creates a deeply personal connection.
Many of my students are doing this now, and even my clients are doing this on stationary that they’ve created and personalized. These are large corporations with great track records, yet they have begun using handwritten notes to follow up after meetings, and even to “ask for the sale.”
It doesn’t matter what level you are at in your career …
A handwritten note may seem like a little thing – but like so often in life – it’s the littlest things that make the most powerful impressions.
Relational GPS: The Road Map to Outstanding Business Relationships
“Instead of just wishing that better business contacts would magically appear in your professional life, drive the business contacts you’ve already established to more productive and rewarding levels. The initial step of pinpointing your core relationships will lead you toward participating with an actual person rather than with a digital line in a CRM system or on Linked In. A process, however, for driving your core relationships to success, is also vital. I call this process understanding your contact’s Relational GPS.”
–Ed Wallace
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