Tip: Enclose Your Business Card with Everything

by Orvel Ray Wilson, CSP

We got a call from the training department at Public Service Company, the electric utility that serves our part of the country.

“We’re doing a door-to-door campaign to promote energy conservation, and we need someone who can train our people in basic door-to-door sales and courtesy skills.  Can your firm do that?”

“Certainly,” I said.  After all, during my college years, I was a sales trainer for a company that sold encyclopedias door-to-door. 

“We do custom sales and management training for companies all over the world,” I explained, and then went on to question the caller about the size of the group, the timetable, budget, and other logistic issues.

“By the way,” I asked, “how did you find out about us?”  Good Guerrillas are always measuring the effectiveness of their marketing.

“Someone down in the Billing Department got your card, and forwarded it up to us here in Human Resources.”

“You mean, the department where I pay my electric bill?”

“Yeah.  Don’t know how they came across it, but it says you do sales training, so they passed it along to us.”

Further investigation solved the mystery.  I had given our new secretary a handful of bills to frank and post, and she had dutifully followed our rule of enclosing a business card with every piece of mail we send out.

Business cards not only make a first impression; they’re often the last thing that the customer has to remember you by. You never know where they’ll wind up.  The result in this case was a $40,000 contract!

Learn more.  Get the book Guerrilla Selling available in the Bookstore section of this site.

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