To earn (notice I wrote earn and not close or make) a sale, begins with your ability to find and then nurture relationships. In today's market place, this is called relationship selling. After the relationship is well established, then you definitely need the aforementioned sale skills set.

With the continual spiraling prices at the fuel pumps, those involved in the goals to increase sales and business building are making some hard decisions. Is deciding between a stamp and a gallon of gas a hard choice? So why not use more stamps and less gas if your goal is to increase sales?

The ability to achieve the goal to increase sales rests on the sales skills of the sales professionals. Yet, sometimes, it is the simple skills that earn far more business than the more complex ones.

Much of the business building sales advice, sales training to sales coaching look to improve those sales skills that are far more technical in nature. For example, have you attended seminars, conferences or had executive business coaching where discussion revolved around:

How to qualify prospects?

How to maximize business networking events?

How to fact find or discover the prospect's pain?

How to overcome stalls and objections?

How to close the deal or gain the commitment?

This advice can be effective, but very costly if you must drive from meeting to meeting. Driving not only involves fuel costs, but is a tremendous drain on your most valuable and non-replaceable resource - time.

To earn (notice I wrote earn and not close or make) a sale begins with your ability to find and then nurture relationships. In today's market place, this is called relationship selling. After the relationship is well established, then you definitely need the aforementioned sale skills set.

So what better way to begin this relationship selling process than to invest in some postcards and send them on a regular basis to prospects, centers of influence, clients and complete strangers? For example, you read of someone you know through a business acquaintance of her recent acquisition of a new company. You send off a postcard congratulating her on this most impressive success and suggest that you reconnect for lunch.

As a professional sales person, your database has the birthday dates to anniversary dates of your clients. A week before the special day, you drop off a card in the mail. You may just send off a note to express thanks that they are a client or you are just reconnecting with them.

Have you ever attended a regular business networking event such as a Chamber of Commerce and you meet someone new? Business cards are exchanged. Possibly, you returned to your office with that business card, entered them in your database and maybe even made a call. What would happen if after event, you return to your car, grab one of your pre-printed postcards and mailed off a "Glad to Meet You" card. The card arrives the next day. Do you think that prospect believes that you are not only organized, but rather unique?

Postcards and stamps are far cheaper than gas. Return to those behaviors that create genuine relationships and brings smiles to people's faces. Remember, most people still like receiving mail especially when the envelope is hand written and the envelope does not resemble a bill or someone asking for money.

Written by Leanne Hoagland Smith