In a recent conversation with best selling author, Jeffrey Fox, I asked him: “Jeff, there is no end of really innovative social media now available to sales and marketing people. When it comes to business-to-business selling, specifically, what social media have you found that you think should be in every Rainmaker’s tool kit?”

Here is his reply:

Sellers face that question every day. Today getting through to the decision maker is tougher than ever. There are all kinds of cool media and tools to help salespeople get their names out; re-link with erstwhile clients; reach a thousand people with a key stroke; scan business cards into contact lists; and on and on.

But there is one social media, one way to connect, that is now new and novel. This new and novel media, this communication vehicle, can’t be deleted; is always opened; and if the message dollarizes the value of the seller’s product or service in a way so simple that the reader instantly sees what’s in it for him or her, then the message is always read.

This new and novel Rainmaker social media is an error-free, typed letter, on corporate or personal stationery; inside a business envelope with a typed address; powered by a United States Postal stamp.

First class mail in the US has fallen from 225 billion pieces a year to less than 175 billion. And the trend is downward as billers try to get payers to go paperless. Of the 175 billion pieces of first class mail less than 1% are person-to-person business letters typed on legitimate stationery.

The old-fashioned business letter is now so rare, it is a Rainmaker point-of-difference.

If you want to get a prospective customer to see your dollarized value proposition, send him or her a business letter. Spell the prospect’s name correctly. Duh-uh! Use proper punctuation. (Which means, in part, putting a colon after “Dear Client:”). Use proper grammar. Be interesting. Be about the client, not about you, or your company. Be short: six or seven sentences are plenty. State how much money you will make or save him. Let her know to expect a polite follow-up. Add an interesting postscript.

You may not get a fast from the customer, unless, of course, you’ve written a killer letter. But after three or four or five or six polite follow-up calls, you will connect.

And if you really want to be unforgettable, and new, and novel, metaphorically exhume a Pony Express Rider and his Appaloosa, and have them gallop into the customer’s lobby.

Is there anything more civilized and social than a personally signed letter? “Good letters make rain.”

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To learn more about Jeff and his work, please click here.

To check out my reviews of his books and interviews of him, please click here.