The Challenge

Herb Taylor is the Lease Manager at the Ford/Lincoln dealership in Olathe, Kansas. Earlier in his career he was interested in identifying a marketing strategy to help him retain existing clients and generate repeat business.

Background

When Herb worked at another dealership prior to joining Olathe Ford/Lincoln, he learned from a colleague that sending personal greeting cards was a great way to stay in touch with customers. About that same time, his wife came across a Posty Cards catalog at her workplace, and she brought it home to Herb.

That was 10 years ago. Today Herb sends out about 500 greeting cards for each of the four different holidays… Easter, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving and Christmas. In addition, he sends out birthday cards to customers – both husbands and wives – throughout the course of the year.

The Results

Herb is completely convinced the cards he sends to his customers are critical to his sales success. He said some customers have told him his birthday card was the only one they received. Plus, Herb said he is now selling cars to the second generation of customers.

In October 2012, 90 percent of the cars Herb sold were to past customers. He said he has had customers drive from South Dakota, Texas and Kimberling City, Missouri, to Olathe, Kansas to buy cars from him, and he noted that they pass a lot of other dealerships along the way.

Herb said he encourages the younger sales associates at his dealership to send Posty Cards, too. “I can’t think of anything I can do beyond sending these cards that would work better for me in terms of driving new business,” he said.