Today’s topic is this. It’s something that I like to call the “money bag”. And I surely am not going to take credit for this because it’s not something that I invented by any means. But it’s a strategy that I actually learned from a gentleman named Jack Daly, who does a lot of really great sales training and he was talking about one of the biggest mistakes that not even just salespeople, but entrepreneurs, account managers, and anyone that’s dealing with prospects and customers make on a recurring basis: they simply are not great at follow up.
I would be lying to you if I were to tell you that I was the best person at follow up. But what I’ve learned very rapidly is that people do not fail, but rather, systems fail. So when I’ve looked back at all the issues that I’ve encountered over the years, all the setbacks, all the firefighting that I’ve had to do in the moment, I often don’t reflect positively. I’ve realized that if I don’t have a full blown system and process and combined with that, if I don’t have a way to make it kind of easy and effortless, I tend to mess things up.
So this whole concept of the money bag was to really try and help two completely different things, but they go hand in hand. I shouldn’t say completely different. The first one was to really help solve the issues of poor follow up. The second one was to help increase sales.
When we talk about this, the whole point of this sort of money bag and it’s called the money bag, because you actually want to put everything literally in a money bag. Part of that is a little bit of this bag is going to help make you money. The other pieces, it simply keeps things organized.
Here’s what goes in the money bag, and then I’ll tell you again how to use it.

• First thing felt tip pen, you want to just literally pick a pen and stay with it.
• The next one is you’re going to want a ballpoint pen, and that’s actually for addressing the envelope.
• Third one is you want to have company thank you cards. So they’re either embossed, they’re branded, I mean they look really, really nice. They’ve got your logo for example. Maybe it’s like your main color but their company thank you cards.
• The fourth thing that you want is a personal thank you card. That personal thank you card might have the first initial of your last name, for example. And it’s being personalized doesn’t have anything to do with your company.
• The next piece that goes in there is a personalized stamp. You can have a little picture of yourself with your logo, or a fun picture of your product or service. Finally, you put some business cards in there.

So all of these things then go into the money bag, felt tip pen, ballpoint pen for the envelopes, company thank you card, personal thank you cards, personalized stamps, and business cards.
Now, the most important piece of this is that after you have a meeting, and literally before you’re leaving the building, so if this is a phone conversation you’re having, you’re doing it within minutes. But you’re dropping it in the mail immediately. Not a week later, not three days later, not even a day later. You’re literally putting this in the mail as soon as possible.
Finally, what you’re going to do is you’re going to friend them on all the different social media platforms – Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, all that good stuff. So what this ends up doing is that it’s going to show that you took the phone call. Call the meeting serious because you’re following up with a thank you message almost immediately. If you’re having a call and you’re talking to someone in California, it might take a little bit longer.
I still use just regular mail. Because I really like these personalized stamps, I’ve got a whole slew of personalized stamps, some with my picture, some without my photo, some with our logo, and I kind of use them just based on the relationship or based on the prospect or customer that I was dealing with.
But what I started to notice, as I actually executed this, and it took me years to even execute it because I didn’t put everything in the money bag that I would be looking for. So I don’t have any stamps. I can’t find my new business cards like it just was always a thing until I finally built a system, built a process that I could continue to repeat day in and day out.
Imagine going to your local business, and you have a meeting with a prospect. And literally, after you leave that meeting, you’re doing a handwritten card, you’re saying thanks for your time, look forward to working with you. You’re putting it in the mail. And then they’re literally getting that the next day. That shows them that you’re serious, that shows them that you take their business seriously and that you’re going to separate yourself from the pack. It’s those little things that don’t cost much money, but it’s those things that people do not want to do. They just don’t want to do it. Take this strategy and add more money to your bank account.