Just as small talk is crucial in developing lasting business relationships, saying thank you and showing your appreciation shows the other person their business and connection are valuable to you.

In my recent e-book, Small Talk To Go, I shared two scenarios where showing your appreciation and saying thank you would go a long way to building a strong, successful relationship – business lunches and corporate hospitality. (For more details of my e-book, click here).

Imagine you’ve been invited to a business lunch or a corporate event like a golf day or cocktail party. What do you do after the event? Do you write a thank you note? Or do you simply say thank you as you’re leaving and leave it as that?

Let me ask you? Do you think you should send a Thank You note?

My answer? A big fat yes. You should.

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It never hurts to say thank you in business.

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Why is it so important?

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  • It shows you value the other person and their business.
  • It’s good for business.

 

Saying thank you is not enough. You need to send a follow up thank you note, in other words, the thank you needs to be in writing. By taking the time to write a note of appreciation shows the other person they’re important enough for you to take time out of your busy schedule to ‘put pen to paper’.

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Email is acceptable but not What’s App

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You don’t have to send a handwritten note. An email is perfectly acceptable. But not a What’s App message (unless they’re a personal friend).

Now that we’ve established the importance of sending a thank you note, let’s look at when and how you should write this note in English.

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Tips for Writing A Thank You Note

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Tip #1: Write As Soon As Possible

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Write as soon as you can. The same day or the day after would be ideal. If that’s not possible, do it within two days of any event. You want the other person to remember why you’re thanking them and you also want to remember why you’re writing.

Tip # 2: Greet Your Host As You Would Face to Face

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If you didn’t previously know the person who hosted the lunch, use a formal greeting such as “Dear Mr. Smith.” If you know the person well, or he/she told you to address them by their first name, use a less formal greeting such as “Hello Richard,” or the person’s first name, such as “Sunetra.”

If more than one person hosted the event like a golf event, greet the main contact and then follow by addressing the others in the body of the note. For example, “Hello John, It was a pleasure to meet you and the rest of your team at the golf day.”

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Tip #3: Explain why you’re writing; keep it simple and clear

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Tell your host why you’re writing. You could do that in the subject line of your email, “RE: Thank you for a wonderful day’s golf”; ” RE: Your cocktail party”; RE: Really enjoyed our lunch”.

You could say why you enjoyed the golf day (by mentioning the excellent organisation, the good choice of partners) or cocktail party (choice of venue, food and wine) or lunch (choice of restaurant).

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There’s no such thing as a free lunch.

 

That means business will always be discussed during these occasions in which case, mentioning what was discussed, agreed or promised during the lunch or event is always worth doing.

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Tip #4: Close With An Optimistic Tone

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Mention that you look forward to the next time you meet , thank your host again and then close your email with “Sincerely,” “Best Regards,” “Regards” or “Yours” and your name.

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Tip #5: Check For Spelling And Grammar Before Sending
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Make sure you’ve checked the correct spelling of names, English words and your grammar.
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Example Emails
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Corporate Event (Golf)
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Subject Line: Thank You for a Wonderful Day’s Golf
Dear Shaun,
I want to thank you for inviting me to your golf day yesterday. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
Not only was the choice of golf course excellent, but my fellow team players were also entertaining and made the entire experience extremely enjoyable.

The day was organised to perfection and the lunch you served was outstanding. My compliments to the chef.

I am sure that our two companies can work well together and I look forward to discussing matters further very soon.

Thank you once again.

Regards
Anthony
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Corporate Event (Cocktail Party)
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Subject Line: Re: What a fantastic cocktail party

Dear Jemma,

I have to say that (Host Company) really know how to host a cocktail party!

Gorgeous venue, fabulous choice of wines and canapes and exhilarating company.

It was a splendid evening. Thank you very much for inviting me.
I look forward to working more closely with you in the coming months, particularly on the XYZ project.

Thank you once again.

Yours

Rachel.
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Business Lunch
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Subject Line: RE: Our lunch today
Dear Tom,

Great seeing you today. Thank you very much for lunch.

I really liked your choice of restaurant. I must take my wife there soon. She’ll love the choice of fish they serve there.

I am glad we had a chance to discuss my proposal in more detail. I will arrange for you to have those quarterly sales figures by the end of the week.
In the meantime, if you have any questions regarding the issue of staff retention, please don’t hesitate to drop me a line.
Thanks again for lunch.
Take care and speak soon.
Charles

Thank you makes all the difference.

If you’d like to know more about how to engage in small talk in the scenarios I mentioned above, take a look at my e-book, Small Talk To Go. It gives you the phrases and shows you how to put those phrases together to help your conversation flow and make you sound confident and relaxed.
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If you liked this post and think others could benefit from it, please share it and don’t forget to sign up my free e-guide for more tips on how to be confident and effective communicators in English to succeed in business. By signing up, you’ll also receive my weekly lessons automatically to your inbox.
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Ciao for now.
Shanthi
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Source:
How To Write a Thank You Note (This blog post gave me the inspiration for today’s post. For ideas of how to write more general thank you notes, take a look at this post.)