Is it the season to give gifts, or is there a better way to incorporate gift-giving that makes your business stand out?
As we enter the holiday season, most companies have set up large budgets to give impressive gifts to clients and potential customers. Many business owners hope to continue working with their clients and gain referrals, and holiday gift-giving is part of that strategy.
In a recent interview with John Ruhlin, Co-founder of Giftology Group, Adi and John talked about the power of gift-giving as well as strategies and systems that business owners can use to develop a referral system utilizing gift-giving.
Hint: It's not all about giving gifts over the holidays or swag at conferences.
Read on to learn how to incorporate these principles and strategies into your referral processes.
Gift-Giving Principles
Referral leads have always boasted a higher conversation rate than any other lead type. Plus, customers (both in B2C and B2B) are more likely to buy from a business if they have been referred to it.
But how do you get referrals? Do you go to conferences and hand out pens? Send Christmas gifts to existing customers? Create referral bonuses? All of the above?
In John and Adi's discussion, John shared a revolutionary new tactic. That is, give heartfelt and personalized gifts with no strings attached.
Here are the gift-giving principles that John shared:
1. Get to know your client/potential client's inner circle.
The company's CEO gets wooed with great gifts all of the time. But what about their partner, spouse, assistant, or support team? They often get neglected, which means you have an opportunity to stand out. John recommends investing 80% of your budget into wooing those around the CEO, not just the CEO themselves.
2. Don't put your logo on gifts.
Adding a logo changes it from a gift to swag because you are turning the gift into a billboard for your company.
3. Personalize the gift.
Make the gift all about the person to whom you are sending it - whether that be the client and their family, an assistant, a secretary, or someone else. This can be done by remembering what special item they might like, monogramming the gift, getting it in a favorite color, etc.
4. Give items they will use repeatedly - not consumables.
You want them to think about you for years, not in the time it takes to eat a box of chocolates.
5. Pour into people with no strings attached.
Build reciprocity by pouring into the referral partner. Take the time to discover what they like and what those around them enjoy.
6. Don't tie gift-giving to a particular time of year or action.
You can send "thank you" in a note, but gift-giving should not be tit for tat. It should be thoughtful, done because you are thinking of the person, and not obligatory.
7. Personalize your gifts with a handwritten note.
People underestimate the power of a handwritten note. John suggests that, if you are just starting out and have zero to a very tight budget, sending a handwritten note to share gratitude to your referral partners may do more than any large holiday gift.
8. Power your gift-giving with thoughtfulness and creativity.
You may not have a substantial gift-giving budget, but that's okay. Adi gave an example of seeing a small figurine of the type that her client collects. She bought it and sent it to the client with a note saying, "This reminded me of you." You don't need to be sending Rolex watches and Mont Blanc pens. You can give items that are meaningful to the receiver.
A Basic Gift-Giving System
1. Plan out two or three times yearly for gift giving. These should be unrelated to a holiday.
2. Create a gift-giving budget.
3. Find the names of your referral partner's inner circle.
4. Pick an impactful, non-consumable gift.
You can pick the same gift for several people, but if that's what you need to do, try to find a way to personalize it. Maybe you can get it in the recipient's favorite color or monogram the gift with their family name.
5. Send the gift with a handwritten note.
The goal is to get the client/referral partner and their inner circle to think about you every time they use the gift.
As you consider building a gift-giving system to increase referrals, we encourage you to consider what other systems you can build or document.
At Business Success Consulting Group, we are dedicated to helping business owners document and improve their successful systems to support exponential growth. If this is something you need help with, get in touch. We would be happy to schedule a free initial consultation.
Sources:
https://www.saasquatch.com/blog/rs-17-referral-marketing-statistics/
