This week we’ll be taking a look at corporate gifting strategies that will improve your company’s sales.

One of these strategies is using corporate gifts as an incentive to attend a meeting.

This can be done through the lock and key method – a corporate gift is sent to the customer from the brand as an invitation to the meeting, however the customer is unable to use or open the gift until they attend the meeting in which they’ll be given the key to ‘unlock’ the gift, which could be as follows:  

• An office set – A notebook, desk calendar, pens and pencils and other tools needed daily in the office, all branded but locked up in an ‘office box’.

It is important to understand fully your relationship with the customer to ensure that this is an appropriate gifting strategy otherwise it might impact on your relationship negatively, as they may be offended by the idea of an incentive.

Another strategy is using corporate gifts as a perk for the customers’ loyalty. This is effective because it shows the customer that they are appreciated by your company.

• A gift when the customer renews their subscription for your product or service.
• A gift to commemorate a certain amount of years that the customer has supported your brand.

Some examples of these gifts:

• A discount on a particular product or service. (This is extra useful when this product or service is new to the company as it doubles as a method of introducing the product/service).
• A gift set of office supplies.
• A basket containing wine/snacks etc.
• A gifted lunch or coffee delivered to the customer.

The last strategy we will dive into is rewarding your biggest customers.

This is not to say that corporate gifting should exclude your smaller scale customers however statistics show that a third of your total revenue is brought in by only 5% of your customers. It is important that the company is aware of who their best customers are (in terms of scale of buying) and gift these customers accordingly. If the company and the customer mutually benefit from their relationship, it is more likely to last. 

When this kind of gifting takes place it is vital that the customer is made aware that they are one of the company’s biggest customers. This will make the customer feel important and valued by the company. This will benefit the relationship between the customer and employee.