When in doubt, buy them a Ferrari. (Narrator: You need not, in fact, buy them a Ferrari.)
December 08, 2021
‘Tis the season, and you are probably making your way through this year’s gift list and spending a lot of time focused on your most discerning of recipients. And while you may be trying to impress, surprise, or excite those closest to you with a great gift, you may also have others on your list for whom you have no idea what to get them at all.
Trying to find the perfect gift for someone close to you is tough, but what about trying to gift something to a prospect or customer you may not know very well or with whom you aren’t that close? In this week’s blog, we’re going to show you that if you get out of your own way and put the other person first, you can give a gift that doesn’t need to cost much and will build you a lot of goodwill.
We’re always looking for opportunities to surprise our prospects in interesting ways to help build credibility and enhance our relationships. We do this because we want to stay top of mind, especially throughout the sales cycle, so that our deals have a higher likelihood of closing and don’t lose momentum. We’re now at that point when buyers are preparing for the slowdown that occurs at the end of the year. You may find it harder to move deals down the funnel because your buyers are winding down, or because some of the necessary parties involved in the decision are already out of the office.
Sharing a gift with your prospect is a good way to stay top of mind even if you have to pause for the holidays. Finding a gift that will wow your prospect may give them something to talk about with others around the water cooler, but in the long run, it may not do much to help grow your relationship with them.
A recent study looked at the impact that desirable gifts have in comparison to more practical gifts on the psychological closeness (i.e., the feeling of closeness) between the gift-giver and the gift-receiver. The study showed that when the receiver was told that the giver focused on the practicality of the gift vs. the overall quality, they felt closer to them. In other words, the thought really does count.
In our guide to gifting blog post, we provide some tips on how to gift more practical items like articles based on a previous conversation or coupons for products that your prospect loves. The important thing is to make sure that you are authentic in your giving. To help build psychological closeness, include language that suggests that you thought about how the other person could use the gift.
You may think to yourself, “Articles? Coupons!? Those sound like lousy things to give someone as gifts!” (Not for me… coupons and deals are my love language.) When thinking about what to give another person, we are more likely to focus on the reaction (short term) someone may have to the gift rather than the satisfaction (long term) the gift will provide. We focus on the reaction because it is the cue that affirms that we made the right choice.
Think about how many times you’ve expressed appreciation for a gift only to have it shoved in a closet, sit on a shelf, kept in your car waiting to go back to the store, or thrown in the trash. (You know that macaroni necklace doesn’t go with anything.) As you think about a gift that may resonate for the other person, think beyond their initial reaction and focus on how they might be able to use or experience what you’ve given them. A trendy travel mug may get a positive reaction from the other person at first, but will gather dust if he or she already has a favorite mug.
In an onboarding blog post, we introduced the concept of Human-Centered Design, which is the idea of designing with the person who will be using your product/service in mind (i.e., putting yourself in their shoes). We also covered the three lenses of innovation: desirability, feasibility, viability. Well, what if you applied a human-centered approach and the three lenses to gift-giving?
When giving a gift to a prospect, a client, or anyone for that matter, you can use a human-centered approach and consider how they might use the gift. For example, if you gift an article, ask yourself:
Further, using the three lenses of innovation for gift-giving, you can help create psychological closeness by taking into account practicality along with desirability:
Giving gifts should be an enjoyable experience and demonstrate that you’ve thought about the other person. Now you can show them that you’ve not only thought about their reaction to the gift, but that you’ve thought about giving them something useful and relevant, too!
Get a head start on the new year—contact us at mastery@maestrogroup.co to schedule your training for 2022!
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