8 Tips to Send Gifts to Business Contacts for Improved Relationships
Business etiquettes require an exchange of gifts to solidify professional relationships. You appreciate the people who have supported your business through different stages. The clients, partners, investors, and other stakeholders should understand their value to continue the relationship.
However, it is incredibly difficult to find the perfect gift for people. People get confused because of the enormous number of options available at the gift store or the online marketplaces. Moreover, you are at risk of disappointing or even offending people while sending them a gift.
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How to Send Gifts to Your Business Contact with a Tight Budget?
You can send expensive gifts to the business contacts if the sales numbers are beyond your expectations. However, it gets difficult to afford the gifts amid a market slowdown. Thus, you need to use the creative mindset that every small business owner possesses for cost-cutting.
You should try financial assistance from direct lenders for important clients that include guaranteed loan approval with no credit check. Or, you can send them a gift basket with a creative theme such as fitness or holiday. Many people send gift coupons or cards for their in-house products to save money.
Tips to Send Gifts to Your Business Contacts
You need to prepare a plan similar to every expense before sending gifts to your business contacts. It will save money and ensure no one is left from the recipient list. Here are some tips for sending gifts to your business contacts without common mistakes.
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Set a Budget
Every plan in a business starts with a financial assessment and budget. You should start with creating a budget for the plan to send gifts. Though, you need to consider the limit for them to accept.
In the professional world, there is a limit to what people can accept from other businesses. You can gift your subordinates or employees based on your affordability. You can quickly get online loans in Ireland if you are running short on cash.
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Create a Recipient List
It is easy to forget people from your long list of contacts while creating a recipient list. You cannot miss anyone if you are gifting it to more than one person. You can save yourself the trouble of sending gifts to a long list of recipients with secret Santa or a similar custom.
If not, you need to send gifts to every people in your team and management position. The people in higher positions will require a better gift to match their job profile. Also, you should send gifts of the same value to people with the same profile regardless of their performance.
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Personalise, If Possible
It is okay to add your logo to some gifts to promote your brand. It is a common practice in the professional world where businesses make some use of their investment in gifts. However, you should understand the concept of over personalisation.
It creates a negative impression of the brand even after investing in the gifts. It will seem like a promotional act instead of saying thank you to the stakeholders and contacts. Therefore, you should personalise the gifts to a limit and whenever possible.
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Don’t Offer with Humour
Everyone has a different definition of humour. It is a very sensitive issue in the current environment where offending people seems too easy. And the professional environment is not the right place to take risks with your humour.
Therefore, try not to use humour unless it is harmless. You should remain extremely cautious while trying to joke in a satirical fashion. Always try to avoid the roast the other person’s attribute or company as it may offend more people than you might have imagined.
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Pick the Right Contacts
Similar to humour, people have different ways to celebrate any occasion or holiday. Some don’t even celebrate certain holidays and events because of various reasons. Thus, there is a chance of wasting resources on creating an awkward situation.
Therefore, you should pick the right contacts to send gifts on occasion. Though, you can send a gift to express gratitude to anyone on a regular day. It is okay to visit their office with a basket full of gift items after researching their preferences.
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Learn About Their Customs
The same holiday is celebrated across different countries, customs, and societies. Your business partners, subordinates, and contacts will appreciate the efforts to learn about their customs. Therefore, you should spend some time to learn the celebrations in their culture.
The gift should contain the elements from their customs. You are making them feel valued about their place in your organisation or business contacts. Thus, it will create a foundation for strong and long-lasting relationships.
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Don’t Overpromote Your Products
As mentioned above, you don’t have to put a logo on every product. Many businesses over personalise their product to make it feel like a promotional gimmick. Moreover, you don’t have to fill the baskets with your needless products.
The recipients might not find the items in your stock as useful as your target audience. Thus, the gift card will remain on their desk or will get transferred to someone else from their side. Also, the relationship will suffer because the purpose of sending gifts will get diminished.
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Set Guidelines for Team Members
You cannot let the team members decide on their own the budgets and recipients of gifts inside the office premises. It will create disputes among the teammates for numerous reasons. Some will be left out while others may not receive gifts of the same value from others.
Start with setting a limit on the gift during the celebration of the holiday or a special occasion. It will create unnecessary stress on their finances if you ask them to gift everyone in their team and management. Thus, play a game similar to secret Santa, where an individual employee is allocated to everyone.
Conclusion
To sum up, you should keep plenty of things in mind while sending gifts to your business contacts. You don’t want to offend people because of some easily avoidable mistakes. It can result in losing the contact instead of solidifying the bond.
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