Some CEOs or company owners don’t feel like they need to give out corporate gifts around the holidays. They may not want to spend the cash on them, or they feel like this action accomplishes nothing.
If you feel that way, you should reconsider. Corporate gift-giving helps your company in many ways. You might lose a little money on the gifts themselves, but you’ll get back a lot of goodwill that should offset the immediate financial loss.
In this article, we’ll explore how corporate gift-giving can help your company in several ways.
You Let Clients Know You Appreciate Them
First, you should consider how corporate holiday gifts let your loyal clients know you value them. Maybe you run a company like Amazon. If so, you don’t have personal relationships with your customers or clients. Any eCommerce company won’t have personal connections with clients, so you won’t need to get your customers corporate presents.
If you have individual customer relationships, though, you can’t forget to give repeat consumers gifts that let them know you appreciate them buying things from you. If you don’t get them anything, that tells them you don’t care whether they keep buying products or services from you. They might see that as offensive and take their business elsewhere.
Crestline put together a terrific list of holiday corporate gifts. You might want to check out what they have to offer if you can’t come up with any good ideas in this area. As you browse corporate gift ideas, think about each client. What do you know about them?
You might get something like cigars for a client or some high-end liquor. Maybe they’d prefer a spa day or a gym membership if they’re fitness-inclined.
If you get to know your clients, you can use that knowledge now. Think about what they like, and try to get them a gift to ensure they keep up the relationship into the new year.
You Let Each Client Know You Listen to Them
Getting personalized gifts also lets each client or customer know that you listen to them when they speak. For instance, maybe you know that a particular client likes playing golf. You might get them a new set of golf clubs or perhaps a new driver from Ping or Big Bertha.
When they see that, they’ll know you listen to them when they talk about their hobbies. Part of getting repeat business from clients in corporate situations is listening to them and trying to establish a personal connection. If you get the right holiday gift based on what they say to you, they’ll realize they have a high-value relationship with you they won’t want to lose.
On the other hand, you can also wreck a client relationship with a thoughtless gift, though, so make sure you don’t do that. If you know that you have a repeat customer trying to lose weight, and you get them a box of steaks from the Omaha Steak Company, that sends the wrong message. You might lose that client through thoughtlessness, so listen when one of your repeat buyers talks about what’s going on in their life.
You Can Retain Your Workers with Corporate Gifts
You can also get your workers corporate gifts, and it behooves you to do so. You should allocate money for those that go to clients, but you can’t neglect your workers. They probably work very hard for you all year, and around the holidays, you’ll want to get them gifts that reflect how you feel about them.
You might get your workers new smartphones. You can get them gym memberships or gift cards. You might get them those for a high-end coffee chain, a home goods store, an electronics company, etc.
You can poll your workers and see which gift card they’d like. If you feel like they would each prefer a cash bonus, you probably can’t go wrong that way.
Make sure you get each worker a present that fits with how long they’ve been with your business. It won’t do if you get the same gift for someone who has been with the company for two months that you got for someone who’s celebrating twenty years with you.
If you get your employees presents, that should encourage company loyalty. You likely won’t have as many workers quitting throughout the year if they know you give them great presents every holiday season.
You Can Write Off the Gift Costs
You should also know that you can write off the corporate gift costs each year. You can usually write off the presents you get for clients and those you get for your workers.
That will help your company when tax time comes around. You should talk to whoever does your taxes to make sure your business entity takes full advantage of this clause. Any deduction you can take helps, and it’s one more reason you should not forget about or neglect corporate gift-giving.
Corporate Gift-Giving Can Help Your Company Stay Afloat
Some companies struggled during the pandemic’s early days, and some even had to close. If your company stayed open, maybe you’re gradually getting back on track with your sales goals and projections for 2023 and beyond.
You definitely want to do all you can to keep your company open and thriving, and giving corporate gifts can certainly help you do that. It seems like a small thing, but it’s crucial. It’s how you keep your workers sticking around in many cases and your longtime clients as well.
If you come up with generous, creative corporate gifts, you should see more workers sticking with you, and you’ll probably attract new clients. Your existing ones will more readily give your company a hearty recommendation if they know you give them a great present each year.
During the year, think about possible gifts, and jot down your ideas on a list. That should come in handy as the year concludes.
