A gift is the best way to show a client your appreciation this holiday season! Here are some tasteful, memorable gift ideas that will strengthen your client relationships and promote good business.

1. Baked Goods

One of the best parts about the Holidays is indulging in all of the delicious deserts and treats that go hand in hand with the season. The gift of baked goods is one of the most reliable gifts that will satisfy any important client. Anything from cookies and brownies to pumpkin and apple pie! Our personal favorites are the Mini Snickerdoodle Cookies from Dancing Deer in our Bakery category.

2. Wine

What could be better than relaxing on the couch and enjoying a nice glass of wine during the Holidays? A bottle of wine is an elegant gift that will certainly be appreciated by your client. Add a little more pizzazz with a wine gift basket that adds a few treats like biscotti’s and crackers & cheese.

 3. Gift Baskets

Fill a gift basket with several tasty treats like Godiva chocolates and caramel popcorn, or give a basket stuffed with wine, cheese, and crackers. Either way, a well decorated gift basket will surely make a lasting impression.

4. Electronic Gadgets

Electronic gadgets are great gifts for the holiday season. MP3 speakers or an iPhone projector are cool, fun gifts that can be used for personal or business occasions. Everyone could use an alarm clock radio with the ability to wake up listening to your choice of music on your very own iPod!

5. Chocolate

Rarely can you go wrong with sweet treats. A variety box of chocolate from Godiva filled with rich, fascinating flavors makes a great present for the Holidays. There’s nothing quite like a delicious Godiva truffle to go with your glass of wine during the Holidays.

Where can you find all of these great gift ideas in one location? Visit us at www.giftsontime.com and choose your favorite Holiday gifts from our Gift Catalog.

Shelby Burghardt

Senior Account Manager

GiftsOnTime

80 Front Street

Scituate, MA 02066

Tel: 888-468-1830 ext. 17

Fax:781-545-8070

Email: sburghardt@giftsontime.com

Web: www.giftsontime.com

LinkedIn: Shelby Burghardt

It’s the Holiday Season and We Make it Easy!

Let GiftsOnTime.com, make this Holiday season the best ever. Our gift management platform enables you to pre-plan, save time and manage all of your Holiday Gifts, taking all the Hassles out of the process. Work with one of our dedicated customer support representatives to select the perfect gift, letting your customers or employees know they are special! For more information, visit www.giftsontime.com, follow @giftsontime on Twitter, or call 888-468-1830.

First, ”future gifting” isn’t related to your plans to leave your riches to your loved ones after you’re gone.  Instead, it is the tool that enables you to build stronger business relationships, whether that’s with your clients of your employees. Specifically, future gifting allows you to schedule all of the gifts that you plan to send for an entire year in a single sitting.

So, if “Future Gifting” is the “how” we do it, the question remains, “What does it achieve and why should I care?”

WHO WOULD USE FUTURE GIFTING? AN EXAMPLE FROM A CPA

Before founding GiftsOnTime.com with his son, Ron Orleans, our CEO, was a Certified Public Accountant.  In fact, he was a partner and director of marketing at a large, Boston-based CPA firm.  During his 40+ year career, Ron realized that to stand out as a service provider he needed to have strong relationships with his clients.

Why?  Because he knew that his business would grow through word of mouth referrals from his existing clients.  The problem, however, is that word of mouth is not easy to control!  He also knew that traditional marketing tactics such as newsletters, tax planning guides, and e-mail marketing were largely considered, “White Noise.”  So his challenge was to find a way to market his services to existing customers in a way that built stronger client relationships in a targeted, time and cost-controlled manner.  His solution was gift giving on significant client occasions.

HOW DOES FUTURE GIFTING HELP BUILD STRONGER RELATIONSHIPS?

For any service provider – CPAs, Lawyers, and Financial Advisors alike – time is their commodity, it’s what they sell.  So acts of client appreciation (such as gift giving), which are done with the goal of driving new, or repeat business often fall by the wayside.   

The truth is that for service providers, the best marketing strategies are the ones that:

(1) Take the least amount of time to implement,

(2) Allow for a very targeted approach, and

(3) Offer clear cost-control capabilities…

…all of which is done for the purpose of strengthening existing client relationships.  Because almost any service provider knows that their next piece of business is either going to come from an existing client or a new word of mouth referral from an existing client.  So you have to effectively market to your existing clients to be… effective!

THE INNOVATION: A NEW MARKETING TOOL THAT SAVES YOU MORE TIME

This is where GiftsOnTime.com fits in.  Our web-based   platform    simply makes gift-giving easy.  It was designed to allow service providers to strengthen the client bond without sacrificing their precious time because it combines a basic contact management system with an e-commerce platform.  This idea is at the heart of our Future Gifting Technology.

In practice, anyone with a client base only has to upload their clients’ basic contact information (name and mailing address), select the occasions on which they want to send gifts for their clients, select the gifts associated with those occasions, and submit their order for the ENTIRE CALENDAR YEAR.  But, as we evolved, we also realized that the product’s application didn’t stop with service providers – it can also be used by anyone who wants to implement a simpler employee appreciation solution.

Our Future Gifting technology takes care of the rest. The best part is that the setup process typically requires less than an hour… and it’s free to use.   

So, that’s a little bit about us.  That’s the story behind GiftsOnTime.com.

11.14.2012– BOSTON, MA – ‘Tis the season for gifting, and not just for friends and family. It’s that time of year when business managers must consider what to give and how much to spend on their key clients. To assist in developing an effective gift-giving strategy, GiftsOnTime.com , the leading Appreciation Management® platform for professional service providers, today announced their top five tips for corporate holiday gifting with a view to help busy professionals achieve gifting success in a time-efficient and cost-effective manner. 

“First and foremost, gifting is about expressing appreciation,” said GiftsOnTime.com CEO & Founder Ron Orleans. “But it’s also a tool for creating that important word-of-mouth buzz about your business. Ultimately, you want to make a positive impression on your client with a personalized gift that gets noticed – and gets talked about.”

GiftsOnTime.com has compiled the following five tips for managers to develop an effective holiday gifting strategy this year: 

1. Time is Money – The holidays are hectic, so take advantage of low-cost tools for getting organized like GiftsOnTime.com ’s free online platform for “future gifting,” which lets you select and schedule client gifts for an entire year in just an hour’s time. Or, try the Better Christmas List iPhone app, which lets you create lists, divide them into categories, and track your spending/budget as you go. 

2. Say “So Long” to the Calendar – And forget the branded mug as well. Instead, opt for more personalized gifts like a monogrammed frame for your client’s desk, or a favorite bottle of wine. You need to show some thought in order to stand out from the crowd and to create a positive, long-lasting impression. 

3. Make Your List, and Check it Twice – Don’t forget to update your contact database throughout the year as clients may move their office or home. Sending a gift to the wrong address may result in costly shipping errors. 

4. Play by the Rules - Some corporate policies may restrict the types of gifts employees may accept, and others may have a dollar limit. Be sure to investigate your client’s gift-giving policies before making a holiday blunder. 

5. Make it Useful – The current economic climate is not a time for frivolous gifts or over-the-top spending. Gourmet food items are always appreciated, or stick with desk gadgets that you know they will use. 

GiftsOnTime.com has compiled five tips for business owners to consider in creating long-lasting partnerships that will lead to successful performance.

“No matter how good your product or service may be, or how competitive your pricing, the fact of the matter is that people like to do business with people that they like and trust,” said GiftsOnTime.com CEO & Founder Ron Orleans. “At GiftsOnTime, we like to think of our relationships not as ‘business-to-business’ but as ‘people-to-people,’ because people truly are the business, and we have happily found success in doing so.”

How can business owners strengthen their existing relationships as well as build new and lasting partnerships? We recommend the following five actions:

1. Go Beyond Business - Take interest and learn about more than just your customer’s business. Be open to learning about their lives, family, and what makes them happy.

2. Save the Date - Remember important dates such as birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays. Do something special on those dates to say, “Your business is important to me, but your well being and happiness are also important to me and my business.”

3. Make Some Time - Accept the idea that maintaining and improving your business relationships is time well spent. Your time may be a precious commodity, but people will go the extra mile for those that they respect and enjoy working with.

4. Don’t Just Get By - Go beyond doing “just enough” to care for the welfare of the people that you do business with. It will come back to you in performance.

5. Be Positive - Being optimistic and focusing on the good can be especially important when the business climate is down. Optimism is a contagious virus – spread it when ever you can; it truly makes people feel better about their business and about themselves.

The Thrill of Onions – – Unique Gifts Make You Feel Special

Sure, I know that the partners at McLain, Calhoun, McCullough, Clark & Co., P.C. were not thinking of me specifically this week, but I do know that they did think enough of me to add me to the list of people who receive their annual, unique gift.

Yes, I received my box of onions and I was simply delighted. I’ve been lucky enough to receive this gift for many years now and I don’t take it for granted. It seems special every year.

You see, McLain Calhoun is located in Vidalia, Georgia – you all know what that means when it comes to onions, Vidalia onions are sweet and delicious.

How about your firm, are you recognizing your important clients and your valuable people by “remembering” them each year with a gift?

There are a lot of great ideas out there for gifts, but I met the people from Gifts On Time last fall and they make it easy for busy CPAs to schedule their gift-giving. They call it “gift management simplified.” One of the founders is actually a CPA – Ron Orleans.

I also encourage you to consider gifts for prospects. How can they refuse a phone call from someone who has sent them a nice gift. At my firm we did this all the time – – – send a letter, then a card, then a gift – then make a phone call.

I bet you never thought you would see a picture of me with onions! Maybe I should add it to my “Is that you with Rita?” album.

http://ritakeller.com/blog/2012/05/the-thrill-of-onions-unique-gifts-make-you-feel-special.html

See how GiftsOnTime.com works! It’s the only free platform for busy professionals to pre-plan and automate gift giving for an entire year in just a few minutes. Go to http://www.giftsontime.com to see how we can help you.

1. Give your customers the inside scoop

If your product or service is about to have a price reduction or promotion, communicate that to clients!  People love to feel as if they are getting a deal, and getting an email or phone call with a Head’s up about an upcoming bargain makes them feel like you care about them.

2. Develop a basic rewards program

Its not too late!  Loyalty should be rewarded.  Even if your company doesn’t have a formal Rewards Program in place, you can deliver a volume-based program to your best customers.  Let them know that the more they buy, the bigger the discount you’ll be able to provide.  Or, if they reach a pre-set buying goal, they will be rewarded with free products and services.  Just keep in mind there are Pros and Cons to every reward program.

3. Tier your customers

Every business has primary and secondary customers.  It’s important to know which customers fit in to which category and sell to them in a way that meets their specific needs. Rating your customers is not as difficult as you may think.  Primary customers have earned your attention.  They like to be reminded that they are special.  Secondary customers can turn in to Primary by communicating regularly with them, understanding their specific needs and creatively meeting those needs.  Prospecting for new customers? They fall into a third tier.  Sales strategies designed to target new customers are very different from customer-care based strategies.  What promotion tools make the most sense to promote your product, but stick with the marketing image you want to project? Do you track the different ways your promote your product so that you know which methods are most effective? Are you promoting on the Internet effectively?

4. Offer free samples.

The age-old sales weapon.  If your product or service is good and potential clients have an opportunity to try it, they may just like it well enough to buy.  Everyone loves free stuff!

5. Gift…Yes, GIFT is a verb! 

And finally, let your customers know they matter to you. The easiest and most special way to communicate that someone matters is with a gift.  You can spend as little as $25, or as much as $250.  A gift is a powerful sales tool and a great way to help beat quarterly sales targets.

Step One: When you work in sales, you start the New Year with a clean slate and view the new sales year as an opportunity for improvement.  List your sales goals and be specific. You may set a goal of increasing your yearly sales by $20,000 or increasing your number of clients by the end of the sales year. Write out your goals and post your goals on the wall to keep you inspired.

Step Two: Break your larger goals into mini-goals. If your primary objective is an additional $20,000 in sales, plan to achieve this goal over the course of 12 months. For example, you could increase monthly sales by at least $1,600 to reach your main goal. Create a timeline for reaching milestones. Write out each month and identify what you hope to accomplish before the month ends. Plan to achieve half of your sales goals by mid-year, or establish quarterly goals.

Step Three: Write down the steps needed to achieve your goals. Create a list of current sales tactics and then brainstorm new ways to improve your sales. Spend a couple of hours each day or week cold calling news businesses, pass out your business cards or brochures, follow up on previous interest or work a few extra hours each week.

Step Four:  Keep a record of your progress. Refer to your timeline at the end of each month and put a check next to each completed item or accomplishment. Make adjustments to next month’s goals as needed. For example, if your monthly sales were $200 less than your target, increase the next month’s goal by $200 to compensate for the shortfall.

Now its time to get working on developing your plan.  And don’t forget to reward your best customers with a gift fromGiftsOnTime.com!

Build a Custom Landing Page 

For your, “most desired,” prospects, build a simple landing page that’s customized just for your prospect – provide them with an introduction, tools, resources, and information that are all relevant to their needs and shows them you understand their business.  See how to do it here: How to Create a Landing Page.

Engage in THEIR Social Media Channels

Comment on their company’s blog, answer their questions on LinkedIn (see -> “More”, “Answers”), and follow them through Twitter.  You might be surprised how much feedback you get, and it’s not always about selling – it’s about staying top of mind.  Learn more here: How To Use LinkedIn Answers.

Pay Attention to THEIR News

Set up RSS feeds and News Alerts for your prospects (either company’s name or individual’s name) – these are simple opportunities to stay in touch and recognize significant events for your prospects.  Google Alerts is a pretty easy and effective tool that we use.

Stand Out on Key Occasions

Sending gifts, for example, on key occasions such as business anniversaries, deal closings, proposal meetings, etc. will help you stand out.  Remember – when you send a gift, you create a reciprocal emotional bond between the giver and the recipient that will strengthen your business relationship.  See how we did it here: How to Run an Effective Gift Giving Campaign.

Wondering about existing clients and customers?  Click here to download our free eBook to learn more about our thoughts on building stonger client relationships:  http://giftsontime.com/resources.php