How to A/B Test Corporate Gifts Throughout The Sales Cycle: Sendoso + Clari

This corporate gifts blog is brought to you by our partners at the connected revenue operations platform, Clari.

In today’s competitive marketplace, the buyer experience is more important than ever. Cold calls and repeated emails to “just follow up” aren’t enjoyable and don’t accelerate sales cycles. Research shows that even a small corporate gift can create better buying experiences and influence the success of sales negotiations. But how do you know what to send? And when?

That’s where Sendoso comes in. Our Sending Platform’s new integration with Clari’s Connected Revenue Operations platform allows you to track each of the gifts you send in the context of all the other engagements in your sales cycle (meetings, phone calls, emails, etc.).

Clari automatically tracks when a corporate gift is sent and received through Sendoso, and attributes those signals to the proper opportunity, so reps don’t have to manually enter that information into their CRM. Those signals are logged in Clari’s Deal Activity panel, where the entire revenue operations team can easily see other sales activity and engagement signals along a timeline to identify how different gifting approaches affect engagement. With this visibility, you can A/B test different types of corporate gifts at different frequencies and different points of the deal.

To run an A/B test, you need to break up a number of your prospect accounts into two different groups for each experiment. Take ten similar prospects (similar in size, use case, tech stack, and other firmographics) and break them up into two groups. Then use your first strategy (“A” variation) on five prospects and your second strategy (“B” variation) on the other five prospects. Be sure to document which prospect goes into which group.

Then after each individual A/B test, use Clari to align with your sales team to better understand which tests drive the desired results. You can then incorporate the strategy that yielded better results into your normal sales cycle.

Three Ways to Find the Best Corporate Gifts For Your Sales Cycle

1. A/B Test: When to Send a Gift

Start by testing when in your sales cycle is the right time to send a gift. Start small and ask one question at a time: Does a personalized gift work better as a door-opener to get the first meeting or as a deal accelerator after you’ve sent out a contract? Is a $5 coffee eGift better to send right before a meeting to ensure your prospect shows up or right after a demo to keep the deal moving forward? With a couple of questions in mind, sales and marketing can execute together and better understand the impact on pipeline with Clari.

2. A/B Test: What Gift to Send

After determining the most critical points of interaction for gifts in your sales cycle, you’ll want to optimize exactly what it is you send. Again, start by trying to answer simple questions to build a full picture: Does a box of branded cupcakes or a bottle of wine work better to propel a deal across the finish line during negotiation? Is a lunch eGift or thoughtful, handwritten note a more effective touchpoint for meeting follow up? Don’t be afraid to get creative here! Direct mail and personalized gifts are meant to help you rise above the noise and get noticed.

3. A/B Test: How Many Gifts to Send

Finally, you can test and optimize the number of gifts you’re sending during the sales cycle. As always, start with a question or hypothesis: Are my prospects more engaged if I send something before a meeting and during negotiation or just during negotiation? Do deals move more quickly when two physical touchpoints are involved or three physical touchpoints? Remember: more does not always mean better. Don’t overwhelm your prospects with too many messaging.

Not all reps are the same, so testing across individuals, teams, and territories will provide a variety of insights. With a Connected Revenue Operations platform like Clari, it’s easy to share the results across the organization so everyone can optimize how to best incorporate direct mail and gifts into their deal cycles. And Sendoso alleviates problems with sourcing, warehouse storage, inventory tracking, and ROI attribution for anything your sales team needs to send, saving them time and money. Using these two powerful platforms together allows you to effectively A/B test and optimize your corporate gifting strategy.

P.S. Need some gifting ideas? Grab a copy of our eBook below.

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