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Sales Prospecting Gifts

If you’re looking to improve your prospecting efforts, it sometimes helps to remember the old adage “It is better to give than to receive.” In this case, giving an excellent sales prospecting gift can help you receive more leads and business. What is a sales prospecting gift, exactly? It’s an item, ideally personally selected, that is given to individual prospects during the sales prospecting process. Even a small, thoughtful gift can help open doors, make genuine connections, and get conversations started with your potential buyers, making them more inclined to buy with you when the time is right.

Just how important can a sales prospecting gift be? Research suggests that 72% of companies with less than 50 new opportunities per month didn’t achieve their revenue goals, compared to 15% with 51 to 100 new opportunities, and just 4% for companies with 101 to 200 new opportunities, according to data from Hubspot.

So now that you know the stakes, it’s important to recognize that the methods you use in the process—including the use of digital or direct mail gifts—can greatly influence your outcomes.

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Prospecting Methods and Practices

There are two ways of making contact with prospects for inbound and outbound prospecting.

The inbound prospecting methodology works by getting clients to come to you, either by means of advertising or by offering online or social media content that is relevant and desirable to the prospect.
Outbound prospecting works by reaching out to potential clients who (informed by good research) might have an interest in your product or service.

In both methods, incorporating gifts as part of your prospecting efforts can increase the overall effectiveness of your campaigns. This is due to the strong psychological and social impacts of receiving a gift, even when the gift is tied to a desired outcome. The way you use sales prospecting gifts depends in part upon what method you’re using.

sales prospecting gifts for inbound and outbound

Inbound Prospecting

The inbound prospecting methodology works by getting clients to come to you, either by means of advertising or by offering online or social media content that is relevant and desirable to the prospect.

Outbound Prospecting

Outbound prospecting works by reaching out to potential clients who (informed by good research) might have an interest in your product or service.

Gifting for Inbound vs. Outbound Prospecting

Inbound Prospecting

In terms of implementation, inbound marketing can make excellent use of gifting, and do so through automation that makes the process seamless. In these instances, a prospect finds your product or service via research and comes at the top of the funnel seeking information. Through the use of a sending platform, prospects that enter in this manner can trigger an automatic send. This could be a simple, digital gift such as a coffee eCard delivered along with a piece of digital content, or even a $10 lunch gift card delivered along with a physical information packet (you can invite your recipient to treat them as a “lunch and learn”!) Even these small gestures go a long way to establishing an extra connection when sending digital or printed content.

Outbound Prospecting

For outbound prospecting, gifting is used to strengthen the initial connection with a potential client, such as phone conversation, email reply, or a discovery call set or completed. For instance, a small eGift card can serve as an incentive to reply to an offer, driving response numbers and in turn improving conversion rates.

Gifts can also be sent as a follow-up to a successful connection. This method of gifting keeps you top-of-mind with the prospect, and illustrates how someone can expect to be treated as a future client.

The key to success here: The two main forms of outbound prospecting, cold-calling and emailing, are on the rise; prospects are increasingly aware and fatigued on these tactics. However, sending a small, well-personalized gift off Amazon invites your prospect to see themselves as a valued contact, rather than just a name in a list. This cuts through all the noise and inbox clutter to make a genuine connection.

Learn how to create a direct mail campaign from start to finish here.

Gift Choice & Personalization

Finding a Connection

Once you’ve made contact with a potential customer or client, it’s time to start thinking about your send. While it’s prudent to establish a budget and some parameters beforehand, what you send will largely depend on the type of contact you made, and the value of the account you’re trying to establish or strengthen.

For this, you’ll need to start doing some digging about your individual recipient. What do they like, what do they do with their free time? Look for hints in social media that will guide your selections. Social media platforms can be helpful here:

LinkedIn: Great for finding alma mater, professional interests, or organizations they belong to.
Instagram: To make connections like travel destinations, sports, pets, or family.
Twitter: For information about their life and general interests.
Google Search: Great for finding publications and appearances they’ve made or participated in, such as online articles, conferences, keynotes, etc.
Mutual Connections: Many platforms tell you if you have mutual connections, which are great for breaking the ice.

The Power of Personalization

Personalization can make a significant difference in the reception of your gift, and the return on your investments. Research shows that the best sales prospecting gift is a personalized one. Targeting customers on a one-to-one basis increases response rates by up to 50% or more. What’s more, 96% of digital marketers say personalization advances customer relationships.

There are many ways to personalize the experience for your recipient:

Alma mater: Does your prospect show school spirit? Team colors show you care.
Team sports: Fan of football, rugby? Send something to help them cheer for their team.
Pets: Is their dog in every Insta post? Make a good impression by remembering a best friend.
Hobbies: Scuba or sewing, riding or writing, make a special effort with special interests.
Geography: Help them show off their hometown pride with a locally-focused gift.
Milestones: New family members, marriage, career achievements, or a new house offer ways to make a personal connection.
Job Role: Have the recently made moves in their career? Send them a small desk item to celebrate.
Career Field: Do they know everything about their industry or niche? Send them something personalized to their specialty.
Thought Leadership: Do they lead the discussions in an industry topic? Include an item that acknowledges their expertise.
Company: Is there big news at their company, such as launch, patent, funding round, or acquisition? Help them celebrate the team’s success.

Personalized Gift Ideas

Sales Prospecting Gifts

Once you’ve found a personal connection with your prospect, personalizing a gift doesn’t have to be difficult.

For the sports fan, a jersey or a tumbler make a great, practical gift. For the “big fish” accounts, you might even consider tickets to a game.
Pet fans will appreciate fun, branded gifts like tug toys, catnip, gourmet treats, or personalized leash and collar sets.
Travel vibes and local flavors are easy to celebrate with items like coffee table books, local gourmet treats, personalized luggage tags, or even branded power converters for the international jet-setter.
For milestones like babies and houses, a personalized blanket, housewarming gift, or item of clothing makes a great impression.

With any personalized gift, it’s great to further make the connection with a handwritten note, personally addressing your recipient and a salient detail from the conversation or meeting. This lets the prospect know that you were present in the conversation, and can further strengthen a powerful gesture.

Cold Calling Gifts

While cold-calling gifts become a little trickier, there are certainly ways to present a gift of appreciation to a recipient as part of a cold-calling campaign, such as:

eGift Cards for a coffee or a treat.
A donation to a cause or charity made on the recipient’s behalf.
An Amazon gift card as a thank you for setting a meeting.
A code for a swag store that allows them to select a small, branded gift.
A personalized, handwritten note thanking them for their time.

Definitely aim for a cost-effective gift that still makes a splash, as the ROI on a gift in the cold-calling stage may be lower than one where a warm connection is established.

Conclusion

No matter what part of the sales prospecting journey you’re on with a potential customer, or what method you’re using to prospect, the inclusion of a gift in the process can make a great impression that drives response and creates lifetime customers.

If you’d like to learn how easy the process can be, speak with a sending specialist today and learn more during a demo of the Sendoso Sending Platform.