When you think about B2B corporate gifting, what comes to mind? Marketers probably think about customer appreciation gifts, loyalty rewards, and thank-yous for case study participants or conference speakers. But there are a lot more uses.
If you consider B2B corporate gifting outside the scope of marketing, it can be a great problem-solving strategy. WIth the power to use rewards in their daily interactions, sales reps are more likely to save a deal that otherwise would have been lost. Here are three situations where a reward might be just the catalyst that sales needs.
READ MORE: 3 Ways Online Gift Cards Can Help Close More Deals
It happens to every sales rep. You’re emailing back and forth with a new lead or had what seemed like a great intro call, and then your contact goes silent. Maybe they got busy with other projects. Maybe they didn’t get budget approval. Maybe they just forgot. Catch their attention and renew their interest in scheduling a demo by offering a digital reward. Even a relatively nominal dollar amount can be enough to make them finally open and respond to your latest email.
What about hot leads who just don’t seem to want to pull the trigger? They could be comparing your offering against competitors, so the faster you can get them to close the deal, the better. Use B2B corporate gifting as a way to create urgency. Offer to throw in a digital reward if they sign the contract within the next few days or week. Or create a promotion that sends a reward to the next 10 or 20 new customers. By putting a limit on the availability of the reward, you will hopefully give them that little extra push to commit.
Depending on which industry you’re in and which research you look at, acquiring a new customer is anywhere from five to 25 times more expensive than retaining the ones you have, according to the Harvard Business Review. And with Qualtrics’ prediction that brand switching will increase, that means renewals are just as important for your bottom line — if not more important — as new business.
Renewal conversations aren’t always easy, though, when a customer isn’t satisfied with your offering or their experience. Before you dub it a lost cause and let them cancel their contract or, worse, move to a competitor, consider offering a reward. At the end of the day, customers just want to know that they’ve been heard. Empathize with them, address their concerns, and use a small gift to show that you value their business and are committed to making it right. A digital reward is a better play in this situation than a discount on their renewal: It will feel more like a genuine gesture rather than a sales tactic, since it can go to the individual contact you’re talking to. A discount saves their company money, which likely has little effect on that person.
Make sure that your gifting strategy doesn’t end when the contract is signed. There are lots of effective ways to use rewards throughout the customer journey to build engagement, collect valuable feedback, and create brand advocates.
Check out these blogs on how customer rewards are always important to your overall marketing and sales strategy:
Hannah is a reformed journalist who has more than 15 years of experience and now focuses on content marketing for innovative tech companies.
Hannah is a reformed journalist who has more than 15 years of experience and now focuses on content marketing for innovative tech companies.
