Giving chocolate as a corporate gift seems like a great idea.
After all, who doesn’t like chocolate?
You can get chocolate that comes in custom designs, colors, and decor.
And chocolate comes in all different price ranges, so it just depends on your budget with how grand you want to go.
But unfortunately, chocolate is an absolutely terrible corporate gift. And in this article, we’re going to explain why… so that you don’t waste your money sending chocolate corporate gifts.
Benefits of Corporate Gifting
Before I share the reasons why chocolate makes a bad corporate gift, I want to share the reason why you’ll want to send a corporate gift in the first place.
Helps You Build Relationships
A strategic corporate gift will help you build and solidify relationships with people who are going to move the needle in your business.
For instance, they may be prospective clients who are going to sign million-dollar annual contracts, or they are star employees who you want to make sure know how much they mean to you.
But this can only work IF the gift is used.
For instance, if your recipient is has a gluten, or lactose, or nut allergy, then they may not be able to enjoy the chocolate you sent over.
High ROR
We don’t use the term ROI as much as we use ROR, Return on Relationship.
Here’s why.
A solid ROI requires a return as quickly as possible. If you put $1 into a marketing campaign, you need to see $3 right away.
With a ROR, we are looking to build relationships over time. When we put $1 into a relationship campaign, we are going to see hundreds of dollars paid out over the course of years!
The 7 Keys to a Great Corporate Gift
1. Practical
Make sure your gift is beneficial to the recipient. A gift that can be used daily (or at least 3-5 times a week) is unquestionably more valuable than a gift that, once consumed can no longer be used.
2. Personalized
To stand out from the crowd, create some personalization in your gift. This can be done with an origin story for the gift or by giving it some sort of personalized branding.
3. Best-in-class
You absolutely can not compromise the quality in any way. Our definition of best-in-class is this: will this be an heirloom that future generations will be able to use?
Think about a nice piece of luggage or a beautifully designed cutlery set here. The grandkids will be fighting over who inherits this gift.
4. Luxury
To find an appropriate gift for customers, browse their social accounts to determine their interests and hobbies. Perhaps get them something they wouldn’t buy for themselves but would appreciate a lot if given to them.
5. Handwritten Notes
Don’t underestimate the value of personalizing your message by hand-delivering it or penning a handwritten note clarifying your intentions. Notes are always a way to add a special touch to anything.
6. Including Inner Circle
Another point to remember when you’re giving a gift is how you can make it useful for the recipient’s family.
We can’t tell you how many clients’s have come to us and said “my wife is your biggest sales advocate. She absolutely loves the gift that you sent us!”
7. Create Continuity
Try to create a theme or pattern with your gifts. In this way, you can make sure that the customers are looking forward to getting your gift. Multiple gifts can snowball an emotional impact on the customers.
3 Reason’s Why Chocolate Corporate Gifts are a Terrible Idea
Not Inclusive
I opened this article by asking “who doesn’t like chocolate?”
Well, the truth is, a lot of people either don’t like chocolate, or can’t consume it for one reason or another.
So let’s say that you send a nice chocolate corporate gift to a potential prospect who’s wife has a nut allergy.
She isn’t going to be able to eat it.
And while this doens’t sound like that big of a deal, believe me, it is.
I can’t tell you how many times we’ve sent a gift and the person reached out and said something like:
“My wife is your best salesperson. She ABSOLUTELY loved the gift you sent over and keeps asking when we’re going to start working with you.”
Unfortunately, you run the risk of denying that sales opportunity with chocolate as a corporate gift.
Not Best-in-Class
You can spend thousands of dollars on a beautifully desinted piece of chocolate. But that doesn’t make it best in class.
Why? Because chocolate can never be an heirloom.
Your recipient is not going to hand down you’re chocolate corporate gift to their grandkids. They’re either going to eat it… or throw it away after a certain period of time.
Not Practical
And finally, chocolate isn’t practical.
For a gift to be practical, it needs to be used 3-5 times per week.
Chances are, if chocolate is “used” 5 times in a week, it will be gone! (Espeically the way I eat chocolate.)
Compare this to a beautifully designed cutlery set that will be used several times per day to prepare meals.
Each time your recipient prepares their meal and uses a knife that you gifted them, they will think of you AND the relationship that they have with you.
THAT’S the secret to a great corporate gift. A gift that is used over and over again allows you to continue to win mind-share in that person weeks, months, and even years after you first sent the gift.
It will act as another sales rep.
Your gift will remind your recipient that they need to return your call… or that they need to get in touch with you to help launch their new product line… or they may have a friend that needs your products and services.
Chocolate can’t do that because once consumed, it can no longer act as your sales rep.
Final words…
Unfortunately, food can seem like great corporate gifts, but after further analysis, I hope that you can see that you wouldn’t want to waste your money.
But if you’re looking for a fulfillment service that has ALL that and more, get in touch with us, and we’ll help you craft a gifting service that caters to your business needs.
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