It really is the thought that counts

Recently, after asking advisors for ideas for articles, I got a response from one advisor who had been invited to his top client’s 60th birthday party. He was delighted and flattered to be included, but was concerned about bringing an appropriate gift.

The client was an extremely successful business owner who had every toy imaginable. Even worse, many of the other guests were going to be in the same financial league as the client. There was no way he could outspend the other guests, even if he’d wanted to.

Many advisors run into this conundrum when selecting a gift for a top client, and this is especially true as we approach the holiday season. We all want the things we do to thank and acknowledge clients to stand out and be remembered. But this is becoming harder and harder to do as we — and many of our clients — have “done it all and seen it all.”

There are four principles to giving gifts that stand out:

1. First, seek to attach yourself to positive moments for clients.

2. Where possible, root the gift in your clients’ interests and passions, whether it be their hobbies, their families or the charities they support.

3. Seek out something that clients will hang on to and that will serve as a continuing reminder of you. In the process, personalize your gifts to each client and make them as unique as possible.

4. If you don’t link the gift to the specific client, make it reflect your own personality and values.



> Attach Yourself To Positive Moments For Clients

One extremely effective strategy in selecting a gift for a client is to tap into moments that evoke positive emotions for clients — and piggyback on those positive emotions. If you do this right, you can make an impact that transcends the amount of money you spend.

One of the most effective gifts I’ve come across is one that an advisor I know gives whenever one of his clients experiences the birth of a child or a grandchildren.

He has his assistant clip the birth announcement out of the newspaper, has the clipping mounted at a local print shop and buys a frame for it. He then sends the framed birth announcement to the client with a note of congratulations.

To paraphrase the words of a MasterCard advertising campaign: “Total Cost: Under $50. Emotional Impact: Priceless.”

Another advisor I know has a client who runs a successful business. After years of prodding by his wife, the client agreed to book a two-week cruise.

The advisor arranged to have a congratulatory bottle of champagne waiting for them in their cabin when they boarded. That client still talks about that gift years later.

Still another advisor has a special gift for key clients who have children going off to university. She orders matching sweatshirts from the online store of that university.

When the sweatshirts arrive, she sends them off to her clients with a note of congratulations; she has repeatedly gotten positive responses to this strategy.

A gift that is not in the same league, in terms of emotional impact, is offered by an advisor who notes when and where clients are taking their holidays.

He gives these clients the Michelin Green Guide to the city or country they’re visiting, inscribing a handwritten note of best wishes on the first page.

The key to making your gift-giving strategy work is to divorce it entirely from self-interest on your part.

One advisor had gotten into the habit of opening a $100 registered education savings plan when a client had a child. Nothing wrong with the sentiment — but the impact is ho-hum compared to that framed birth announcement. The reason is quite simple: the RESP lacks the same emotional punch and is too closely tied to something that will generate revenue for the advisor.



> Root Gifts In The Client’s Passions

When it comes to holiday gifts, some advisors I’ve talked to tap into important clients’ hobbies and passions for such activities as cooking, gardening, travel, golf or wine to select a gift with impact.

There are two keys to making this work: first, you have to know your best clients well; second, wherever possible, categorize clients into groups.

Sending different gifts to each of 20 clients is cumbersome; dividing your key clients into four or five groups is much more workable. Remember, just as one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to client communications, one size also doesn’t fit all when it comes to getting maximum impact from client gifts.

@page_break@If you want to make this impact, pick some common themes among your top clients — cooking, gardening, travel, golf and wine could be good starting points. Go through your list of top clients, one by one, to determine which category each client fits into.



> Choose Gifts With Longevity

Once you’ve identified a key client’s passion, the next step is to find an effective way to tap into it. One way is to seek out a gift that stands apart from others in its longevity.

Instead of giving a wine lover a bottle of wine at Christmas, one advisor gives a leather-bound binder in which to record the wines consumed and make notes of the experience.

Another advisor gives clients who love to cook a special binder in which to record recipes they have tried and note how they worked out.

A senior executive at one of the banks gives friends and clients who love to travel the best-selling book 1000 Places to See Before You Die, by Patricia Schultz. The recipients can use this book as a resource to track where they’ve been and when they’re going next. And whenever they do so, they’re reminded of the gift’s source.

The success of 1000 Places has spawned a host of imitators — and gift-giving opportunities. For golfers, there’s a parallel book called 1001 Golf Holes You Must Play Before You Die, by Jeff Barr. There are also similar books listing books, films, works of art, albums, wines and restaurants.

The advantage to all of these is that if you tap into your clients’ passions, they will frequently refer to them — and think of you every time.



> Reflect Your Own Personality And Values

An alternative approach that some advisors use is to give gifts that become their trademark among their clients.

The key to making this strategy work is that you have to stand out and also have to treat this as an ongoing multi-year commitment.

One advisor in a mid-sized community visits key clients at home in early December to thank them for the opportunity to work together over the past year and to deliver a wreath for their front door. He has become associated with that gesture among his most important clients, who now expect his call each year.

Another gift-giving strategy can relate to support for charity. More and more clients are involved in charitable giving, and want to work with advisors who share their values.

Gifts to support Third World charities at holiday time can be especially powerful — partly because it’s a time of year when we’re sensitized to the contrasts between our environment and that part of the world, but also because of the impact that a relatively modest amount of money can have.

One advisor supports an African charity at which the son of one of his clients works. A few years ago, he began sending clients a holiday card saying that instead of giving a gift he had made a contribution to this charity in that client’s name. Now, clients regularly ask how that charity is doing. The response he is getting to this program is more positive than what he got from any of the bottles of wine, poinsettias or boxes of chocolates he has given clients in previous years. In part, this may be because most clients get lots of bottles of wine, poinsettias and chocolates; his previous gift had not really stood out.

Some advisors “adopt” children through organizations such as Foster Plan International as a thank-you gesture to clients. They use newsletters to keep clients abreast of how their “kids” are doing.

Amani Children’s Home in Tanzania (a personal favourite of mine) pays for impoverished or homeless children to go to school; education isn’t free in Tanzania. A $150 gift in a client’s name pays for books, uniforms and fees for elementary school for a child for a year. Your client will get a thank-you note with a drawing from the child they are sponsoring.

Advisors who have done this have told me they were blown away by the response from the clients on whose behalf the advi-sors had made this kind of donation. The response is much more enthusiastic than the response they would get by spending twice that amount to take the clients out to dinner.

Charities such as World Vision and Ten Thousand Villages allow advisors to donate mosquito nets, rabbits, chickens, blankets or soccer balls on behalf of individual clients. Or you can make a larger and potentially life-changing gift of goats or a cow to a Third World family on behalf of all of your clients.

Still another advisor personalizes his charitable commitment. In early November, he sends each of his top 10 clients a personalized letter offering to give up to $200 to match a gift to their favourite charity. All the clients have to do is send the advisor a cheque made out to their charity of choice in a postage-paid envelope the advisor has supplied. He then adds his own cheque and mails it to the charity. In December, he then sends a note to all of his other clients, detailing the charities he is supporting that year as a thank-you gesture to all his clients.

The most important thing to remember about client gifts: what determines your success in striking the right chord is not how much money you spend; rather, it’s investing the thought and the time to give something that truly resonates, is out of the norm and reflects your own personality.

And once you’ve started down this path, understand that to be really effective, it must be an ongoing commitment that clients will anticipate and come to know you for. IE

Dan Richards is president of Strategic Imperatives Corp. in Toronto. For access to his video commentaries, visit
www.investmentexecutive.com.