Founder and CEO of Packed with Purpose, where business gifts foster meaningful relationships and create deep social impact.
From the Yucatec Mayans to Pre-Modern Japan to mid-1800s Americans, gift giving has existed across multiple cultures since society began. In 1925, French anthropologist and sociologist Marcel Mauss first academically investigated gift giving and its ties to culture. His conclusion? Gift giving is not “uninterested”—meaning that gift giving, whether through a kind gesture or physical gift, usually implies an expectation that something would be given in return at some point, whether through something material or through a social relationship started or maintained because of that gift.
Building and maintaining good customer relationships is a key tactic for most businesses, and it is a smart, affordable strategy when acquiring new customers becomes cost-prohibitive during times of financial belt-tightening. Strengthening business relationships through the expression of gratitude or sending of a physical gift is a logical evolution of society’s historic use of gifts as a tactic to build and nurture relationships. Psychological studies have defined this as the “rule of reciprocation” (or “norm of reciprocity”): a universal human tendency to feel compelled to repay or reciprocate when given a gift. Reciprocity is the idea that we as humans feel the need to give back what we have been given; whether someone does something nice for us or gives us something, we then feel obligated to return in kind.
Nurturing Relationships
Successful business leaders have often cited the importance of relationships for long-term growth. Lee Iacocca said, “Business, after all, is nothing more than a bunch of human relationships.” According to Marc Cuban, “Business happens over years and years. Value is measured in the total upside of a business relationship, not by how much you squeezed out in any one deal.” And, more recently, over three-quarters of the business executives who responded to the Economist Impact Survey said that identifying trustworthy business partners was a high or business-critical priority for the senior leadership in their organization.
Cultivating that trust can be as simple as elevating your current account-based marketing (ABM) strategy from basic communications to something more personal. According to one study, “part of the uniqueness of the reward activation around gift giving . . . is that because it is social, it also activates pathways in the brain that release oxytocin, which is a neuropeptide that signals trust, safety and connection.” Companies can be even more effective with their data by leveraging tactics that harness these evolutionarily embedded human tendencies of gratitude, gift giving and the psychological norm of reciprocity. You can shift the nature of your ongoing communications from updates on your business to something that feels good to everyone—expressing genuine gratitude, celebration and recognition of the personal and professional accomplishments of your customer.
How To Give To Your Customers
Try sending a gift box to customers to celebrate their accomplishments during a new product launch, a milestone anniversary or a positive press piece. Take time during Thanksgiving to express gratitude for your ongoing business relationship with a heartfelt message. Or, take advantage of timely opportunities like the winter holidays or birthdays as an excuse to rekindle a business relationship by sending a personalized and meaningful gift. Show your customers that you are paying attention, build up their oxytocin, and hopefully, your business will reap the benefits of the norm of reciprocity while also doing something that feels good.
If you are managing a tighter sales and marketing budget this year, there are still many affordable, efficient and effective strategies to help you grow in 2023. Take a page from history and dive deeply into relationship-building through the use of gift giving. If you are effectively monitoring your customer’s activities, all you have to do is say thanks, celebrate their success and recognize an important event in their lives. You will be tapping into a long societal tradition that brings joy, builds trust and, ultimately, creates reciprocal relationships.
With the smallest of gestures, you can move beyond a one-off transaction to grow customer lifetime value for the long-term.
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