iPromo, our Why: Strengthening Relationships with Promotional Gifts

As I think about iPromo and our growth plan for 2015+ I have to ask why our customers would initiate and expand their relationships with us. I have been considering this question and the answer has little to do with the products we sell. It has to do with why we are in business.

It may sound corny but the world is a better place when people have stronger, deeper relationships with each other; this holds for business relationships as well. Business usually starts with an email or a phone call. Then when we meet for the first time, we often say “its nice to put a face with the name.” This speaks to the underlying desire to have stronger relationships.

This comes to the heart of why we’re in business at iPromo: To help build stronger relationships, stronger bonds. Promotional gifts are one way to do this. If your relationship with customers is not good to start, promotional gifts won’t help… you have more fundamental issues to address. But, as part of an overall relationship, promotional gifts can go a long way to showing appreciation and strengthening the bond. They are tangible reminders that can be privately appreciated or shared with peers.

Promotional products are not about selling the next widget, enrolling the next donor or recruiting the next student, they are about enhancing the experience and expanding the relationship; they’re about strengthening the bond.

Last year we touched on how to select a promotional product. From the piece, I have to highlight a central question, “how do you want the recipients to feel…?” Relationships are about feelings. If you want to strengthen the bond, then you need to understand what feeling you are trying the evoke.

Real Life
Many of our clients have booths at trade shows. During the shows, they meet prospects and also schedule time to meet with their best customers.

Now consider the ubiquitous branded pen.

As your customer approaches the booth for her meeting with you, she sees you handing pens to the passersby and those who stop to talk. This is great for the passersby and it serve that purpose well.

But, when she arrives you hand her the same style pen you’ve handed to everyone else. At best this has no impact. At worst, you’ve just told her that she is no more important to you than all the anonymous attendees at the show.

Now imagine instead that when she arrives you greet her and say, “I’m so glad you could make it. Before we get started, I have something for you,” and you go to your briefcase (or under the table… anywhere but something thats just laying about), and you retrieve and hand her a nicer pen. For your customer, you’ve just said “you’re important to me.” It isn’t about a “nicer” pen per se. Its about how you’ve gone out of your way just for her. The pen is a symbol of that, a reminder. With this simple act, you have strengthen the bond.

Branded gifts are not just about the item. They are about how you present them, the thought you put into selecting and presenting them. In the example above, you can do the same for each of the important clients or prospects, showing them that they are special to you.

Whether employee events, conferences, awards, customer appreciation, or school orientations, there are numerous ways to tell the recipients that they are important. With a little imagination and planning, a simple item can become a lasting, fantastic symbol.

Building stronger bonds.

Working with our clients, we need to focus on how they want the recipients to feel in order to strengthen the relationship. We need to help create the ‘event of giving’ and select the right promotional gifts to give. They may be buying hundreds or thousands of items, but they are giving them to individuals. Our focus is on helping the act of giving strengthen the bond between our clients and the person to whom they give the gift.

To do this, we will continue to listen, be creative, be responsive and most importantly, we will do this because we know that it will help create stronger relationships; it may even help make people happier. And, in its own small way, it will help make the world just a little bit better.