For many the scramble has already begun. When will we take our holiday card photo, where, what should we all wear?
And what fruit basket or gift will really say “thank you dear client” the best at the Christmas-time holiday giving season?
What a racket.
What a drag on my psyche.
Are my December Holidays really designed to send out hundreds of cards to candidates, clients and prospects who are bombarded with this kind of “thank you” detritus this time of year? Or should I save that precious time of year for those who matter most, my family and friends?
We have decided to do the latter and gave up doing holiday/Christmas cards and client appreciation gifts. In our opinion the gesture no longer has meaning, and sours our overall attitude about a time of year that should be special and cherished.
But this doesn’t mean we have given up on showing our clients sincere gestures of appreciation. We definitely believe saying thanks to our clients, candidates and a few key prospects makes a lot of sense. But at Christmas-time? Is there no better opportunity to say THANKS?
There is, and in the States, and even for our brethren to the north in Canada, we have a perfect holiday for saying Thank You…you guessed it, Thanksgiving! You know, that time for Giving THANKS.
Not only do I use this time to conclude my billing year (my year ends November 30th); and not only do I craft most of my personal and business goals by the time the Thanksgiving weekend is over; I now see to it that my annual client appreciation gestures, cards and gifts of thanks are delivered before the Wednesday of Thanksgiving week.
Not only does this free me up to enjoy the holidays with those who matter most to me, my family and friends; and not only does it free up a big chunk of time at the holidays to start selling again when everybody else is running around with their heads cut off signing cards and delivering gifts; it gives me one of my best competitive advantages of the year…I go first, and get remembered longer, throughout the whole holiday season, because my gesture of appreciation made sense as it was delivered when it seemed to matter, at a time designed for giving thanks, Thanksgiving.
You can read more of how we have made this such a successful best practice by reading my article, A Holiday Scrooge Or Sage Thanksgiving Advice. In this short article I share what holiday gift we give that has the added bonus of client interaction and conversation throughout the year. How many holiday gifts do that?
This article can also be found in your November issue of the Fordyce Letter (http://www.fordyceletter.com/), or find it by following the link above. If you would like a printable copy of this article to share in your office, please feel free to email me at AskJeff@JeffersonInc.com and I will promptly email you a copy that you can print.
Do you have best practices you use to blunt the Holiday Client Appreciation Blues? Please comment or share them here, or email me. We would love to hear how you manage during this stressful time of year all while keeping your Holiday Cheer.
Jeff Skrentny, CERS, had an inauspicious start in the recruiting profession as his first placement quit after 93 days. Then he was sued. Despite that start, Jeff has been an executive recruiter for 23 years, and has also been a trainer, author and motivator for his profession for the last 15 years, as well as being a business consultant and adviser for its producers, managers & owners for the last 10 years; all while still running a busy IT search business in Chicago at his firm Jefferson Group Search.
One of my good friends and a Million Dollar biller, Martin Birnbach, has been doing this along with an occasional New Years card for the last couple of years with great success. It like that golden rule of good marketing I leaned so long ago which is “always accord your product or service uniqueness”. This is a good idea that could set you apart in the branding wars that are developing and becoming more intense day by day.