Appreciation Marketing

[greenoak]

i would try and train to be kind of spontaneous.... an obvious robotic program wouldnt be good.... i like your ideas of sending a little present..

[billbenson]

I spent 22 years in the old days doing field sales. We had give aways, companies sent out Christmas gifts etc. The only people who could care less about the give always were the secretaries. I don't think any of them had any impact on sales. We did golf excursions to pebble beach, Hawaii; Those had impact, not because of the opportunity to go to Pebble Beach and play golf; it gave you committed face time with your customers to sell. Just like buying customers lunch or even a fancy dinner. It's a dedicated selling opportunity. A time to make friends with your customers. All things being equal (price, quality etc), people will buy from their friends. Face time is a time to sell and make friends.

Now I can see it if your Christmas card or gift acts as a flier or fridge magnet. But it doesn't appear to me that, that is the focus of "Appreciation Marketing" in this thread.

If you buy something in a retail store and the clerk is nice, you will want to go back. If they are rude you won't want to. But that's not appreciation, that's courtesy, salesmanship... Thank you is a common courtesy, but I don't see it as anything more.

[ParaTed2k]

Bill, which means give aways don't automatically equate to appreciation, right? Few feel appreciated by being lumped in together with everyone else. Which is what we tell the people with whom we do business when they get generic "one size fits all" gifts. Those may have worked in the past, but well, not anymore... as your examples show.