AI Summary
→ WHAT IT COVERS Patricia DuChene from Sendoso explains how B2B sales teams can use strategic corporate gifting to build trust, differentiate from competitors, and maintain relationships throughout the sales cycle and beyond initial purchase. → KEY INSIGHTS - **No-strings-attached gifting:** Send gifts celebrating life events like promotions or babies without asking for anything in return to establish trust, which is jarring for prospects and creates future opportunities when they enter buying mode. - **Personal knowledge KPI:** Set a benchmark to learn two personal factoids per sales call, document them in CRM with calendar reminders for birthdays and anniversaries, and measure yourself against this metric until active listening becomes natural habit. - **Gift the workers, not executives:** Focus gifting on people doing implementation work like operations teams and procurement rather than senior leaders, since these individuals have more work, can vote no on adoption, and appreciate recognition nobody else gives them. - **Gamify post-purchase adoption:** After closing deals, create contests rewarding first five users who complete specific activities within timeframes using gifts as prizes, which builds product usage habits and leverages salespeople's competitive nature to drive implementation success. → NOTABLE MOMENT DuChene shares that her toddler daughter receives more corporate gifts than she does because she frequently mentions her child's daily chaos in sales calls, demonstrating how personal vulnerability in conversations creates memorable connections that prospects reciprocate. 💼 SPONSORS [{"name": "Blind Zebra Sales Operating System", "url": "bzsos@blind-zebra.com"}] 🏷️ Corporate Gifting, Sales Process, Relationship Building, B2B Sales