Four ways to get maximum impact from client gifts

Wednesday, October 12th, 2011

With Christ­mas around the cor­ner, many advi­sors are think­ing about how to get the most mileage from the dol­lars they spend on client gifts.

My col­umn in November’s Invest­ment Exec­u­tive out­lines four strate­gies to do exactly that:

• 1. Tap into pos­i­tive experiences

Births, wed­dings and grad­u­a­tions all give you the chance to max­i­mize the impact of the dol­lars you spend. One advi­sor sends clients who have chil­dren or grand­chil­dren a blown up birth announce­ment in a sil­ver plated frame -  this never fails to get a huge and imme­di­ate response.

• 2. Tai­lor the gift to client passions

Divide clients into com­mon groups by the pas­sions they share — cook­ing, wine, travel, golf and gar­den­ing are only a few exam­ples — and then tai­lor the gift to those interests.

• 3. Give gifts that last

Look for gifts with longevity. A wine jour­nal to record impres­sions of each bot­tle con­sumed for a wine lover … a copy of the best seller 1001 places to see before you die for clients who love to travel.

• 4. Use gifts to build your own brand

One way to make gifts work extra hard is to repeat a pat­tern that clients come to know you buy. One way to do that is to pick a char­ity that you sup­port year after year — over time, clients come to asso­ciate you with that char­ity. Espe­cially if you select smaller char­i­ties where your dol­lars have a clear impact, some advi­sors report that clients ask about the char­ity and look for­ward to an update on how it’s doing.

More and more clients are inter­ested in advice around char­i­ta­ble giv­ing; the oppor­tu­nity to avoid cap­i­tal gains by giv­ing stocks and mutual funds pro­vides a real oppor­tu­nity for advi­sors to add value.

Here’s a short video  you can send inter­ested clients about giv­ing appre­ci­ated secu­ri­ties to char­ity with Mal­colm Bur­rows, among Canada’s lead­ing author­i­ties on char­i­ta­ble giv­ing. http://​www​.cli​entin​sights​.ca/​v​i​d​e​o​/​g​i​f​t​s​-​o​f​-​s​e​c​u​r​i​t​i​e​s​-​t​o​-​m​a​k​e​-​c​h​a​r​i​t​a​b​l​e​-​c​o​n​t​r​i​b​u​t​i​o​n​s​/​t​y​p​e​:​i​n​v​e​s​tor

To read the full arti­cle from Invest­ment Exec­u­tive, click here http://​www​.invest​mentex​ec​u​tive​.com/​c​l​i​e​n​t​/​e​n​/​N​e​w​s​/​D​e​t​a​i​l​N​e​w​s​.​a​s​p​?​I​d​=​5​1​2​5​9​&​a​m​p​;​c​a​t​=​3​0​&​a​m​p​;​I​d​S​e​c​t​i​o​n​=​3​0​&​a​m​p​;​P​a​g​e​M​e​m​=​&​a​m​p​;​n​b​N​e​w​s​=​&​a​m​p​;​I​d​P​u​b​=​186

Or if you pre­fer, here’s a video inter­view on four ways to make client gifts count

http://​tv​.invest​mentex​ec​u​tive​.com/

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Tags: Best Seller, Birth Announcement, Capital Gains, Charitable Contributions, Client Gifts, Cooking Wine, Grandchildren, Interested Clients, Investment Executive, Leading Authorities, Longevity, Malcolm Burrows, Maximum Impact, Passions, Time Clients, Travel Golf, Video Gifts, Wine Journal, Wine Lover, Wine Travel
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