Gift of Giving: Tales of a Harley Davidson and Giant Rubber Duck

Gifts are not my love language. But over the years, I’ve realized that a thoughtful present can leave a lasting impression.

In tech sales, a well-timed and well-intentioned gift can help build trust and rapport. This unlocks access to information required to build a champion or business case. Below are three key considerations when deciding if this strategy is right for your prospect, and two real-world examples of MVP gifts targeted at different audiences.

Considerations

• (A) Audience: Is this gift for an individual or team? Is this person invested in the initiative?

• (B) Timing: Do you have sufficient rapport with this person?

• (C) Content: The actual gift does matter. Are you blindly sending something, or does the gift show that you care about them.

#1: Enterprise Gift - The Motorcycle

Context: We were several months into working with the lead Mobile PM for a large QSR chain. We had socialized and refined use cases with the Below-the-Line (BTL) stakeholders, but deprioritized for exec team approval. Coming into the holidays, I reflected on our discussions and decided I wanted to send a gift. I knew that my main PoC loved motorcycles and that his family was very big on Christmas.

The Gift: I sent him a custom Christmas ornament of a motorcycle engraved with his family name. The response:

The Results: This gesture unlocked our partnership. My prospect knew that I was personally invested in his success. Immediately after the holidays we began a texting relationship and actively worked on a joint pitch to his exec leadership team. We signed a 3-Yr contact in Q1, which grew to ~$500K ACV. Best of all, we built a friendship and continue to stay in touch years later.

#2: Start-Up Gift - The Grand Mama of Ducks

Context: Our competitor out-gifted us. We were in a head-to-head to win business from a hot start-up called MotherDuck, which had a quirky team that was proud of their “Duck” company folklore (titles like “Head of Pro-duck” and posts of swarms of employees dressed as ducks parading the streets).

The Gift: Our competitor sent a massive rubber duck to MotherDuck’s office.

The Results: This gift went viral and we lost the deal. MotherDuck had just secured office-space in Seattle, proudly displayed the giant duck in their new office, and posted about the duck and our competitor on LinkedIn. Unlike my motorcycle gift above, which was targeted at one individual champion driving forward a large enterprise deal, this gift was targeted at an entire start-up team. To MotherDuck, the giant duck represented that our competitor understood their culture and that they were willing to invest heavily in MotherDuck’s success and enable their company’s first monetization efforts.

Conclusion

Don’t send a gift to every prospect. It can backfire or make you seem disingenuous if poorly executed. Furthermore, the gift in and of itself will not result in a signed contract.

But a genuine gift to the right audience can make a big difference. In the motorcycle example, the gift unlocked the relationship, which enabled access to executives and the development of a strong joint business case.

Holidays are a great excuse to show your champions that you appreciate them :)

Happy holidays!

Julian