745 – Show appreciation to others: Tom talks Business Gifting

Episode 745 – Business Gifting
[00:00:08] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey everybody, it's Tom here with episode 745 of Screw the Commute podcast. Today, we're going to talk about business gifting. Now, this is something you might want to add to your business operations, no matter how big or small your business is, and there's lots of benefits to it. I hope you didn't miss Episode 744 That was on voicemail. Hey, that can make you a lot of money by having the right voicemail message and Episode 743 was a study challenge that if you do one little thing, you can get a big shout out here on a future episode of Screw the Commute. And of course, any time you want to listen to a back episode, you go to screwthecommute.com, slash, then the episode number. 743 was the big shout out one. 744 was voicemail. All right. Follow me on TikTok at tiktok.com/@digitalmultimillionaire and pick up a copy of our automation book at screwthecommute.com/automatefree.

[00:01:21] All right, let's get into the main event. So I started thinking about putting this topic out to you because I was gathering stuff to give my veterinarian and her staff a big gift for all the help they gave me as my protection dog Tuck was while he was heading towards and then passing over the Rainbow Bridge. I wanted to make a gift basket, but like so many things I want to do, I don't want to do what everybody else does.

[00:01:52] So, I mean, I looked at gift baskets at Hobby Lobby and those kind of places, and I saw prices like $70 for just the basket for something that some peasant made for $0.10 somewhere. And of course, the frugality that was taught to me by my dad just couldn't see spending that kind of money on a pitiful basket that everybody else does. So I searched for a bunch of other stores and I found a giant pot that was hand-painted in Spain. I guess supposedly, maybe it was it was probably painted in a made up city in China, Spain. I mean, did you ever hear the story about Made in the USA? Well, I think there the story was there's a city in China called. Usa. So it was made in USA, China. And it said Made in the USA. There's tricky guys out there. Anyway, this painted thing looked good and it was different. Now, I was originally going to put my gift in five gallon buckets from Harbor Freight and everyone around me who should know me better said, No, no, that would be tacky. So? So of course I had to include those buckets in the gift. I had two harbor freight buckets full of stuff along with my painted. I don't want to call it a vase. It was a giant ceramic pot.

[00:03:21] So I went all over town getting chocolates and treats and nuts and protein bars and apples and oranges and avocados and mints and all kinds of hot tamales and whatever else I could get my hands on. And I filled up two harbor freight buckets and the beautiful ceramic pot with the stuff and headed to the vets. Now, when the young girl that usually checks me in came out to the Suburban to see what dog needed seen, I said, I have a surprise for you. And I opened the door to the Suburban and she could see the entire backseat was full of goodies. I did not expect what happened next. She started crying and gushing about how wonderful that was and she hugged me. I mean, everybody inside, I think I think they have a staff of about ten was gushing and thanking me. Now, besides this just being a nice thing to do for people that deserve it, you know, my job is to teach you business ideas. As many of you know, I have a family protection dog business on the side. And these dogs are many times really difficult to handle and some vets won't deal with them. And some make you jump through enormous hoops and charge you extra. I mean, that's why I drive an hour and a half each way to see this country vet. I mean, I frequently see goats in her parking lot and her outdoor kennels and stuff like that.

[00:04:52] You don't see that in a city vet's office at all, I'll tell you that. Anyway, she and her staff have always made special accommodations to deal with what could rightfully be called a very dangerous dog. I mean, Tuck could turn you into Swiss cheese in five seconds if he felt like it. So she doesn't run up the bill up artificially. And like many hungry, money hungry vets and and she's highly competent and that one of my dogs saw a local vet seven times with a potentially lethal problem that was getting worse and me spending a fortune each time the vet was like guessing what might be wrong with her. So this this vet that I gave the gift to instantly recognized the problem and it was fixed within a week under her care. So very competent. All right. So now to the business end of this. Well, guess who sees animals all day, every day? Guess who deals with animals? Owners all day. Every day. Do you think if one of them asks her about protection dogs, my name might just might come up in the conversation. Remember, these dogs start at $20,000 and go up depending on any custom training they get. I mean, my small gift is a pretty darn good investment in people that both deserve it and could send me customers.

[00:06:21] Now I'm going to concentrate on gifts to prospects and customers in this episode. But don't forget gifts to your employees. I mean, I've given generators, furniture, TVs, extra days off, gift cards and all kinds of stuff. I can't even remember over the the many years I've been in business. I'm sure they remember it, though. Okay, back to business gifting. Well, business gifting strengthens the connection between you, your company and your prospects and customers. Just like the sample with my vet, I like to give things that are customized to the prospect or customer rather than standard stuff that everybody gives, like pens and thumb drives and mugs and stuff like that. For instance, if a good customer said they had a cat, I might send them a bunch of cat toys. And if in the conversation they said their cat was picky about what it plays with, I'd give them a gift card to PetSmart or Amazon or something like that. So giving things to prospects can kick in What Robert Cialdini from the famous book influence the psychology of persuasion, what he calls the reciprocity effect. When you do something for someone else, there's a natural tendency for most people to owe you. I'll put that in quotes to owe you. In other words, maybe they agree to listen to your entire sales pitch, or maybe they pick you over some other coach, or maybe even if your product or service isn't right for them, they refer you.

[00:07:57] Now, there's there's also some sneaky gifts I've heard of. I heard about this real estate agent who in the summer would give out half gallons of ice cream to people who attended his open houses. He knew. He knew they'd have to go straight home to keep the ice cream from melting, and they would most likely not look at any more homes that day. His listing would be at the top of their minds right now. Before I tell you one potentially dangerous downside of business gifting, let me tell you another big benefit. And of course, I'm not giving you legal or accounting advice because I'm not technically qualified to do so, even though I've been doing this a long time. So I'll just tell you something I've benefited from, I've benefited from for many years. And our rage is something from the website of a company called Summit Bookkeeping. And they had a question. Our business gifts a tax write off. This is directly from their website. Tangible gifts such as a gift basket with food and beverages are typically tax deductible. This may be given as a direct gift to your customer or employee, or it can be an indirect gift intended for the recipient and their family. That was an article from November 18th, 2022. So yes, you check with your accountant or your tax advisors, but in many cases, and I think in most cases in business, this would be tax deductible.

[00:09:33] All right. Now, let me tell you something to watch out for, because it could get you and the person you gifted to give the person you gave something to in trouble. See that person might actually get fired from their job and possibly prosecuted. All right. Wow, That sounds pretty nasty, doesn't it? Okay. Here's what could happen. You see some corporations and I suspect most government agencies do not allow employees to accept gifts. It might be looked at as a bribe. So if you send a gift to someone in one of those situations, you might be putting them in a really bad position because their co-workers and superiors may think they ask you to do it in exchange for giving you business. When I did corporate speaking, I had a referral program where someone would get a percentage of my deal if they referred me for a speaking engagement, if they were in the company. But they're not the ones hiring me. They might recommend me to someone that did. So I would always ask if their company or government entity had rules about gifts. If they said yes, then I said, then I will be happy to give the commission to your company's favorite charity in your company's name. I never had any trouble with this method and the companies really appreciated it.

[00:11:05] Kept me at the top of their minds. Okay, one more sneaky gift giving idea. All right. And I have done this myself. Let's say there are no rules about gift giving in a company and nobody seems to care. And they may even let on that they would love to have some extras for doing business with you. All right. There's plenty of companies out there that would in that case, consider listen to this. Personal gifts rather than business gifts. Here's an example. Let's say you sell office supplies and someone is potentially going to order 50 cases of copy paper. Instead of offering the buyer five extra cases free of copy paper, offer the buyer $120 Montblanc pen. Okay. With a 50 case order. And do you think that pen is going on the company's asset sheet? Right. I kind of doubt it. Nope. It's going in the pocket of the purchasing agent. That's pretty sneaky, but. But totally legit. If they don't have any regulations on gifts and don't care. So consider how strategic business gifting could strengthen your business and enjoy the fact you're making people happy. Like that young girl at the vet's office who burst into tears and hugged me. I mean, maybe no one has ever shown her any appreciation. And you helped make her life better. And I don't know, maybe that's maybe worth more than a tax deduction.

[00:12:46] How about that? All right. If you like this idea and the other million things you need to know to be successful online, check out my mentor program at Great Internet Marketing Training.com. It's the most successful, longest running, most unique ever in the field of Internet and digital marketing. And also I have a new program on how to be a great podcast guest because you can be in front of tens of thousands of warm prospects with a warm introduction from the host and all the credibility that goes with it. If you know the tricks of the trade, just doing a good interview is not enough. There's all these other things that you, I guarantee you never thought of you could do to impress the heck out of the host. So they invite you back and they promote you more. I mean, I've been on some shows 13 times and in some of the top shows in the world multiple times for reasons I mean, I did a great interview, but that wasn't the reason alone to have me back. All right. So check that out at screwthecommute.com/greatpodcastguest. And that's also included in the mentor program. If you want to join a mentor program, you get all of this stuff included. So it's great Internet marketing training.com. All right. We'll catch you all in the next episode. See you later.