The wrong question
"How much should I spend?" is the first question people ask us, and it's almost always the wrong one. The right one is: what relationship do I have with this person, and what do I want them to understand when they open the selection?
A gift isn't measured in figures, it's measured in attention.
Four registers, not four prices
In our work we talk about registers.
- Essential: a precise thought, a few well-chosen products
- Complete: a selection that holds up a table
- Important: you can feel that someone made a decision
- Representative: delivered by hand, and remembered
It's far more useful to choose the register and then calibrate, than to start from a figure and fill it.
A recurring mistake
Flattening everything to a single level. Two hundred identical selections for long-standing clients, occasional suppliers and senior contacts are two hundred half-wasted opportunities. Two or three clearly distinct levels cost less than raising the average for everyone.
And the budget?
The budget matters, but it matters to us, afterwards. If you have one in mind, tell us in the request: it stays between us and only serves to calibrate our proposal.
In brief
- How much do you spend on a gift for a client?
- Rather than starting from a figure, you choose the register that suits the relationship: essential, complete, important or representative. The budget is communicated afterwards, and only serves to calibrate the proposal.
- Is it best to give the same gift to everyone?
- No. Two or three distinct levels, assigned by recipient tier, work better than a single average selection for everyone.
