Giftology: The Art and Science of Using Gifts to Cut Through the Noise, Increase Referrals, and Strengthen Client Retention by John Ruhlin

Author:John Ruhlin [Ruhlin, John]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, pdf
Published: 2016-06-19T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

The Importance of the Inner Circle

“It’s easier to take than to give.

It’s nobler to give than to take.

The thrill of taking lasts a day.

The thrill of giving lasts a lifetime.”

Joan F. Marques

Many people aren’t able to see how a client’s inner circle is inherently linked to their bottom line.

Think about it. The client gets treated to the best of the best: fancy dinners, front-row seats to special events, and an endless offering of gifts. He or she flies first-class, and everyone knows his or her favorite wine is Opus 1. With everyone competing for that executive’s attention, it’s easy to forget who’s standing behind him or her—namely, significant others, kids, and assistants.

This is the group that tends to be the most underappreciated—and that’s where there’s an opportunity to make some magic happen.

Again, I have to thank Paul Miller for opening my eyes to the fact that, when you take care of the family, everything else seems to take care of itself. Furthermore, it’s a way to stand out and be memorable as you seek to deepen those key relationships.

One of the hardest aspects of an executive’s life is time spent away from his or her family. It’s just the nature of the beast. When you keep that in mind, it’s easy to understand how another dinner or exclusive trip that will take the executive away from his or her family might not be the best way to show your thoughtful appreciation.

A better option is to create moments where a potential client can be a hero to his or her family. Work/life balance is extremely difficult when you’re a successful business person. When someone thinks of something classy, thoughtful, and personalized that the entire family can enjoy, everybody wins.

I’ll liken it to what W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne highlight in their book, Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant. See, most people tend to play in the shark-infested waters of the red ocean along with everyone else, fighting over the same scraps of meat. There’s another ocean, however—one in which few people are playing, where profits are higher, life is easier, and there’s less competition.

That’s the inner circle: your own blue ocean.

For example, David was the senior vice president of an $800 million company. He had thousands of employees and was very well connected. I knew that gifting him with something special was a good idea. However, it dawned on me that doing something nice for his spouse, whom I’d never met before, might be even better.

My goal was to send them an item that was family-oriented, not just something he would enjoy, so I decided on engraving their name on two Cutco knives.

About a year later, I was attending a gala he was hosting. His wife was with him—classy, beautiful, and adorned with absolutely gorgeous jewelry. When David introduced us, he casually mentioned that I was the one who sent them the engraved knives. As soon as he said that, she stopped what she was doing and grabbed my hand excitedly.

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