Strategic Gifting

Episode 1019: Strategic Gifting, with Jamie Shibley

Strategic gifting — Explore how to find the perfect target audience for your business by nurturing our guide on strategic gifting.

Strategic Gifting — Jamie Shibley believes that successful businesses are created through building strong relationships with prospects, existing clients and business associates.

Giving by nature, and from a young age working in her grandfather’s floral shop, Jamie inherently understands the influence of a meaningful gift. Through her strategic gifting agency, The Expressory, she helps businesses develop long-lasting customer relationships through thoughtfully designed memorable customer experiences.

Jamie has designed experiences for numerous clients across the country, making it simple for companies to stand out and make a lasting impression. Respected as a market leader, Jamie’s gift designs have been featured on Entertainment Tonight.

What you’ll learn in this episode is about strategic gifting: 

• Jamie shares how her career started out in corporate IT, and she explains why she left the corporate world and started her own business
• How her first business helped Jamie find her perfect target audience, and how she defines strategic gifting
• Why the right gift can build bonds, strengthen relationships, and open new doors for your business
• Why strategic gifting is about focusing on your prospects rather than on you, and how it can help you turn a prospect relationship into a collaboration
• How strategic gifting can also be a powerful way to engage with your existing clients and help nurture those relationships
• Why the minor cost of strategic gifting can pay massive dividends over the long term of your relationships, and how to get started developing a gifting program
• What kind of return on investment you can see from a gifting program, and why it’s important to listen for further relationship-building nuggets
• Which key steps to follow to deploy your strategic gifting program, and how to build up your established process over time
• Why an ongoing gifting cadence and persistence are crucial for making inroads with your prospective clients

Additional Resources:

• Learn more about strategic planning, and you can find Jamie here.
• Enhance your knowledge about strategic planning by tuning in to our free video: Seed and Open Loops
• Website: https://www.theexpressory.com/
• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-shibley-76a3402/
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheExpressory

 

 

Strategic Gifting: Full Episode Transcript

 

Get ready to find your recipe for success from America’s top business owners here at Onward Nation with your host, Stephen Woessner.

 

Good morning, I’m Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI and your host for Onward Nation, where I interviewed today’s top business owners. So we can learn their recipe for success and how they built and scaled their business. So, here’s a quick story, I guess, or a quick little story, from several weeks ago, during one of the specialized training sessions that Eric and I were teaching our clients and ASM members. And if you’re not familiar with the ASM acronym, it stands for Authority Sales Machine. So, we are teaching this session for our clients and ASM members, and we decided to break it down and map it out in full transparency. 

 

You know, we love to be transparent throughout the entire process, which we call the Trojan horse of sales. It’s not as we’ve talked about for a while. We wrote about it in a profitable podcast, so that term is probably not new to you, but everything downstream from that might be everything from how we successfully opened the door with one of our dream 25 prospects, these or the company’s business, owner’s who we would most love to work with you. And this is what we teach our clients, how to do too, is to build out their dream 25 prospect list. But then a how you structure and conduct the interview, whether you’re doing the podcast video series, or maybe you’re interviewing somebody for a book, or maybe a research study, doesn’t matter the form of cornerstone content. 

 

So don’t get hung up on that. So, how do you conduct the interview and each and every step downstream from the interview in order to accomplish two main goals? So we’ve got two goals for this entire process, and this is what we share during the training. The first one was, Hey, how do you tee up a biz dev opportunity with the right fit prospects, which is why they are on the Dream 25 list to begin with? And then, how do you design and execute a downstream process that assures that our prospect never, ever, ever felt like there was a prospect ’cause the reverse of that just feels shwarmy. It feels yucky. 

 

Nobody wants to feel like they just got sold something because when you are truly selling from the position of authority as Drew McLellan and I wrote in our book, Sell with Authority, you’re helping. You’re never selling it because we follow the tenants in our own book. Our quote-unquote sales process doesn’t feel like a sales process at all from the prospect’s point of view. 

 

Also, I know that when predictive implements the strategy really, really well, here’s what happens or prospects feel special. They feel complimented because they are special, and they should feel complimented. They see their name in lights, and predictive looks so unique. And we completely set ourselves apart, which is why we’ve been tagged in photos on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. 

 

These are photos that our prospects took and tagged us, and when they took these photos, have the gifts that we said? Why? Because they felt amazing receiving them. Okay. So, back to the specialized training or the Eric and I re-teaching inside ASM, we mapped out the entire process for everyone in the room that night. The momentum and the excitement first were awesome. It was super off the charts, but as we started to make it more and more detailed, you can see the feelings of a started set in and thoughts around how in the world I am going to get all of that done. And when that happens, overwhelm sets in. So here’s a big point of that full transparency, Onward Nation. 

 

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Strategic Gifting: Jamie’s Introduction

 

As I mentioned, I’m not the one executing all of that tactical work. Good grief. If that were the case, I’d never get it done. And I’ve also not delegated that work to anyone on a predictive team either because each person on our team is already wearing three hats. So, it would be really difficult to make our strategic gifting process a priority despite how important it was. So if no one a predictive can add it to their plate, how does it get done? And how does it get done with excellence? Well, that’s where today’s guest expert comes in. Her name is Jamie Shibley, and she’s the founder of Expressory, a strategic gifting agency. 

 

Jamie and her team helped us think through the entire strategy. They helped us think through all of the tactical steps. They helped us think through all of the timing, what would be gifted, and scent at each interval in a myriad of other details. I would have never thought that’s what a good partner does. So, I asked Jamie to join me for this episode. So, we could talk through some of the strategic gifting scenarios that you might want to consider putting into your business. Some of the trade-offs that you should think about are taking the insights that Jamie shares with you and then building out your own strategic gifting process so that you can open doors with your 25 prospects and move existing relationships forward. 

 

Now, also a little bit of full transparency. If you ever ordered one of our free paperback copies of several of authority from us, the one that we ship a hundred percent free, no shipping costs, nothing like that. Well, and if you liked how that arrived in the mail, well, that was Jamie’s team, the process and shipping every single one of our orders. They do that on time, and every package looks amazing. Yeah. And we get photos of those two. Thank you, photos. We set up our Facebook group when people receive those because they look awesome. So, without further ado, welcome to Onward Nation, Jamie.

 

Well, thank you. You are such a good storyteller. I was over here. Ready to take notes. This is really good.

 

Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Thank you for saying yes. And it’s just what you can add to our business. I’m super incredible and an onward. I’m sure don’t make or want to make the sound like it’s some sort of Expressory commercial because it’s not, but in full transparency, we’re we are super delighted with everything that Jamie and her team have done for us. So, I just want the relationship to be transparent because they are amazing. So Jamie, before we dive in with what will probably feel like a barrage of questions that are going to be thrown your way, take us behind the curtain here and tell us a little bit more about your path and your journey, and then we’ll dive in. 

 

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Strategic Gifting: A Journey of Discovery and Success

 

Strategic gifting: So, I started with a 20-year career in corporate. It’s your story. I coded when I first started out. I got into the space of websites and eventually e-commerce and worked on launching some new brands, new to the world brands. And so it got to kind of play in this small business space, but in a corporate world. So it was a lot of fun times were changing in that corporate space culture the, they were heading and a direction. It was time for me to do something new. And I decided rather than move to another industry, how entrepreneurs are, I woke up with an idea one morning, and at 6:30 in the morning, I told my husband, I have this thought. 

 

Strategic gifting: And when he didn’t like laugh or blow it off or ignore me, I was like, yeah, this could be a thing of, here’s the funny thing. The Expressory wasn’t the business I left the corporate world to launch, so I actually launched a different brand. Now here’s a piece that, that I’ve never told ’em the card, Sierra. She was my first brand. I started the business because I also came from growing up in a space where cards were made. I scrapped booked. I always made gifts. And 10 years ago, we moved into this house, and I made myself, you may have seen them on Pinterest if you’re a crafty person, a birthday board. I thought I needed a way to manage all of the birthdays in our lives because I wanted to show up. 

 

Strategic gifting — And I wasn’t good at it. Even with a birthday board, I was failing, and I was missing birthdays. My thought for the business, this card seers, was what if there were a company that sent you everything you needed for the upcoming month? Cause it is new in you, a new. How are you shocked, and what do you need? And that was great. I did it. I created all the technology. We launched it in six to nine months, and it wasn’t really going anywhere. Hmm. And we’ll get you a young, I’m sure we’ll get into some of this. But yeah, I got a business coach, and we ended up wondering what was the market that was showing up. And it was business owners that kept having an interest in my products, but they wanted me to do it for them. 

 

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Strategic Gifting: From Idea to Impact

 

What is strategic gifting? Eventually, we’ve been at this for five years now since I left the corporate world, and we have evolved through testing. Like, what are they looking for? How can we serve them, too? What we have become today and that Strategic gifting agency. 

 

When you think of strategic gifting, I Just want to help set some context and foundation for Onward Nation. What does that mean to you? What does it consist of? 

 

Well, so one of the early hurdles that we had to work on was some people look at this and go, why am I sending gifts? I’m not sure how is that adding them spending money, right? What does that mean? Right. They looked at it as more of an expense when the reality is that this is just another very important component of your marketing, and to do so strategically, keep in mind why you’re doing it and how that can impact your business. That’s the true value of what we’re bringing to the table here. And help guide you through the important relationships and how to do that effectively. 

 

Yeah. Onward Nation. And so just taking you into one of our more recent strategy sessions that Jamie and Eric Jensen, my business partner here or predictive, and I were having we’re, we’re, we’ve been tweaking and massaging and adjusting and making better the dream 25 processes, the process or the process of that comes downstream as part, the Trojan horses, sales, and so Jaymie heard us talking about plants, your flag of authority, or plant your flag on the niche, become the known expert and plant the flag, plant the flag, plant the flag, plant the flag. And she said to us that it was just, it was so perfect. An awesome, she said, why don’t we send them a flag we’re like, and when she comes up with this idea, and it’s amazing, amazing, because when you think of our prospect, now our dream prospect, opening that up with a special card and this beautiful PFLAG with their logo or a message. 

 

That means something to them. It’s never about Predictive. It’s about them. And then, it’s the plant; the flag literally becomes a literal. How amazing is that? Right? So that’s the type of strategy, right? 

 

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Strategic Gifting: The Power of Personalized Strategic Gifting

 

Strategic gifting? I mean, that’s what’s important to us, right? Is that it’s got to reflect both your brand and what’s important to your clients because that’s when it’s lasting and it’s meaningful because every time they get that, every time they see that flag, which is going to be in their space, they are reminded of the incredible work you did with them and where their going and that it’s a motivational, right? I mean, there are so many things wrapped up in that. And by the way, who wouldn’t want to share that like look at what these people did for me. They get me. 

 

Oh, and we’re going with it now; this is going to sound a little self-serving. But when, when our dream 25 starts receiving those flags and right now we are going through it, like the testing phase and that kind of stuff, I was super delighted when we connected here on Zoom onward, before we hit record Jamie as like, oh my gosh, you’re going to love this PFLAG because it came into her and her team and the, and so now it’s in route to us. And so I’m super excited to be able to see it. But so, so then also part of this process too, in, in maybe we should also map out kinda some of the elements that our in our downstream, or maybe that’ll jog some ideas for business owners who are listening to the first stage or the first thing if you will, are the first a gift I should say is what we like to call the frame. 

 

And so onward here or some context. So, like two minutes ago, Jamie was just talking about the blend between the prospect’s business in your strategy and all of that, like that 32nd soundbite, we will take that. And we’ll create that into an actual written quote, and then Megan and my team will do that. And then she’ll give that to Catherine on my team. And Catherine will put that into our template file, which really highlights Jamie in what she just shared in small little print as the episode numbers not about us, but it’s about Jamie. And then we’ll actually send it to Jamie’s team. So that’ll feel a little bit weird. 

 

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Strategic Gifting: Elevating Guest Experiences through Thoughtful Gestures

 

We’re going to send it to Jamie’s team, and Jamie will print it, or Jamie’s team will print that card. And then Matt, it put it under glass in this beautiful wooden frame and the ships it off to our guests. And then that person receives it and says, oh my gosh, this is amazing. And by the way, my only contribution to that was Jamie. We are going to send you a little card like this. This is a size. Can you make it look nice? They were mad at it and gave us a sample; it was a beautiful frame. It looks so awesome, Jamie. 

 

Ah, thank you. I loved seeing them come up with the end of the team working and every one of them. And so it’s really exciting what that feels like for the recipient. First of all, it’s a surprise in most cases, but to see your own right and to receive your own, holy cow of these people saw me, and they thought what I contributed was valuable. And I think there’s so much that goes into that. 

 

Strategic gifting? And it is about their contribution. Again, from now on, it’s not about us in the least, but a little bit. It is absolutely about taking your interview or taking the smarts that your guests shared with you during the interview or whatever. The cornerstone content, such as podcasts, video books, and interviews, doesn’t matter. Right. And highlighting their smarts. The second stage after that is that we never send our book unless you’ve specifically ordered it. We were never sent out a book. We pick a couple of other books that are going to be super helpful. Jamie has an inventory of those books, and then she and the team send them out at the right time. 

 

Every six to eight weeks, I think, is the interval. Right? 

 

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Strategic Gifting: Building Genuine Connections

 

You know, what I love about working with your team is how much you guys just get it. From your core, this is who you guys are. You mentioned that it should never feel like you are being prospected, but when we were planning this out, what was so cool for us to hear? As you said, we mapped this out. So we were out on a call, and we mapped out, okay, umm, or four weeks after, this thank you card with a frame. Six to eight weeks later, it’s this book with another message in it. And then there might be another gift in between there. 

 

And then there’s this final step in the strategic gifting process where you do an invite with the prospect to come talk to you. And what you are really doing is talking to them about working with you. And I think you said something like it’s never a no because, by this point, you’re so invested together. I mean, that was huge. We’d love to hear it because that’s how we should be. Can you just so smoothly move that relationship forward? 

 

Yeah. To do it differently would feel yucky. Right? But when you come together for a strategy call about how to solve something, then it’s just business people coming together to have a chat about solving a problem, and you’ve shown that you’re not trying to be schmaltzy. You’re not trying to be salesy, and they know your heart and intention are pure. Yeah. You’re an easy yes. At that point 

 

What’s been fun is to watch your own evolution with all of this nurturing. ’cause we’ve had that in place for a bit. And then what we acknowledged, as you know, is that there’s probably another level to this. Yup. And so what you’re working on adding now is we’re coming together and watching for the additional moments to celebrate people because that’s the next layer of nurturing, right? Not only are they grateful by the time that I’ve given them and our conversation, but now a holy cow there just celebrating me. That’s huge. 

 

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Strategic Gifting: Nurturing Client Relationships

 

Yeah. Well, okay. So, I was just writing it in my notes, and I’m glad you brought that up. It is huge because maybe some of our listeners are thinking, okay, I’m going to. I’m taking some of those notes. I’m taken down to these golden nuggets. I’m gonna build out a strategic gifting process for my biz dev efforts. Okay, great. And make sure that we follow the principles that we’re talking about here. But then also that takes care of prospects, like your drink, 25 prospects, but in what, as soon as they become clients and it stops, it’s going to feel yucky because it’s like, well, now I’m giving you money. 

 

And so if you’ve actually gotten a free copy of our book, as the authority that drew and I wrote, please take a look at chapter 10, which is a new business blueprint. We talked about the nano stages of the funnel and the existing stage or the funnel you or existing clients. They need to feel special, too, because obviously they are right. So that’s where Jamie has helped us. Up-level this even more of, Hey guys, I think you could be doing a better job there. Erik and I totally agree. Right, Jamie. 

 

Right. And you’re absolutely right. And we have now moved into the second category, have the relationships that are important in growing the overall business. Right. Because I think what most business owners don’t realize is that we’re all trained in this way. Right. How did you grow a business? You go get new customers. And that’s the thing we chase most of the time. Yeah. But what about all the ones currently in your database? And the thing that we’re missing is that every year, a certain percentage of those clients are leaving just because you’re not engaging with them, ’cause you don’t show up for them. Yup. And so if every year you’re adding in your adding, you’re still losing, and you’re losing. 

 

So, we also need to set aside a certain portion of time to nurture those relationships with existing customers. And here’s the cooler thing. You can not only keep those customers, but you can turn them into a sales machine for you as well if you do this right. Because if you get them so excited about the relationship, guess what? They’re out there telling everybody about you and giving you referrals left and right. Because you are an amazing person to them. And 

 

What would you agree? I mentioned this in the introduction. I probably should have asked you. I think the answer is yes, but I’m going to ask it anyway because I know you’ll add something to this. I’m certainly not trying to sound trite or anything like that, but what would you agree or disagree with companies that get this right? They stand out in such a way that is beyond just being unique. That really is like somebody opens the thing, and it’s like, oh my gosh, yes, they heard me, they get me, and so forth. But there’s just a level of uniqueness because most companies don’t do it. Or if they do try to do it, they send something that is inexpensive, I’ll say, kind of.

 

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Strategic Gifting: Value in Thoughtful Gestures

 

Strategic gifting? And I don’t mean to sound demeaning, but they send something inexpensive because they don’t have the quote-unquote budget for it.

 

That’s all right. It doesn’t align. It feels so, so the story we tell is about someone who was thinking of person four, all of this hard work. Okay. So you, you went the extra mile. Thank you. I so appreciate it. And the message was just wonderful. A spot on, but then it was a $5 gift card, and it just felt off. Now, in the corporate world, we have this M program or bonus program. When you worked on a project that was a year or two long, you would get a couple of thousand dollar bonus right now. And this, this had been in place for a while, and suddenly, they took it away. 

 

Hmm. And there was a group that had worked on a project for three years. And the thank you was a $10 gift card, too. The lunch room. And half of the people said they might as well have given us nothing, or they’d have been better off giving us nothing because this is like a slap in the face. So, it has to align with what your show is grateful for and the amount of effort. I don’t know how else to say that. Right. But there’s a misalignment if you’re not careful, right? It’s more than just sending something. 

 

Yeah. And Jamie and I have gone back and forth on this one when we’re really getting our strategy dialed in. And she’s like, what do you think about this? And what do you think about that? And I love it because our point of view is the same about this. And I’m like, oh, I love this idea. Because, like, if it were me opening that up, I would say, holy bananas, that is awesome. Right. And that’s that, that’s what you want. Or you want somebody to open the box Onward Nation, and they say holy bananas. And then they run and tell their business partner, and they run down the hall. They show the flag or whatever it is that you’re sending; that’s the type of emotion you’re trying to evoke.

 

Right. And you know where our teams are together. I’ve had a lot of conversations about the value in this because I know that it’s a question that comes up all the time, but why would I spend 50 to a hundred dollars? Or what is the value, the lifetime value of that customer to you when you think about what that takes and what it means, and then not only them, what if they tell someone else, and now that person becomes a customer and then be consistent about it. Okay. So once you recognize that, do the same for everyone because it pays off; this is a long-term game you’re playing here. 

 

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Strategic Gifting: Building a Strategic Gifting Process

 

Yeah. I love that. Okay. So, let’s say that Onward Nation, business owners who are listening to you right now, which, or as typical owners of agencies, so a marketing agency, an agency PR shops, that kind of a thing, as well as business coaches, strategic consultants, your, or your tribe. So, let’s think about that. Let’s think that they’re thinking, or maybe the question of the mind is, okay, I get the ideas, I get the value. I understand I’m still a little bit fuzzy about the first place that I should start. How do I start sketching this out? What or Jamie, what, or some of the things that as my team and I sit down and think about, okay, we’re going to have a Strategic gifting process. 

 

What are steps one, two, and three? And what are some of the trade-offs that we need to consider? 

 

Just so much to that. So, I think a good starting place is to have three categories of relationships and your business that you can focus on. So it’s your leads, right? Moving them from warm to Holly, it’s your existing clients and moving them and turning them into raving fans. And then it’s your entire ecosystem and culture, right? It’s more than just inside the company. It’s all of the relationships with people that support you. You are okay. So, of those three groups, when you think about them, which one do you think so far, maybe today is most neglected, right? 

 

Let’s start by identifying which relationships need more attention at the moment. Okay. Once we know which relationships need more attention, we’ll figure it out. I like to say, look for some occasions that you could consistently use to show up and nurture those relationships. 

 

So, I just want to ask you for some kind of foundational context here. When you say occasions, are you thinking of birthdays or holidays? Are you thinking about milestones in their business?

 

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Strategic Gifting: Creating Seamless Processes for Meaningful Engagement

 

Like what do you mean? Or the ESO occasions as we know them and normal life, birthdays and anniversaries, but any events. Right. And they can be as simple as when you when you welcome them as a new customer that they made a decision to become, your customer could be an event. Okay. It could be that they launched a website or a podcast. They became an author, find one of those events, and say, I’m going to be good at celebrating and acknowledging that because I can see it every time it happens for a person, because once you make that decision, okay, now it’s a little easier, you know what you’re doing? 

 

Okay. Then you move into the, what are you going to do? And it can be as simple as a message as a gift, right? Up a level. But you plot these things out, and then it becomes creating it as a habit and executing it. Right. 

 

And I love how easy, so the shameless plug here on the nation for Jamie and team, I just love how easy you guys make it. For example, when we were initially testing the free book offer, I wasn’t sure if it would work, and I know it sounds so bad. I wasn’t sure if anybody would want any, a boy that it sounds really bad because of this, but, but there’s also with the free book offer, like, if somebody’s going to think of how well I’m going to give me my mailing address and I’m going to get pounded with a bunch of junk, which of course we don’t do. So there are some of those kinds of trust factors, can I really believe him that he says no credit card on it? You know what I mean? That kind of stuff. We wanted to test it first. 

 

And it was overwhelming because I started getting all those emails, and I’m like, okay, we need to figure out a way, and then I’ll pass them on to Kerry and Jennie on your team and streamline it. So we built like an online form and a process and all of that. So now that just goes right to you. People fill that out, or it will go right to you. And I’m like, oh my gosh. I mean, this is so awesome. So, thank you for making it so easy. And that’s the indicator onward nation that you have a great process when it just works. So seamlessly like that with your partner.

 

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Strategic Gifting: Unleashing the Power of Strategic Gifting for Meaningful Connections

 

Now, how is it working for you? As the other big question, right? It’s because you are getting those posts, emails, and thank-yous left and right. There’s your return because how else would you be getting social media posts? How much would you pay for some of that marketing? Yeah. So, there’s your career? 

 

So Onward Nation, if you happen to be a member of our free Facebook group, which is how to fill your sales pipeline again, free group; if you’re not already a member, please ask you to join the group. The litmus test is there, and Jamie talks about how you can scroll through the last several posts. And you’ll find them where people get the book, and they’re like, oh my gosh, got my book today. Thank you so very much. And it’s amazing there again, no sales pitch whatsoever is giving free content that is super helpful. And then to Jamie’s point, when somebody receives it, they’re like, wow. And they take a picture and share. 

 

And let me take that even further. What happens is those recipients will come back to you. They’re going to open up to you a little further and give you more nuggets to hone in on. So, we had a client who sent a welcome gift over and over again. And her message is something about how we’re so excited to help you and give you more time to pursue your passion, blah, blah, blah. People will email her and say, oh my God, you know what thank you for making me feel so welcome. I can’t wait to, and then they share more layers about what they’re working toward; keep these nuggets. Yeah. 

 

Because there’s further relationship-building material for you. 

 

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Strategic Gifting: From Planning to Execution

 

Thank you for that. So, let’s go back to the process. So, if step number one is correct, we can get a really good understanding of essentially your lowest-hanging fruit, right? If we’re talking about the three categories of relationships and I think, or heard you say, how do you take your leads and how do you turn those into hot leads, which would be amazing, a how do you take your existing clients and transform them into raving fans? And then, lastly, think about your entire ecosystem and what you could be doing at a macro level that would be super helpful to people who were in your audience and are like you said, key stakeholders. So, did I get step one in my notes? Correct. OK. And then step two is, this is where we think about, okay, once we’ve dialed in one, two or three and the three categories or the relationships, and we’ve chosen one that we’re going to focus on, that’s where we look for some occasions of any events to celebrate. 

 

Maybe they became an author, a launch, a website, or those types of things that you mentioned. So, beyond steps one and two, what would be maybe step number three? 

 

So I think step three is really identifying what is the thing you’re going to do once we get that it takes place. And so his, what could you be good at? Or is it a message or a congratulatory celebration? Map that out. What’s the thing you’re going to give? Once you have those pieces in a position, now it’s a matter of, okay, how can you automate it? A team is going to do it. The first piece of the automation is how you will be notified when that event happens. Right. That’s the key to driving everything. 

 

And then maybe I’ll propose her step. Number four. Can you tell me if I’m off base and I’m just going from the work that you and I have done together? That is okay. If you’re going to send this at this a day in time and whatnot, and this was what the thing is that a number four out to be the cadence, the rinse repeat, like not, not the same thing over and over again, but how can you continue every six to eight weeks of again, following the seller’s authority, a methodology, what can you do every six to eight weeks that continues to keep you top of mind in a really awesome.

 

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Strategic Gifting: The Power of Consistent Nurturing and Engagement

 

Right? Thank you. Yes. So, for some of our clients, it helps to just get started with a thing, right? So we’re used to you. Okay. What’s the thing we do it out. Now, you expand on that, and we look at it from a level of what the entire workflow is, right? So it’s not just the one-and-done because that’s total bonus points. Suppose you can keep an entire flow going, just that one relationship. And so the work we did was actually mapping out what that cadence would look like. How many weeks, right? In between weeks or days, or are you going to do it, and how many touchpoints? How do you want to do so? Is it that I’m going to nurture existing clients once a quarter, or am I going to nurture my prospects? 

 

I want to have a touchpoint at least three times a year. In your case, it was every six to eight weeks. Yup. And it was, I believed, well, over the course of a year, how long it could last. All right. 

 

You bet. Some people asked me, and Drew and I, and actually, this isn’t one of Drew’s chapters in the book. And it’s funny to hear him say this actually in person because I’ve heard people ask them before, and they’re always shocked that you would say this, but people have asked them, well, how long should I keep somebody on Dream 25? For example, after six months, eight months, or a year, what if they don’t buy from me? Right. Again, thinking transactional. Right? Is it about you, not about you anyway? So, I’ve heard them say to her so many times that you keep them on there forever until several things happen: one, they hire you. 

 

They decide that you are the person for them, and they hire you. Yep. Or two, they can file a restraining order. And then a third is, or maybe they call you and say, Hey Jamie, my brother-in-law runs a Strategic gifting agency, and I love the stuff you’re sending to me, but there’s no way we’re going to do any work together just because of family relationship or whatever then fine. Take them off a list and then replace them with somebody else other than that until they hire you; if you design the list correctly, you keep doing it right. 

 

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Strategic Gifting: Customizing the Process for Coaches and Consultants

 

It just keeps flowing. That’s a great build on that. I thank you for sharing your thoughts about the restraining order and a pizza. I do. I was trying to think of what kind of gift goes with that. 

 

Oh my gosh. Oh, that’s funny. Well, okay. So, now we’ve got, some really good pieces here, great pieces. So again, Onward Nation, the three categories of relationship define which one you’re going to focus on first step, number one, step number two, any events to celebrate or occasions, and so forth. You want to highlight step three: what is it that you’re going to send and that, and then how you do, what is that you are going to send in when, and then fourth is a, what is the cadence to rinse? Repeat in the schedule is every six to eight weeks what we do as it, a different cadence or, you know, whatever. And maybe you need something custom for you or anything else you would add to that process. 

 

Maybe not so much the process because I think that summarizes where we go with it. But if I could give it an example that might help some of the listeners, a different one that we haven’t talked about yet, but coaches or consultants or your, your hiring, or your hiring, your, your signing, people to work with you on a particular program. Okay. This is our typical client base. And a lot of the coaches and consultants will have multiple programs. So usually, one of those programs is the event or an occasion that we first start to work on because what happens is they want to stand out. 

 

They want to, from the get-go of working on that program, just set themselves apart from other coaches. So what’ll happen is we might look at something and say, okay, how do I welcome somebody? And an amazing way into this new program? What’s the package I send? Maybe it has some of the material. It’s a gift that goes along with working on the stuff, right? It’s, but it’s surprising. They weren’t expecting to receive that. So that’s step one, and then they’ll look at it, and they’ll say, okay, when you talk about the further nurturing, what might be a milestone of a person going through that program during the time you’re working on it because I want to watch for that. 

 

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Strategic Gifting: Elevating Client Relationships Beyond Program Completion

 

And I want to send them something to acknowledge that it works. Okay. Now, another angle people might take is what the person is going to be working on. What’s the end goal? We send them something that relates to achieving that because then I’m driven. OK. And then a final piece of the nurturing. Actually, it’s not even final. It’s going to be a congratulations when you finish the program or celebrate it. Now, here’s what people are learning. The reason it’s not final is that maybe they’ll do a different program. So why not show up a few weeks a month afterward and find out how it’s going? 

 

Our relationship hasn’t been done. You know what? You need to come back and work on this thing now. Right? So you can see how this evolves. We have one client who took her program. When she started with us, she had four programs, and every program was welcomed. There’s all this stuff that goes into it in a year and a half. She is now up to seven programs. That’s how much she’s nurtured them to continue leveling. She’s almost doubled the amount of offerings. Oh my God. I think about that. Right. 

 

Okay. So, I still want to talk about that during our next strategy session because I’m now super jealous. I’m thinking, wow, okay. There’s somebody who I can also learn from, right? Nuggets about how you guys are doing that, too. I love this. I have this like insatiable or whatever, unquenchable, I dunno, you don’t wanna always get better. And that, that’s a great example, Jamie. Well, and especially from your mentioned coaching, I can see that being applied across the, no matter what sort of service provider, somebody listening and hearing your words of wisdom right now, and whatever it is that they’d deliver. 

 

And they’re the reason why I loved that. It is all of these different stages; you remind them how special they are. Let’s say that you have an Ascension model built into your value ladder, which my guess is the person who went from four programs to seven does. And so now you don’t have to reach back out to Jamie Hope. She had a great experience. Now, cellar into the next big program is different. It’s like, of course, he can talk with you and just deliver to this first program. You make me feel special for the entire way. How can you be more helpful to my business if it’s not a trick to sell ’em into the next program kind of thing? 

 

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Strategic Gifting: Last Bit of Advice and Connect with Jamie

 

Right. And you’ve got it. I’m already there. You have built the loyalty in because of how we have been developing this relationship all along. 

 

Oh my gosh. That was so amazing. Okay, I know that we’re quickly running out of time before we go before we close out and say goodbye. Any final advice that you’d like to share, anything you think we might’ve missed, and then please do tell Onward Nation the best way to connect with you, Jamie. 

 

Yeah, no. I just invite people to, as I mentioned earlier, it’s easy for us to think of the new and the prospects in the selling. Ah, and then we take that a step further and recognize that we need to also show love to the existing clients. But I invite you to look at the entire ecosystem of your business and your employees. We all know it’s getting harder now to retain and find employees, right? But also those around you who have supported you through this journey. ’cause here’s the value in that group of relationships; that is what’s going to make your culture magnetic. 

 

When those people work with you, you feel your generosity and how much you care. And they’re out there bragging about you, showing it off just to think about the poll for your organization. Everybody wants to be a part of that, right? So I can talk about this stuff forever. You can find the website at TheExpressory.com. And then my email is [email protected]. We always have a talk and brainstorm more ideas with you.

 

You are so awesome. Jamie, thank you for generously sharing your smarts onward. We’ll include the link and Jamie’s email address in the show notes for this episode to make it super easier for you to find her onward, no matter how many notes you took or how often you go back and re-listen to these examples and step-by-step and blueprint and roadmap that she so generously shared with you today, no matter how often you do that, you have to take what she’s so smartly shared and apply it, take it and apply it, put it into your business, create your own Strategic gifting process because it works in Jamie. 

 

We all have the same 86,400 seconds in a day, and I’m grateful. My friend, you said yes, came on to the show to mentor and guide us and help us move our business to the next level. Thank you so much, Jamie. It was a pleasure. 

 

This episode is complete. So head over to OnwardNation.com for show notes and more food. If you have your ambition, continue to find your recipe for success here at Onward Nation. 

 

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