Salena: Cathy, please tell me a little bit about your business and what is your question?

Cathy: Thank you. I have an online gifting business called Just Surprise Me and we do gift box hampers. I bought it two and a half years ago. It peaked during COVID, dropped off a lot, which made it a really good time to buy. When I bought it, I had a few things happening. It’s taken me a little while to settle in and get used to retail because I was working in motor mechanics. Very different.

I’ve done a lot of work with emails and socials and different things. One of the strategies I have been using is that when someone spends about $100 with me, I’ll send them a free chocolate bar by Express Post because they’re not actually trying my product. They’re buying for other people. The corporates that buy from me aren’t actually trying my product either. They’re buying because it’s simple and easy and I do all Australian made product to support local businesses.

That was what I thought was a good strategy but from what you’re saying this morning, it’s not really.

Salena: Did someone say my eye twitch? Some people think it’s funny when I say my eye twitches, it actually twitches.

I commend you for having a strategy to get your product in front of your customer. I think it’s great. I don’t think the strategy you’ve got works.

If we were working together, I would tell you to stop that immediately unless you could prove to me there was ROI.

If you’re going to send them a chocolate bar by Express Post, we’re easily at $10. On a hundred dollar purchase, you just lost $10 of pure profit and that means you now have to find someone else to give you $20 to cover that.

If you can tell me that strategy means someone comes back and gives you a $300 order, I’m okay for it. But if you’re doing it to make yourself feel better, I buy gift boxes all the time and I’ve never tried the product.

As someone who gifts, that is not my motivator. My motivator is do you have the product that I want? How quick can you get it to the person? Are you going to do some sort of gift wrapping for me? Can I have a card? Do I have tracking so I make sure the person got the thing?

We send out gift boxes for our clients all the time. These are the things that are important to us.

When we’re talking corporate, there’s a gatekeeper who normally does this. Sending her something when she hits a certain point is a nice thank you. But I would actively be selling that.

I would be saying, for our corporate clients, when you spend $1,000, we will give you a gift box for your team.

I’m making those numbers up. I have no idea about the profitability. But that’s an incentive. If they told me that when I spent a certain amount I would get a free box to send to whoever I want, including myself, that’s appealing.

Corporate and B2C are very different strategies.

Did you have a question?

Cathy: I can understand all that, but I think my problem is thinking, if I track someone and them spending $1,000, what’s the best way to do that? Then I get onto this whole, I better set up a spreadsheet, maybe I’ll get in touch with the web people and get a thing put on. Then I just don’t do anything.

Salena: Where focus goes, money flows.

That’s not an ideas problem. That’s not a strategy problem. That is, is this important to you? You decided that it is not important to you, so you didn’t do anything about it.

That’s not a marketing problem. You didn’t believe it was important. You didn’t have the data that showed if you implemented this, your cream at the top on the back end is a 4% increase in reorders.

That’s just data. You probably had that data if you took the time to look for it.

This is where we spend so much money in marketing and advertising and so many wasted hours because we’re not actually looking at our business to see what is the thing I need to focus on.

We just throw things out there because they sound good and customers would love that.

I want to know what your top line is. How much money are we going to make if we do this? How much money might we lose if it doesn’t work? What are the chances?

Putting in a strategy like that isn’t just saying we’re going to give our corporate clients a free box. There’s backend time that comes with it.

How are we going to manage that? Are the points going to expire? Am I going to send emails saying you’ve got this many points, don’t let them expire? There’s a whole separate marketing strategy for that.

Which is why I completely understand why you haven’t done it yet.

But at the same time, where’s my cream? Where’s the cash? That’s what we’re in business for. To make money. Plain and simple.

If you can’t show me it will make money, there’s a really good chance sales is going to look at you like stink eye and say come back to me with the data.

Cathy: Yeah, you’re right. I should really be concentrating on the people that are buying from me, buying more, getting them to buy more, rather than the little people that come in every now and then for a birthday present once every three or four months.

Salena: We go where the data says to go.

Cathy: I know it’s 80% corporate.

Salena: Does that help?

Cathy: Yes, it does immensely.

Can I ask another question?

I had someone come to me saying they wanted gift boxes to send when finances settled. I thought they were doing cars, the profit margin won’t be that much, so I sent $65 gift box options to them.

Then they came back and said they were thinking more about $50.

I was like, okay, how do I do this?

I need to call him today because I said perhaps I should call you rather than putting all this effort into sending photos and emails and we’ll just get what you want.

I’ve found people are saying not $95, can you do it for $80, not $65, can you do it for $50?

Salena: Okay, back on my soapbox here.

This is simple lead gen qualification.

They should be filling out a form.

What is the price point of the thing you sell? What kind of gift basket?

Because the reality is if he’s selling $100,000 cars and he wants to send a $50 gift box, dude, you are stingy as.

There is a point where you get a gift and if I just spent a hundred grand with you and you sent me a candle, I’m more offended than anything else.

If I spent $50 with you and you sent me a candle, I’d be like my God, that’s amazing.

There is a value on the exchange that as a marketer and salesperson you need to convey.

What you’re looking at there is simple lead gen qualification.

What do you sell? What is the average price point? What is the gift box you’re looking for?

If they come in and it’s too cheap, I would have that conversation with them.

Someone bought a hundred thousand dollar car and you want to send them a candle and a chocolate. Honestly, that might actually be doing you more harm than good.

Does that make sense?

Cathy: Yeah.

Salena: You need to give them the value.

Then it is creating the offer. Here is what we would do for you and here is how that will benefit your business.

The stats show that customers who receive a client gift are much more likely to purchase again.

There’s a whole bunch of data there that you could present to these customers.

But again, a corporate client acquisition strategy is completely different to a B2B acquisition strategy.

Cathy: Right, okay. It’s more important for me to try and engage with them.

Salena: No, don’t engage with them until you’ve qualified them.

So far this guy has been a tight ass. He’s selling cars. He wants a $50 gift box.

How much time have you put into him?

If you’ve already put two hours in, let’s be honest, Cathy, you’ve got to sell like four gift boxes just to pay for your time so far.

If he doesn’t buy four, you literally just lost money.

Cathy: That’s my problem at the moment.

Salena: Right now none of us are in a position to be giving money away.

Every dollar is about putting as much of that dollar in your pocket as possible.

If this was me and this was my lead gen, I’d be like, dude, unless you can promise me you’re going to buy 10 boxes, here’s the link, gifts under $50.

You are more valuable than you think.

Cathy: Yes, okay.

Salena: We have to believe in our worth.

Cathy: Yes, that’s right. And not compromise it. I’m thinking if that’s the only lead I’ve got this month, I’m better off spending time on it than going home and going to gym.

Salena: You are better off spending time on a client acquisition strategy that will bring in customers that spend money with you.

Not chasing some guy who’s trying to beat you down right from the beginning.

How many cars a month does he sell? Put that on your qualifier.

How many gift boxes a month are you expecting to need?

If he’s talking one a month, Cathy, let him go.

Send him a link to gift boxes under $50 and let him be done.

Cathy: Thank you very much.

Salena: I know I can be harsh. Some people call me blunt. Some people call me mean. Some people call me bitch.

But the reality is you are here, you spent money to be here, you are taking time out of your business to be here and you are here running a business to make money.

My job is to give you marketing strategies, but also to kick you up the butt when you are prepared to give this money away.

We aren’t giving money away. We’re keeping money in our pockets.

Rich people stay rich because they don’t give their cash away unless they choose to.