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<\/p>\nHow many of you gave gifts to clients and prospects this year? According to a recent gift-giving survey from ASI, average spending on such gifts was up 13.9% to about $30 per gift this year.<\/p>\n
Our executive director of research, Larry Basinait, found clients aren\u2019t the only ones benefiting from corporate beneficence. Employers who answered our survey say they spent an average $42.52 per employee \u201cthank you\u201d gift this year, up 19.6% from 2010.<\/p>\n
Like last year, our survey shows gift cards and cash remain the most popular employee gifts, with 38% of respondents planning to give gift cards to employees. Cash bonuses are second, but fell by 8 percentage points to 24% since 2010.<\/p>\n
Does gift-giving work? Nearly a quarter of respondents say giving gifts to clients and prospects results in sales and leads, with over one-quarter (27%) of those surveyed saying the gift resulted in a referral and 24% reporting generating a lead or a sale.<\/p>\n
Other survey highlights include:<\/p>\n
Over at \u201cThe Joe Show<\/a>,\u201d Joe Haley demonstrated a number of the year\u2019s hottest business gifts, including:<\/p>\n Coffee table books<\/strong>, from National Geographic Society, asi\/73383. Beautiful books from National Geographic not only include incredible photography, but they can also be customized and personalized. iPad keyboard<\/strong>, from <\/strong>Pingline, asi\/78137. High-tech products and accessories like the Bluetooth-activated keyboard \u2013 which makes typing a whole lot easier \u2013 are on everyone\u2019s wish list.<\/p>\n Outdoor jacket,<\/strong> from Trimark Sportswear Group Inc., asi\/92122. Jackets are essential and appreciated, come in men\u2019s and women\u2019s styles and are perfect for people who work and play outdoors in the winter months.<\/p>\n Leather wrapped thermos,<\/strong> from Sweda Co. LLC, asi\/90305. Practical and elegant, it\u2019s just the thing for the sales rep on the go.<\/p>\n Customized wine and spirits,<\/strong> from A Plus Wine Designs, asi\/30223. Make a strong showing with a giveaway that\u2019s perfect for holiday parties and to leave with clients on visits. Leather Nook cover,<\/strong> from Royce Leather, asi\/52390. Sure to give the iPad a run for its money, the new Nook tablet is a best-seller this year, and accessories will show thoughtfulness.<\/p>\n Throw blanket,<\/strong> from KTP Design Co., asi\/63773. Winter months bring images of snuggling up in front of a warm fire. Enhance that experience with a custom woven afghan that companies can imprint with any image or logo.<\/p>\n Ogio bag,<\/strong> from SanMar, asi\/84863. Duffel bags are perfect for travel and going to the gym. This bag has flexible spines, allowing it to stand or bend at will.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Ornaments,<\/strong> from Faro USA, asi\/53697 & Marbex Inc., asi\/68708. A finely-crafted holiday ornament doesn\u2019t have to be expensive or elaborate. Most can be easily mailed, hung from a company\u2019s tree or given out to visitors.<\/p>\n What was your favorite gift to give this year? Let me know by posting a comment or e-mailing me here<\/a>. I\u2019m also on Twitter<\/a>, LinkedIn<\/a> and YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" How many of you gave gifts to clients and prospects this year? According to a recent gift-giving survey from ASI, average spending on such gifts was up 13.9% to about $30 per gift this year. Our executive director of research, Larry Basinait, found clients aren\u2019t the only ones benefiting from corporate beneficence. Employers who answered […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,5,25,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","category-industry-initiatives","category-research","category-using-ad-specialties"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1364"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1367,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1364\/revisions\/1367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"http:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/book.jpg\")
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