Ball State

» gift baskets

By China at 9:27 AM

The other day I was watching his show on television that had inspired me to try something a bit different for a sales call. My summer job right now is a sales internship where I go to various companies around town and try to sell name brand cutlery. The job may not seem that interesting on paper but it really is a fun experience. Anyway, so this show I was watching is this popular comedy show called The Office. I was watching the american version of the show and it reminded me of what I do now. The whole setting of the office building and the people that I have to work with when I am there was very similar, aside from all of the crazy events that almost never happen in our office. In the episode I was watching, the main character wanted to win back some companies that had switched their business to the large companies with lower prices. In his attempts to win them back he thought that it was a bright idea to give out corporate gift baskets as a means to an end. He saw the corporate gift basket as an old sales tactic that has been forgotten in the world of the internet. Of course the whole thing ended with him taking back a gift baskets from an unwavering company head who didn't want their business anyway. Now I don't think that I am necessarily going to try to win people's endorsement and sales through the use of totally useless gift baskets. What I had in mind was the idea of customer appreciation and not bribery. I want to show the customers who have consistently bought products from me all summer that I do care. That is where my gift baskets will come in handy. I wouldn't imagine that this type of strategy is too useful for getting new clients, but people do notice when their business is appreciated. I think for me it is just a matter of having some kind of empathy for the customer, and not just a fear that causes me to grasp at business straws to make sales.