Rewarding Referrals

A few days ago I talked a little bit about rewarding referrals with gifts or some other sort of acknowledgment. Of course, the point I wanted to make was that these were gifts only if they weren’t required or expected. That being said, what sort of things could...

Unwanted Expectations

We’ve talked in the past about gift-giving. It’s a wonderful way to show the people in your network that you know and care about them — so long as the gift we give is selected with the specific recipient in mind. There is another kind of...

Gifts and the Scorecard

We’re moving into the gift-giving season for many of us. Whether you celebrate Christmas or not and whether it’s fair or not, this is the time of year that a lot of folks send out their corporate gifts. Here’s the thing, though: If you are sending...

Professional Presents, Personal Touch

Just one of the possible gifts from Zingerman’s I had a wonderful opportunity the other day to sit down with Lois Weinblatt, the Lead Concierge of the Professional Presents department at Zingerman’s mail order here in Ann Arbor. Lois and I met at a...

The Art of Gifting

One of the assumptions that beginning networkers have is that giving gifts to people in their network automatically builds a stronger relationship. Maybe. True, if done correctly, giving presents can be a valuable part of good networking practice. Done poorly,...