Cameron Herold argues that most business gifts miss the mark because they focus on the giver (branded swag) rather than the recipient. Through multiple personal anecdotes — a custom $400 coffee mug made after interviewing his family, a $9,000 Brooks Brothers clothing surprise arranged by John Rulin, and engraved chef's knives — he illustrates that thoughtful, personalized gifts create lasting goodwill. He recommends avoiding generic branded items (shirts, pens, plaques), thinking about logistics (e.g., speakers who travel), and spending more strategically on gifts that are about the recipient, not the sender. He also cites John Rulin and his book Giftology as a resource.
Questions this video answers
May 13, 2024.
About $400.
About $9,000.
Giftology by John Rulin.
Chapters
What makes a really good gift versus a really bad gift? And also, why are we so kind of reluctant to tell each other that our gifting sucks? I was just thinking about gifting, and in the business world, we tend to get a lot of gifts. You know, it's funny, over the years I've received so many gifts from business associates, business friends, other companies, mastermind groups that I'm in. And more often than not, sadly, they missed the mark. Hopefully this doesn't mean that I stop getting gifts because on the occasions when I get the great ones, I really like them. What makes a really good gift versus a really bad gift? And also, why are we so kind of reluctant to tell each other that our gifting sucks? Because most often we're sending out kind of schlocky items that the other person doesn't want. So as an example, like, I really don't want one of your company shirts with your company logo on it. Like, I don't even wear company shirts with my company logo on it. I certainly don't want one of yours. And I don't really assume that you want one of mine, you know, and then I don't really need another pen with a logo on it. And I've got lots of good coffee cups. I love, love why the Crusade Coffee cups. And although I got a coffee cup last year from a friend of mine, but he spent a lot of money on it. He spent about $400 on a coffee mug for me. And it was custom made for me. It was custom made with words that are important to me, thoughts about my kids and my family, things that I. My hobbies. And it also came with a video describing how the cup was made with a. A video of the artist making the actual coffee cup. And it was amazing. The person who sent it to me is a guy named John Rulin. He had actually spoken to my kids, my girlfriend, and got ideas on what should be on the cup and crafted this beautiful coffee cup for me. It didn't have his logo on it anywhere. It didn't mention him anywhere. It was completely about me and for me. And I thought that was great. I've gotten other gifts where, you know, it's a box filled with stuff that is branded with a company that I like, but stuff that I'm not really going to use. You know, other times I get gifts that again, are really tied to me that are very thoughtful. So people know that I like wine. I get great bottles of wine sent to me. I love these big magnums that people are sending me. Because they're kind of fun to have. I've had people that have sent me wine because they know that I live part time in Vancouver, part time in Scottsdale. So they'll even send me a note saying, hey, I'm sending you something. Where would you like me to send it? And often I have them send it to me in Vancouver. Sometimes it costs them more, sometimes they have to get a local delivery, but they're thinking about me instead of just sending it to my US Address. They're actually, you know, I'm not being batched in with 300 people. I also have, you know, people when I'm speaking at conferences, you know, you're thinking about a speaker gift. We really don't want to have another, you know, glass plaque with your company or your association's name on it saying that we spoke there. Like, how many of these little glass awards do I need? Especially now that, you know, I've had a home office for 13 years. And then even if, though, I love wine, when you give a gift to somebody who's a speaker, we're usually leaving the event and going to the airport and hopping on a plane, and we can't chuck the bottle or we don't really want to check our suitcase with the wine in it, and we can't take the wine on the plane. So what ends up normally happening is we give the bottle of wine to the person who drove us to the airport. I've even given it to people at the airport. I gave a bottle to a cleaning lady and told her to go home and celebrate with her husband. But, you know, if you're thinking about connecting your gift to the person you're giving it to, really think about that person and what's going to make it special for them. When I really kind of encountered gifting for the first time was this friend of mine, John Rulin. He actually wrote a book called Giftology that I really highly recommend everybody go and purchase a copy on Amazon right now and read it. And this story I'm about to tell you is actually in chapter one of his book. John and I met around 13 years ago at an organization called the Entrepreneurs Organization, or eo, And I was speaking at the conference and John wanted to book me to come and speak in his city. So he sent me a note and he organized for me to come and speak to his chapter. And, you know, they were paying my normal fee in my flight, and I was flying from Vancouver, connecting in Chicago and then flying into Cleveland to speak. And I remember when I was Partway there, I got a text from John. He said, hey, what size shirt do you wear? I'm like, oh, gosh. The last thing I want to do is have one of your company shirts. And I was like, extra large. He's like, no dress shirt size. I'm like, wow, I really don't want one of your dress shirts with your company name on it. But I gave him my size was like a 16 collar, 35 arm length. He's like, hey, when you get here, come. You know, just come in and say hi before you. You run up to your room. And I was like, dude, I'm not even gonna go up to the room. I'm already four hours late. I'd missed my connection in Chicago. We're gonna miss the. The dinner. And we were supposed to be going out for dinner into a basketball game that night. John's like, just come and say hi really quickly and then take your stuff up to the room. So I get there, and he's like, take your stuff to the room. I'm like, dude, I'm dropping into the bellman. Let's go to the basketball game right now. He made me go to the rim. I go up to my hotel room, and when I get there, my hotel room was completely merchandised with clothing from Brooks Brothers. So what John understood with me was that in those days, I used to love Brooks Brothers. I don't anymore. But that was, you know, 13 years ago. And John knew that I liked Brooks Brothers clothing. He also knew that I was planning to go to Brooks Brothers before meeting him for dinner. But because I'd missed my connection because of weather, I wasn't going to get to go to Brooks Brothers. This was back in the day when the Canadian dollar was worth more than the U.S. and for me, everything was free at Brooks Brothers. So John actually went to Brooks Brothers on my behalf and purchased a whole bunch of clothes from the spring lineup. He had about six dress shirts, six sweaters, a couple pairs of pants, a couple of belts, a couple of sports coats, and had it all merchandised and laid out in the room. It was about $9,000 worth of clothing that he'd put on his credit card for me. He made an arrangement with the Four Seasons, I think was where I was, where he was staying at the Fairmont. The general manager was going to take any of the clothes I didn't want back to Brooks Brothers for me, which was across the street. The Brooks Brothers general manager knew they'd be getting a lot of it brought back, and then they were Going to take any clothes I did want and put it on credit John's with anything I returned. What was amazing about that as a gift was it didn't actually cost John money. It cost him time and thinking about me. But for years after me wearing, you know, those coats and wearing those sweaters, I would always be thinking of John. And then lastly, seemingly, John really understands gifting was why he's the expert on it and why he wrote the book called Giftology. He also sends me these knives, these beautiful chef's knives that have my name engraved on them. And it says, from the kitchen of Cameron Herald. And used to call me the, you know, the naked chef in training. And it would be like, from Cameron Herald, the naked chef in training. Because I love Jamie Oliver. So he. He didn't have his logo on the knives. He didn't even have my company logo on the knives. He just had my name on them, which was special to me. But every time I use them, I think of John. So think about the gifting that you're sending out to your customers. You know, do they really need another one of, you know, your baseball hats or, you know, another pin or a USB thumb drive or a flashlight? Like, no, we don't need any of that and we're wasting all that money. So take your gifting up, market a little bit, spend a little bit more on your gifting. And think about as another example, with your gifting, we would be willing to take a prospect out for dinner and spend 250 or $300 on a dinner for two with a potential sales prospect, about a $250 gift as well, or $500 gift. You'll get way more leverage, but keep it about them, not about you.
