You’re in business to make money. These days, that sounds like a dirty little secret, but all businesses exist to make money. To reward the owners. The shareholders. To turn a profit. 
 
Therefore, you charge your clients for everything you do. 
 
Or do you? 
 
Or should you? 
 
In this article, we’ll dive into the reasons you should, or shouldn’t, provide some hard, payable work for free. It’s based on lots of experience, with lots of clients—and often, their clients. 
 
The cold-reality ROI argument
 
You’ve surely heard of a “loss leader.” Something that gets a prospect in the door for a super-attractive price. “Super-attractive,” as in “untenable.” Hence the “loss” you take on it. 
 
Ever played a scratch-off Monopoly game at McDonald’s and won a free order of French fries? C’mon. You think McDonald’s will lose money on that one? Remember: You can’t claim that prize on that visit. You have to come back.
 
So would you ever, honestly, make a trip to McDonald’s, and only order French fries? Even if they’re free? Of course you wouldn’t. Neither would anyone else. 
 
Hence the “cold, hard ROI” argument for freebies. Which goes something like this: 
 
Sure, you can give away something for free—just so long as you’re virtually assured that you’ll end up making way more than the value of what you gave away, from that same client or customer.
 
Ooof. How cold. How… Darwinian. 
 
It’s the little things
 
First off, know that we here at Copel Communications toss out freebies to our clients from time to time. Typically, they’re what we’d consider “too small to charge for.” We recently did a little quick-turn project for a client that, while admittedly urgent, simply wasn’t a huge amount of work for us. 
 
So what were we going to do at the end of the month? Line-item it for, say, 50 bucks? 
 
Naah. We refuse to nickel-and-dime like that. 
 
Still, we did list it on that month’s invoice. But the price? “N/C.” 
 
Surprise and delight
 
Sometimes, tossing out the freebie is just the right thing to do—especially if you’ve got a longstanding relationship with a client and the right project comes along and you can afford to do it. 
 
Ever give your dog a treat not because he chased a squirrel away from your bird feeder, but rather "just because”? This is like that. 
 
True story: We have a client that competes in an incredibly high-tech field. In fact, among our tech-savvy clients, this is one of the savviest, to the point where it’s always challenging to write for them—to assume that mantle of brilliance. It’s difficult and daunting. 
 
Yet we must be doing something right, because this client keeps turning to us with projects for years and years. 
 
One day, however, the owner of this business hit us with an unusual request. Turns out he was running for town council in the area where he lived, and wanted our help with some of his campaign materials. 
 
Man oh man. We knew this would be a freebie the instant we saw it. 
 
He sent us some fliers. And posters. And emails. And what-not. Asking us to clean them up, and bill him for whatever it required. 
 
Now we know this guy and you don’t. Trust us: He’s a great person. Any town council would be blessed to have him aboard. 
 
We were flattered, and honored, to work on this stuff. Sure, we had other paying gigs on the calendar, but were happy to carve out time for him. And when we turned to it, we hit it out of the park. 
 
Our client was delighted! He was so grateful—perhaps especially because this assignment fell outside of his usual high-tech comfort zone. “Send us your invoice,” he said. 
 
And so we sent it. With every single item line-itemed. We showed the “rack rate” for each thing—what it would cost in the real world—and even added up the total cost. 
 
And then, below that, we subtracted the entire total cost, with the note: “Courtesy discount." 
 
Amount due? Zero. 
 
If you think this client was delighted by the work we did, you can only imagine how surprised and happy he was to find out he was getting it for free. 
 
And we felt great. It still feels good, simply re-telling this story. 
 
Happy ending?
 
So, this client immediately came back and rewarded us with zillions of dollars’ worth of fresh, new work. Right? 
 
Wrong. In fact, it was months before he needed our services again. 
 
Are we bitter? Not at all! This is the antithesis of the “cold-reality ROI” argument. We’d call it the “spark of humanity” argument. A little Christmas, when it isn’t Christmas. 
 
Businesses exist to turn a profit. But they’re also run by people who live lives. Sometimes you simply need to connect at that very basic level. 
 
Have thoughts on this issue or a story to share? Contact us. We’d love to hear it. 

​This article was originally going to be about developing a production process for video scripts. But because of the way things turned out at our client, this one is taking a decidedly more valuable turn. For you. 
 
We’re going to talk about something that you can create, for your clients, as a gift, which will win you follow-on business. We can’t say “guaranteed,” but pretty darned close. 
 
What’s this have to do with video scripting? 
 
From production to presents
 
A client of ours—incidentally, we typically get our best education and insights from our clients, as they’re a pretty ingenious lot—had tasked us with making a series of videos. 
 
Here’s the genesis: Our client does a lot of similar projects for its clients. And when it completes each one, it ends up with some raw screen-capture video footage, documenting the project. 
 
The job they handed to us: Turn that boring screen-capture footage into a compelling video that sells. We’d anonymize these, and our client would post them on their YouTube channel, since they’re great little sales vehicles which show off exactly what they do, in about two minutes each. 
 
So far, so straightforward. Right? 
 
But here’s the stroke of genius: This same client of ours decided to create a customized version of the same video for their client. Granted, we need to over-simplify here, but think of it this way: Upon completing the project, our client (a consultancy) produced and delivered—without charging an extra dime for it—a custom video for their client, showcasing the work they just completed. As a gift.
 
With our services folded in, the finished video was very “Hollywood”: slick voiceover, music, effects, etc. The V.O. goes something like this: “Working with Consultancy [our client], ABC Business [their client] has been able to do something amazing, which you’ll see, firsthand, in this video.”  
 
And then it would effectively go into the demo. 
 
Private viewing
 
Whereas videos made for YouTube are intentionally created to reach the largest audience possible (BTW, we worked on one which, as of this writing, has attracted 61 million views), this video was for an audience of, oh, about five people. 
 
Yep. That’s it. A slick, high-quality, seemingly big-budget video to be seen by: The CEO. The CFO. The project sponsor. And a couple others. That’s it. 
 
This video was a gift of our client’s, to their client. It said “Thank you for letting us work with you. You may not have been in the trenches for this one, like the Project Sponsor was, but we’d like the Executive Leadership Team to see just what we did for you, and how great it came out.” 
 
Can you guess what happened next? 
 
Roll out the red carpet
 
The Executive Leadership Team audience, you likely won’t be surprised to learn, was positively delighted by this little video. 
 
Do you think they kept it to themselves? 
 
Au contraire. They demanded that it be posted, enterprise-wide, on the company intranet. Sent out to all the zillions of leaders and team members. 
 
And therein lies the gift that keeps on giving. 
 
The Executive Leadership Team felt great. They got a rush from this video… to the point where they wanted more. 
 
Want another video? Sure! Book another project.
 
And what about all those other leaders in the company who now got to see the video? They want their own projects, too! 
 
Some of them, incidentally, ended up leaving the company and going elsewhere. Guess which vendor stuck in their heads as especially helpful when they landed their new gigs? 
 
You can, too
 
This is a shockingly easy deliverable to create. Our purposely anonymized story above should inspire you: You can make these, too. And you should. They’re an absolute killer when it comes to burnishing your brand… and helping you win follow-on work. 
 
Of course, videos like this do require creative scripting and creative ways to make them look like a million bucks, while costing next to nothing. 
 
That’s where we come in. Contact us and let’s talk. 

​We think that the title of this blog—“Do business gifts build business?”—is provocative. 
 
A question demands an answer. And a question like this—a yes/no question—is binary. It suggests that the answer is either “Yes they do” or “No they don’t.” 
 
What do you think? Do business gifts build business?
 
Here’s what we think. We think that that question is invalid. There are lots of activities you can do to build business; read virtually any article in this series to gain insights thereon. 
 
But when it comes to gifts, there’s a different dynamic at play. 
 
A whole new light
 
What, exactly, is a gift? It’s something freely given. Why? Just because. That’s the important part. It’s like love from a dog. It’s unconditional.
 
Put it this way: What if you gave someone—say, a client—a gift, with a little note card that says “Happy holidays. Enjoy this great gift. Now give us lots of business in return!”
 
It’s hard to imagine anything that’s more patently offensive. 
 
Here’s our point: While you can, and should, expend effort (and of course some money) on gift-giving to clients and prospects, set your expectations properly. You’re sending something to a client. That sure feels like a business transaction. But in this case, it isn’t. It’s a “just because.” It’s a time—an opportunity—to step outside your professional persona, to let your guard down, to connect with another person as a person, one-to-one, stripped of any business pretense. It’s like when your cat bombs your Zoom call and it’s embarrassing yet funny. It’s a reminder that life isn’t just about making money. 
 
That bears repeating: Life isn’t just about making money. Or, to quote one of our favorite lines from Citizen Kane, “It’s no big trick to make a lot of money ...if all you want, is to make a lot of money.” 
 
Pay it forward
 
It’s early November as we post this. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are still weeks away. But you should start thinking about your annual holiday business gift-giving now. 
 
Put it this way. What if you sent your biggest client a decidedly un-business-like gift this year? We can’t tell you how many desk sets, calendars, pens, business-card holders, and so on, we’ve received back when we were in the commute-to-an-office grind. They’re certainly nice, but we can’t remember who sent what. 
 
We had a vendor, however, who sent us some cheese on a cutting board, with a little knife. It has nothing to do with advertising, or voiceovers (yep, the vendor was a voiceover artist), or business of any kind. We still remember that vendor—his name was Ron—and we still have the little cutting board. Ron’s a nice guy. So there. 
 
Pick out something fun. Something personal. Something un-businesslike. Something you’d get a friend or relative. That kind of gift. 
 
So now we can revisit the provocative question which opened this article: “Do business gifts build business?” Sure, they might. Or they may not. Depends on the recipient. Depends on the gift. 
 
The real answer is “Who cares?”
 
Get into the holiday spirit early. It’s good for you. 
 
Have a comment? Drop us a line. We’d love to hear it. 

You’ve started thinking about it already. …Haven’t you?
 
Oh no! Just reading the headline of this article probably made you wince. Are we that deep into fourth quarter already?
 
Yep. We are.
 
Sure, we could’ve posted this article in December; heck, we could post it on Christmas Frikkin’ Eve, but we’d like broaden the utility of this piece beyond the last-millisecond/hair-on-fire set.
 
Making a list. Checking it twice.
 
Depending upon the size of your client roster, this step may be easy—or an exercise. Since “easy” is obvious (“I have five identically-huge clients!”), we’ll skip that scenario, and plunge right into the thornier issue of culling and (ugh) ranking.
 
We think you’ll agree that you can graph your clients along two different axes: 1) the amount of billing they give you, and 2) how much you simply enjoy working for them. And you know, without us telling you, that there is no direct correlation between 1) and 2). Indeed, if you have a pretty deep client roster, and you were asked to quickly rank the top five in terms of billing off the top of your head, you might not be able to do it. That’s because your emotional view of how you like to work with them will bias you.
 
What this means is, calculate the billing. If you’re an Excel whiz—or know someone who is—create a pivot table whereby you can easily rank clients by gross billing. The results may surprise you. Confession: They often surprise us. Looking at hard numbers like these, toward the end of the year, often elicits a spontaneous “I never realized they were that big!” or “I never realized they were that small!”
 
Now, raw billing isn’t your only gauge when it comes to business-gift budgeting. But you simply can’t overlook it. Factor it into your thinking in the steps that follow.
 
Who makes you look good?
 
So far we’ve simply been talking about clients. After all, they keep you fed. But don’t overlook those key vendors who make your life possible. You know who they are: the go-to graphic artists, photographers, SEO jockeys, web heads, printers, and other “knob-turners” who contribute to the deliverables you deliver.
 
Would you also rank them, in terms of how much you’ve spent on them this year? You certainly could. And making that “vendor pivot table” can be an eye-opener, even before your accountant starts generating 1099s. But we think the emotional/team-player angle here is the more important one. Heck, we dole out a lot on insurance each year. But that’s a faceless and thankless transaction. Who helped you out when that client tossed a fire in your lap? Who simply delivered, time and again, never complaining and never missing a deadline?
 
Rewarding loyalty feels great.
 
Who’s the “recipient”?
 
This can be one of the hardest questions to answer. Let’s say “Company A” is your client. Within Company A, there’s the Top Person. But Top Person may not be your key point-of-contact. And Key Point of Contact may well have a Lieutenant who is absolutely indispensible to you (and who may also—in part through your efforts--be moving, quickly, up the ranks to a position of more authority… or even a future lateral move to Company B). And then there are all those Other People In The Company with whom you’ve had tertiary contact: lots of good people you’d still love to recognize. But you can’t gift every one of them, individually. And what if you inadvertently left someone out? Yikes. Don’t wanna do that.
 
There are two ways to skin this proverbial cat—although the hybrid approach between them is often your best bet. The first option is to single out the Big Key Player and serve him or her with a really nice and personalized gift. Period. The second option is to choose some kind of big, shareable gift that you can give to The Entire Company, and then let them fight it out over who-gets-what. (We keep thinking of a lion taking down a zebra, surrounded by hyenas, and then vultures, and then rats, and then flies. But that’s not exactly in the holiday spirit, is it?)
 
So the “hybrid approach” noted above consists of 1) one or a few key gifts to key players, and 2) a big shareable gift for everyone else in the organization. That’s pretty do-able.
 
So what do you get them?
 
Interesting that we’re this deep into an article about “business gifts” without having discussed any of the gifts themselves! That’s because, as you’ve seen by now, there’s a lot of “upstream” consideration that goes into the process.
 
So let’s assume you’ve made your lists. Ranked them appropriately. Carved up key players and “shareable groups” within each.
 
What on earth do you get them?
 
Clearly, there are zillions of choices, but the two things to bear in mind are that a great business gift 1) reflects well on the recipient, and 2) reflects well on you. The words “thoughtful” and “appropriate” can’t be overstated here.
 
God bless the Internet. For those of you reading this who survived through The Days Of Paper Catalogs, you’ll appreciate how easy it is these days to search on arcane strings such as “Best gift CFO non-perishable” and revel in the results.
 
A few specifics
 
Your mileage may vary, but we’ve had dismal results with any kind of gift entrusted to one of the big floral-delivery brands. Especially in these days of just-in-time logistics, they simply can’t out-Amazon Amazon. We’re also not big on alcohol. Which may be wrong, because tons of other people are. But note that alcohol, as a gift, imposes some pretty strict limitations on delivery (must be signed for, by someone 21 or over), and “second-attempt” deliveries, at holiday time, can be iffy—or late.
 
Which leads to timing. Find out, in advance, which clients/recipients will be shutting down early for the holidays. You sure don’t want something delivered when no one’s there to get it.
 
Looking to brand your holiday gift, say, with your logo? Sure, that’s fine to do. And it will remind the recipient of you, and your business, every time they use the gift. But we prefer stuff like that for trade shows. Call us old-fashioned, but we regard the holidays as more sacrosanct than that. It’s not about selling. You’ve got the whole rest of the year to do that. It’s more about simply connecting to people on a personal level and thanking them for including you in their lives. That’s our take on it.
 
Which leads to our last topic: Giving them a gift that’s actually for someone else.
 
The first time this happened to us, many years ago, we were pleasantly stunned. Someone gave us a holiday gift: It was a simply card, which said “A donation has been made in your name to the American Cancer Society.” At the time, it was the best gift we’d ever gotten. It still may be. Seeing something like that really puts, say, a desk set to shame.
 
There are lots of places that let you do the same for people on your list. One of our favorites is Heifer International. They let you purchase farm animals for communities in need, all over the world. Just think of your client’s face when they read: “We bought you a goat.”
 
Happy Holidays.