Episode 128: Corporate Gifting: What Most Businesses Get Wrong w/ Kade Kimber

Aug 11

Kade Kimber

About

Kade Kimber is a client experience strategist, keynote speaker, and creator of Gift Intelligence™. Drawing on 20 years of enterprise marketing leadership across nine countries and experience supporting a $6B+ business line, he helps founder-led, partner-led, and professional services firms build memorable client experiences that strengthen trust, loyalty, referrals, and long-term value.

Kade is also the founder of Kimber & Oak, a corporate gifting company that creates custom-curated gift experiences for relationship-driven brands. His work connects strategy, timing, messaging, presentation, and delivery so a gift supports the larger relationship instead of becoming another forgettable item.

Sara Murray and Kade Kimber on the Prospecting on Purpose® podcast discussing corporate gifting strategy.

Listen to the episode here

Watch the episode here

Episode 128: Corporate Gifting: What Most Businesses Get Wrong

Most businesses do not have a corporate gifting strategy. They have a budget, a holiday deadline, and a list of items to order. The result is often a generic basket or branded product that checks a box but does little to strengthen the relationship.

In this episode of Prospecting on Purpose®, Sara Murray sits down with Kade Kimber, a client experience strategist and the creator of Gift Intelligence™, to explore what changes when a business treats gifting as a strategic relationship tool. Kade explains why the best gift does not begin with the product. It begins with a clear reason, the right recipient, and a moment when the gesture will have meaning.

The conversation covers when to send gifts throughout the sales and client journey, how gifting can reinforce a buyer’s decision after a contract is signed, what to do when a company has strict gift limits, and how to build a memorable experience without relying on expensive or highly personalized products.

What You’ll Learn

• Why most business gifting is treated as procurement instead of strategy

• How generic holiday gifts and branded merchandise lose impact

• Why timing, relevance, and meaning matter more than price

• The best moments to send a gift during the sales and client journey

• How a gift can reinforce trust after a prospect chooses your company

• Why every gift should support a clear objective

• How to choose recipients using fixed, certain, and movable profiles

• How to create meaningful experiences within gift limits

• The four components of a memorable corporate gift

Listen to the episode on any Podcast Player:

Prospecting On Purpose® Podcast: https://pod.link/1663074741

Related Episodes

• Episode 70: Prospecting Through Relationship Marketing With Janice Porter

https://www.saramurray.com/podcast/episode-70-prospecting-through-relationship-marketing-with-janice-porter

• Episode 107: Brad Englert’s Take on Spheres of Influence: Build Better Connections

https://www.saramurray.com/podcast/episode-107-brad-englerts-take-on-spheres-of-influence-build-better-connections

• Why Relationship-Building in Sales Is More Powerful Than Any Pitch, YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx9xw06Rsps

Transcript

Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®

Meet Kade Kimber

Sara Murray: My guest today is Kade Kimber, a client experience strategist, keynote speaker, and the creator of Gift Intelligence™.

Kade spent two decades in enterprise marketing leadership, working across nine countries and supporting a business line worth more than $6 billion, before turning his focus to something most companies talk about but few build with intention: the client experience.

He helps founder-led and partner-led firms, along with professional services businesses in fields such as wealth management, law, architecture, hospitality, and travel, create experiences that feel unmistakably distinct in crowded, relationship-driven markets.

His clients include names such as The Ritz-Carlton, Marriott, Morgan Stanley, and Northwestern Mutual. I have been fortunate enough to meet Kade in person and see him speak, and I was surprised by how thought-provoking this concept was. I had to invite him onto the podcast. Kade, welcome to Prospecting on Purpose®.

Kade Kimber: Thank you so much. I appreciate you having me and the kind words. It was great to meet you in person and have some great conversations. I am looking forward to more.

Sara: Likewise. We are both from Utah, which is not a very common connection, so we have to represent the Utahns.

Kade: Yes.

Kade’s Origin Story

Sara: The bio gives us a small part of your origin story, but tell us why you left corporate and started your business. What did you see that made you build a business around gifting?

Kade: What is interesting is that I did not immediately leave corporate to start my business. It began very early in my marketing career, which ultimately ran for about two decades.

Early in my career, I noticed how terribly business gifting was being done. We were spending enormous amounts of money on fruit and cheese baskets or some other forgettable item, but most often it was promotional merchandise disguised as a gift.

At one point, I went to my boss and said, “I think there is an opportunity to do better with this and turn it into something that actually delivers results.” They were not interested, and neither were the other key stakeholders, so I started my gifting company. Three months later, I was gifting for the U.S. Women’s Open.

Sara: Cool.

Kade: That started a whole path for me that ultimately led to me leaving corporate full time 10 years later. I grew the company on the side as a separate venture. I never even marketed it, which is funny considering my background was in marketing. I grew it to six figures through word of mouth.

Sara: That is such a classic entrepreneurial journey. You find a gap in the market and a problem to solve. I loved your phrase “promotional merchandise disguised as a gift.” I think we all have a cupboard full of water bottles we do not use.

Kade: I call it the cupboard where all things go to die.

Sara: Or the garage sale or Goodwill bin after a while.

Kade: Exactly.

Sara: It is wasteful, too. Sometimes I look at swag and think, “This is just future landfill.” I love that you are building something intentional. I have been the recipient and the giver of great gifts, and I agree that a thoughtful gift can deepen a relationship.

Why Corporate Gifting Fails

Sara: Why are people still treating gifting as an afterthought? What are you seeing in the market, and how can we start looking at it differently?

Kade: Your earlier comment highlights it. After I give a keynote or workshop, or even have a discovery call with a client or prospect, people often say, “I never thought of it that way. This was thought-provoking.” That means people simply are not thinking of gifting as a marketing strategy, and that is why it is not being done well.

It has become routine. Most often, gifting is approached as a procurement task, not a marketing strategy. The first question is, “How much budget do we have?” That is where things start to go awry.

Sara: The word we need to focus on is strategy. We are not talking about gifting for the sake of gifting. We are talking about strategic, intentional effort. We are discussing it under a marketing umbrella, but I bring a sales lens to everything. I use gifting in my sales life, too.

This is a great place for sales and marketing to come together to support client relationships outside of CRMs, KPIs, and email sequences. We all spend time on those things, but what makes you stand out is something memorable. That is where gifting has potential when it is done well.

Why Timing Beats Holiday Gifting

Sara: Everyone sends things during the holidays. If the intended recipient is getting a lot of fruit and cheese baskets, how do you stand out during that time?

Kade: First, do not send the gift during that time. That is one of the easiest advantages people can create by shifting the timing.

Several components make a gift relevant and impactful: relevance, timing, and meaning. So often, business gifts are sent at year-end. That is ineffective not only because everything arrives at the same time, but also because no one is making a decision in December.

Strategic gifting is not separate from sales. Like an email sequence or social media campaign, it is a marketing asset meant to support sales. It can be a great prospecting tool. But companies are making plans, schedules, and calendars in the third quarter. By the end of Q3, plans are mostly ironed out so everything can be finalized in Q4 for a January 1 start.

If you are gifting in December with the intention of influencing decisions for the following year, you have missed the opportunity.

Sara: You have wasted the money and the opportunity to be relevant. The timing and meaning disappear because you are in the same bucket as everyone else.

I love the point that no one is making decisions in December. August and September are busy prospecting months in my business because that is when budgets are set. If one of the biggest objections you hear is, “We do not have the budget,” talk to them early enough to have the budget included.

What timing have you seen work well?

Kade: We work with a lot of traditionally focused clients who are used to sending a December gift, and it can feel like a stretch to move outside that tradition. The next easiest choice is the second week of January.

The second week of January is useful because people have moved past the first week, when they might still be on PTO and away from the office. They are back, refreshed, and past year-end.

The messaging needs to be forward-looking when you move into January. Instead of saying, “Thank you for this past year,” you might say, “We know you have amazing things ahead this year. We are excited to see what you accomplish. Thank you for allowing us to be part of that journey.”

December messages often feel like bookends or chapter endings.

Sara: “Thanks for your business.”

Kade: Exactly. “Thank you for your business. Thank you for your support this year. We appreciate you.” That is not a bad sentiment, but it is not doing you many favors.

Another important point is that you are sending a gift for a reason. Even if the objective was not identified at the beginning, no one sends a gift simply for the sake of spending money. People often confuse the emotion with the objective.

For instance, a company might say it is sending a gift for appreciation. Appreciation is the emotion, not the objective. The emotion helps drive the objective. The objective could be increased referrals, improved retention, or opening doors for meetings.

If the goal is to secure more meetings or finally get someone to take a call, December is unlikely to accomplish that. The response will almost inevitably be, “Thank you so much for the gift. Let’s touch base in the new year.”

Sara: And that rarely happens.

You made an important point. Having an objective for what the gift should achieve is what we mean by strategy and intention. I appreciate the forward-looking example. We want future business, not simply to close a year while competing with a lot of noise and while no one is spending money. I love the second week of January.

The Best Moments to Send a Gift

Sara: What are some other good times to give a business gift?

Kade: The best time to send a gift is when nobody else is thinking to do so. People do not remember average moments.

Difficult moments can be important. It might be a service-recovery situation. People often send an apology email, not a gift, so a thoughtful gesture will stand out.

Another moment is immediately after trust is placed. Some companies are good at acknowledging a contract signing, but most are not. The client has chosen you over a competitor. That is an amazing time to connect and reinforce that the client made the right decision.

Project milestones are also useful, especially if there are delays. We often celebrate the end, not the progress. A gift could acknowledge completion of a project phase or a significant milestone.

Referral moments matter, too. Do not wait until a referral produces revenue. Acknowledge the moment when someone puts their reputation on the line to recommend you. You are also reinforcing that behavior so it can happen again.

Personal life moments can be important: new babies, graduations for children or grandchildren, or the loss of a loved one. Those are not marketing moments. They are human moments, and that is where relationships are built.

Finally, quiet seasons are a favorite of mine. No one else is sending something, so the gesture stands out and feels more authentic. You may have a business objective, but it does not feel transactional. You are sending something because the relationship matters.

Sara: I love all of those. I had a top realtor from Los Angeles on the podcast a couple of seasons ago. She sends a “home-iversary” gift on the anniversary of a client moving into or closing on a home. It also keeps her visible if a neighbor or family member needs to move. She said she gets a lot of business from those gifts.

Corporate Gifting Ideas for Travel Advisors

Sara: A lot of travel advisors listen to this podcast. What would good gifting timing look like for a travel advisor?

Kade: There are several strong moments. It could be in anticipation of an upcoming trip, with something connected to the experience or destination. It does not have to be specific to the location. If the clients are traveling for an anniversary, for example, it could celebrate that moment.

You could also have something delivered to the clients’ room during the trip. Then there is the follow-up. You want them to continue using you, so you might send a relaxation gift and say, “Thank you so much. I know it was a busy trip. Here is something to help you kick up your feet and ease back into reality.”

Sara: Those are great examples. Thoughtful gifting comes naturally to me. I had a meeting at a surf park in Palm Desert, and I learned that the chief engineer had just had a baby. On my drive, I stopped and bought a baby blanket and a card and had the people I was meeting sign it.

Milestones and opportunities to add value come naturally to some people. But what if someone is listening and thoughtful gifting is not one of their natural strengths? What can they do to build that skill?

Start With Why, Who, and When

Kade: The first question is not, “What should I send?” The questions are why am I sending it, to whom, whether that person is best positioned to influence my objective, and when I should send it.

Once you understand those things, the product often comes to life on its own. You see the scenario, the reason, and the timing, and the appropriate gift begins to make sense.

It is also important to remember that the bar is low. I do not want to say you should aim only slightly above the baseline, but it is not difficult to clear the hurdle into exceptional gifting. It might not be exceptional to the degree that a professional would create it, but it can stand out above the status quo.

Sometimes simply sending a gift puts you over that bar. It comes down to understanding why you are doing it in that moment and what you want to accomplish. Everything else can be sorted out.

If you get the messaging right, the gift itself does not have to be extraordinary. The meaning is conveyed through the message.

Your home-iversary example is a good one. The note should not ask for a referral. It could say, “I enjoy working with amazing people like you. You are what makes my work feel valuable and fulfilling. Thank you for being you.”

Sara: Or, “I hope you are loving your home. Five years in, I hope little Timmy is still enjoying the front yard.”

Kade: Exactly. Make it about them and the emotion and meaning, not about what you want. That is what will drive the behavior.

You do not have to be naturally great at choosing gifts. It helps, but the starting point is why, who, and when.

Sara: Why, who, and when. Relevance, timing, and meaning. I love it.

Measuring the Return on Corporate Gifting

Sara: When gifting is done with thought and becomes a strategy, what are realistic outcomes people can expect compared with generic swag and branded merchandise?

Kade: The most immediate return is a deepened relationship. A lot can develop from there.

My biggest focus is turning gifting into something measurable. Gifting seems to be the one marketing tactic we do not measure the same way we measure everything else.

If the objective is to drive referrals, create a measurable goal. You might aim to increase referrals by a certain number or percentage by a particular date. That is measurable. Simply saying “appreciation” is not measurable. Appreciation is the emotion that helps drive the referral behavior.

Who Should Receive a Gift?

Kade: You also need to be intentional about who receives a gift. Not everyone has the same capacity to affect the outcome you want.

I use three identity profiles: fixed, certain, and movable.

Fixed people are those who are highly unlikely to make the change you want, based on what you know and on historical information. They may never have given a referral and may be unlikely to do so. If the goal is to expand an account, they may have made it clear that the organization is at capacity, is not taking on new vendors, or is not increasing its spend. That is more or less fixed.

This is the group many companies give to unnecessarily.

Certain people are already taking the desired action. They already give you referrals, for example. That is a relationship to appreciate and reinforce, but it is a different objective than trying to generate new referrals. If your goal is to gain additional referrals, you do not need to focus the campaign on someone who is already doing it.

The third group is movable. These individuals are likely to respond and help drive the result you are trying to create. Again, it begins with a measurable objective.

Research on gifting conversion rates is all over the board, but the figures are often considerably higher than the response rates from social media or LinkedIn campaigns.

Sara: Or email open rates. You send an email to 30,000 people and a small open rate is considered good, and all they did was open the email.

This is exciting to me because I have seen it work. In my sales workshops, part of our strategy is increasing the revenue per relationship. We talk about who can move from red to yellow or from yellow to green. Your language of fixed, movable, and certain might be even clearer.

There is a lot of business that can be built through existing customers, but you have to be thoughtful about how you do it. Gifting can demonstrate authenticity and help you stay connected while a competitor is also trying to enter the account.

I have a great example. One of my clients was trying to reconnect with someone who had once been a competitor and was now a prospect. He knew the person liked Pappy Van Winkle whiskey, which can be a very expensive bottle. He called and said, “It has been years. Let’s catch up over some Pappy. I will bring it by your office.”

He invited his company’s owner to join him but insisted that they not talk about work. They went to the meeting, caught up, and had a great time. He left with two major hotel projects.

People sometimes do not want to spend the effort if they cannot see an immediate or guaranteed return. But that defeats the purpose of connecting on a human level. When you do it authentically, the sale becomes easier.

Kade: You are touching on a crucial point. People want to see an immediate return, but with gifting the return usually is not immediate. It depends on the objective.

We have clients in the event industry that use gifts to secure a yes, which is measurable and more immediate. We have had a gifting campaign produce a 95 percent positive RSVP rate. That is an outlier, but it demonstrates how a clear campaign can work.

If we are talking about referrals or revenue growth, the result takes longer. You should not expect to wake up the next day and find a referral waiting because of a gift. That can happen, but it is not a reasonable expectation.

Gifting is part of the long game. Like any marketing outreach, it is a bet. The key is being strategic so you are not wasting money on efforts that never move beyond an inbox. Done correctly, a gift can connect with someone in a meaningful way without creating an unnecessarily high risk.

It changes gifting from a sunk cost into a much more intentional decision about why, who, and when, which makes it more likely that the desired outcome will be achieved.

Sara: What are your thoughts about companies that do not allow employees to accept gifts because of concerns about bribery or kickbacks? I have heard limits of $25 or $50. If someone has clients they want to acknowledge but those clients are not allowed to accept gifts, what is a good middle ground?

Gift Limits, Compliance, and Donations

Kade: In those scenarios, the message becomes more important than ever. This should not be a standard “thank you for your business” situation. The message needs to be meaningful, and you need to identify what would be impactful to that person within the applicable dollar cap.

One of the biggest things I set out to accomplish when I entered the gifting space was authenticity at scale. People often assume a gift has to be expensive or highly personalized and deeply customized to the individual recipient. That is not always feasible. More often than not, it is not scalable.

People do not have the bandwidth to be deeply thoughtful about every product if they are sending dozens, hundreds, or thousands of gifts. The starting point is figuring out why people do business with you.

There are a lot of ways to uncover that, and it is part of the work I do in consulting. The answer is often not what people assume. Then you take those insights and translate them into a gift.

Imagine people do business with you because you are a family-owned or family-oriented business, or because your work supports their family and that requires trust. In that case, the gift might connect to family.

A donation to an organization that supports families could be meaningful. In my case, I have a foundation that supports children in foster care.

Sara: That is cool. Let’s mention it so we can include it in the show notes.

Kade: It is called the Fostering Joy Foundation. People are welcome to donate to it, but it could also be another foundation, a school, or a cause that makes sense for the relationship.

One option near and dear to me is covering the meal balance for a student. If you have 10 clients and a $25 cap for each, you could take that $250 to an elementary school and apply it to the meal account of a student whose balance is behind.

Then the note can say, “Thanks to you and your support, we were able to cover school lunch costs for a student,” or, “We were able to help children in foster care receive luggage for their possessions instead of carrying their belongings in trash bags.”

Once you tap into meaning, there are many options.

Sara: That is a great answer. People may value that more than another coffee mug.

I like gifts, and I have spent most of my career in sales, so I was rarely the recipient of a gift as the vendor. There was one woman, Diana Wong, who was wonderful. She is a Chinese interior designer who did a lot of luxury work. Every Lunar New Year, she invited the vendors who had helped her during the year to dinner.

Many members of her staff were Chinese, and I am vegetarian and did not know what I could eat, but everyone was incredibly gracious. I still respect her for that because business is a two-way street.

In my current business, I have been fortunate to receive a few gifts. I received a branded pickleball set that I use all the time, and I received headphones because I work with audio in one of my industries. Every time I play pickleball, I think of Samantha, who gave me the set.

That is the point. A gift can deepen the relationship, keep someone memorable, and support the know, like, and trust that businesses need.

Kade’s Four-Part Perfect Gift Formula

Sara: You talked about this in your keynote. What makes up the perfect gift?

Kade: First, a shout-out to Diana. I think it is incredible that she views business as a two-way street.

Almost nobody sends gifts to me. I understand that there can be a lot of pressure around what to give someone who works in gifting professionally, but it does not have to be amazing. One of our clients sends me a Valentine’s Day card every year. Another has a courier drop off a gift card and a treat from a local restaurant they love. Those are thoughtful gestures.

There does not need to be a logo on everything because people remember who gave them a great gift.

The perfect gifting formula has four parts.

First is the foundation. This is the packaging and presentation. How will the gift land on the doorstep? What will it look like and feel like when the recipient opens the box?

This may sound excessive because it is, but I spent eight years looking for the perfect double-faced satin ribbon. There are many good ones, but none was quite what I wanted. Eight years later, I finally found it, and that is what we use on our gifts now. The foundation is the initial presentation and unboxing.

Second, we “think inside the box” because that is literally what we do. There are three components inside the box that make a great gift. The first is something that can be enjoyed immediately. Usually, that is a consumable.

We were recently developing a gift for an activation by a top Scotch whisky brand. The proposed box included beautiful gifts and products, but nothing that could be enjoyed immediately. We added gourmet caramel popcorn made with whisky. That gives the recipient something to enjoy right away.

Third is something long-term or longer-term. A long-term item could be a travel mug, pickleball set, headphones, or spa robe. A longer-term item might be a candle, something with longevity but still a limited life.

It does not necessarily need to be three separate items inside the box. The same product can serve more than one purpose.

Fourth is something unexpected. It could simply be a different version of a familiar item.

My favorite example is microwave popcorn. Most people immediately picture a standard yellow and blue grocery-store package.

Sara: Or a Blockbuster Video bucket.

Kade: Exactly. An unexpected version is microwave popcorn on the cob. A heritage farm in Utah produces it. It is beautifully packaged with a paper bag. You place the cob in the bag, put it in the microwave, and make popcorn. It is unexpected.

For the Scotch activation, one of the unexpected elements we are developing is a custom woven blanket using the brand colors and the recipient’s name. We do not recommend personalization in every situation, but it made sense for that campaign. The recipient gets a beautiful woven throw connected to a favorite Scotch brand, with their name incorporated into it.

The unexpected element can be extravagant or simply make someone think, “I never thought to do it that way.”

Sara: People will want to try the popcorn on the cob immediately. Repeat the four parts one more time.

Kade: One is foundational. Two is something enjoyed immediately. Three is something long-term or longer-term. Four is something unexpected.

Sara: I love it. I wish we could spend all day sharing examples of the gifts you have created.

How to Work With Kade Kimber

Sara: If listeners want to explore a corporate gifting or client experience strategy with you, what is the best way to connect? How do you work with people?

Kade: KadeKimber.com is my main site. You can learn about our consulting work in client experience and gifting strategy, along with keynote speaking and workshops. The site also links to Kimber & Oak.

KimberAndOak.com is the gifting and execution side of the business, where you can see examples of our work. People are also welcome to connect with me on LinkedIn.

There are many ways to work together. It can be as simple as, “We have an event or scenario coming up and need help with the gift,” in which case we can take care of the process.

It could also involve creating an organizational gifting strategy, improving the client experience, or building consistency when an organization has many handoffs. I also deliver keynotes and workshops virtually or in person.

Final Takeaways

Sara: I am grateful that you joined us today. I feel energized and have many ideas for my own business and my clients. Strategic gifting is worth the investment. It can move the needle, and now we have an expert we can call.

I am grateful to know you. Thank you for coming on the podcast. I cannot wait to see what the future brings.

Kade: Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.