We need to send cheesy gifts to everyone. The math says so.
Cheesy gifts are roughly $7 per gift and are sent every six weeks. This means that someone receives eight gifts per year which equates to a total spend of $56 per person.
Let’s assume it takes a total of one hour to order, package, and address all eight gifts for each person (and that’s rounding up). This task can be done by someone that charges $25 per hour. That’s $81 per year for the total costs; $56 for the gifts and $25 for the labor. Let’s round up to $100 for the annual spend of gifts on each referral partner.
If the average commission check is $1,000 per loan, and the cost is $100 per year, then that’s a 10 year breakeven. Meaning, if a Realtor closed a loan with you once every decade, all the cheesy gifts are covered. If/When commissions are higher, the breakeven is even longer. Therefore, it’s foolish not to do cheesy gifts to everyone you know.
Everyone Gets Cheesy
Below is the showing validating the return on investment for cheesy gifts. With a 5% conversion rate – meaning 5% of the referral partners sent business each year – the ROI is 12%. Remember, these are using really conservative numbers.
Cheesy Gifts offer additional benefits beyond the commission checks:
- The gifts create top of mind awareness that will complement other marketing efforts,
- The cheesy gifts demonstrate that you’re able to execute on a consistent basis, and
- These small items create big brand awareness in the recipient’s office and on social media.
In short, it’s time to get cheesy and start gifting.
Example: cheesy gifts made me an in-house lender for a real estate company. The consistency of our gifting demonstrated our professionalism and made the previous lender look bad. The gifts – coupled with phone calls – opened the door for the in-house opportunity. It’s amazing what $100 a year in gifting can do.