Using Referral Gifts to Grow Your Business (Part 2 of 3)

"I have lived temperately ... I double the doctor's recommendation of a glass and a half of wine a day and even treble it with a friend." ~Thomas Jefferson

This is the second of a series of guest articles, written by me Jack Bergstrom, for my friends at BookCliff Vineyards. Tis getting near the season for giving and these articles are a bit about making the process of giving more effective and more fun! You can read more tips and techniques for your business at JackBergstrom.com. And now for the article...

I like to give referral gifts and I like to show gratitude for the clients that have used me in the past. I have experimented over the years with all manner of Christmas and referral gifts. Chocolates, tinned cookies, turkeys, hams, cash and gift certificates, food baskets and fine wines. Each of them has worked well for the right person. What does working well mean? They accepted the gift, they appreciated the gift, it was something they could use or enjoy consuming and it made them more even more likely to use me again or to refer me.

Let's look at each of these pieces:

• They accepted the gift. You must be careful that your gift does not violate any company policy about accepting gifts from vendors. What does this mean? Don't give any sort of gifts to employees of large companies that you do not know well and you have not asked the person you would like to gift first. Since the atmosphere and the words that you use while giving a gift mean as much or more than the gift, this is easy to do. "I would really like to show you my appreciation for our work together. Are there any things that I should know about your ability to accept a gift?" Doing this over a nice lunch also helps.
• They appreciated the gift. Hopefully you have collected some information about your client in the course of working with them. What do they like and dislike? Do they drink alcohol? Wine or liquor?
• The gift was something they could use or enjoy consuming. Spend as much as you can justify on your gifts. How much is this? It depends on your clients and your average ticket and, if full tax deductibility is important to you, the IRS must be included in the calculation. I also want my name and image always associated with high quality...don't you?
• It makes them even more likely to use me again or to refer me. The quality and appropriateness of the gift makes a difference here. Telling the client that you are genuinely grateful, and being genuinely grateful, for their past business and any referrals makes a difference.

You may notice that the quotes on today's entry are related to wine. I have used quality wine as a referral and thank you gift many times in the past and I continue to use it today. As long as I have verified first that my clients appreciate wine, then this is my go to gift. I wanted to recommend to you a Colorado based winery that I feel makes a truly superior product. (Their wine has won numerous awards so many others feel this way as well.) If you are thinking about wine as a thank you gift this season, then consider buying from BookCliff Vineyards. Start your exploration of their Colorado grown and produced line of wines right here on their blog.

I have know the owners since they started this company and the uniqueness of a great Colorado wine will do great things for the effectiveness of your gift. They will even create custom labeled wine for you.

I wanted to thank Robin Garr's Wine Lover's Page at http://wineloverspage.com/ for some ideas about quotes regarding wine. This is a nice site for wine lovers to visit.

"In Europe we thought of wine as something as healthy and normal as food and also a great giver of happiness and well being and delight. Drinking wine was not a snobbism nor a sign of sophistication nor a cult; it was as natural as eating and to me as necessary." ~Ernest Hemingway; A Moveable Feast

Using Referral Gifts to Grow Your Business (Part 1 of 3)

The only people with whom you should try to get even are those who have helped you. ~John E. Southard

This is a guest article written by me, Jack Bergstrom, for my friends over at BookCliff Vineyards. I have had the pleasure of knowing Ulla and John, the owners, since they started the award winning vineyard and I have known and liked Justin since I first met him in April of 2007. I am a Executive Coach, a Business Consultant, a Seminar Leader and an Author. This is the first in a series of 3 articles about using referral gifts to grow your business. For more tips and techniques on working less, achieving more and having a blast along the way, check out my blog at http://jackbergstrom.com/. Hope to see you there!

I love doing business by referral. I love for past clients to send me my newest clients. Since I am selective and work only with people that I like, and people tend to associate with people like themselves, I am continually presented with the marvelous opportunity of working with people that already know something about me, already know most of the benefits of working with me and are at least somewhat presold on the value proposition that I represent. This is a wonderful way to do business. Now not every business can attract all of their customers this way, but the more customers that you get by referral the happier and more profitable you will be. Given that, I thought I would take a few entries here on my blog and talk a bit about using gifts to help grow your referral business.

This is a topic that is perennially hotly debated. I know business people that have an absolute "no gift" policy. I know business people that have informal policies about gifts and evaluate each client separately. I know business people that make explicit and well structured "referral programs" a major part of their new client acquisition plans. These "referral programs", I believe, are worth a series of articles of their own and really are no longer in the "Gift" category. We will talk about structured programs another time.

For today, let's start to look at gifts, the idea of rewarding people for sending you clients. Let me start by saying that at the simplest level, you should reward everyone that sends you business in this way: Be grateful! Thank them! Thank them lavishly! Let them know with a note, a card, a phone call or all of the above! If someone has gone out of their way, and put their own reputation on the line, to recommend me and my services, then I am going to be grateful...genuinely grateful! It doesn't happen that often. As good as I am, I know that the vast majority of my current and past clients do not wake up in the morning with a burning desire to see who they can refer to Jack today. It would be great, but it just doesn't often happen that I have quite that level of top of mind awareness. Indeed, I would be concerned if I did! So, at the simplest, and yet most profound level, be grateful and thankful! Thank them!

Now, going to the next level about gifts. Do I recommend using gifts and I do I use them myself? Yes and Yes. I do and I do! The trick is in knowing what kinds of gifts will give you the best return on your dollar and of course, the most satisfaction. I love to give people gifts! It's a hoot! Tomorrow we will talk more about thoughtful and effective gift selection and for those of you with a strict "no referral gift" policy, prepare to be challenged!

Till next time...Jack

When eating bamboo sprouts, remember the man who planted them. ~Chinese Proverb

Tis The Season...(for custom labels)

It's that time of year again. Need gifts for your employees or clients? Or do you just want to give your family and friends something really special this year? How about Colorado wine with custom labels!?! We offer our BookCliff Chardonnay and our Ensemble wine with your custom designed label on every bottle. What a great way to say thanks to your clients or to give as gifts at your wedding or holiday party. The possibilities are endless. Show people that you're proud of Colorado by giving the gift of Colorado wine. Here is an example of a custom label that we do every year. This is the label for the Flagstaff Star wine, by the way you can now find this wine at Boulder liquor stores and at our tasting room on 15th and Pearl St. We have a couple different pricing options available for the custom label program. You can call us at (303) 499-7301 or email me at justin@bookcliffvineyards.com if you have any questions or may be interested. High quality labels with your information and high quality local wine, what else can I say?

Hot Off the Presses!

Here we are, it's press time. So after fermenting red wines for around one week the skins are removed and pressed to extract more juice/wine and other flavor components such as tannins. The fermentation process may not be completely over so we may still have a pretty sweet wine on our hands (literally). Anyway the skins are removed from the fermenting bins (the big white one that Eric is about to dive into) and placed into the press. In this process we use highly technical equipment to transfer the skins, as seen in Eric's hand and by his feet. Once the press is filled to the top, it is closed and a bladder inside fills with water creating huge amounts of pressure on the skin which squeezes out a lot of extra juice. What you see above are the Cabernet Sauvignon skins after being pressed and after we've removed the outside of the press. This is probably the messiest job in the winery but possibly the most fun as well! Tomorrow we bottle 2004's Cabernet Sauvignon.

p.s. This weekend we will be in Denver at the Denver International Wine Festival. Stop by and say hi. click here for more info on this festival.

Easy Friday Afternoon

Hey all,

Friday here at the tasting room. Tawny (above) and I are just kickin' it on this beautiful Colorado afternoon. Who wouldn't want to be just taking it easy on Pearl Street? In between your shopping stops come in for a little chocolate and wine. We make it easy with our pairing menus and our knowledgable staff (if you time it right you might just meet the winemaker!). I just wanted to say hi and share this picture (below) I took while I was in downtown Taos, NM. Don't forget to visit us for live music every Friday at 7:30 at 1468 Pearl St. in Boulder.

It aint perty!

So now you get a little behind the scenes view of what happens to those grapes after they've been picked and transported to the winery. The bins in the picture are filled with grapes and represent about half of the amount we crushed this day. Before the grapes are crushed, they are sorted and any leaves, sticks, or MOG (material other than grapes) are carefully removed by well trained experts. The grapes and stems are then fed into the crusher destemmer where the grapes are removed from the stems and then crushed and pumped into the fermenting bins. As you can imagine it is a messy job and quite sticky too. Into the bins we'll add yeast, nutrients, and as needed components to adjust acidity and pH. In about a week, after a lot of punching down, we'll have wine! Then comes pressing. More on that later...stay tuned.

Soon to be wine...

Thanks to our vineyard manager Sam for this wonderful picture! These are some Syrah grapes that were just picked and placed into these bins for transportation. The bins can't be too big though because the weight of the grapes will squash the bunches on the bottom and fermentation will start due to ambient yeasts. These grapes have now been crushed and destemmed in a wonderful machine called a crusher/destemmer! As the yeasts go about their business eating the sugar in the juice and creating alcohol and CO2 as a by-product, a cap forms. This cap is made up of the grape skins floating to the top and creating a solid layer. About 4-5 times a day the cap must be broken up through a method called punching down. This releases all the color and flavors from the skins as well as gets needed oxygen to the yeasts. This process goes on for about a week for red wines and then comes the press...more on that later.