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O P I N I O N
The best client holiday gift
Clients remember great gifts and terrible gifts, never the ones in between – so take the time to be great, or take this year off and save up for something next year.
P icture this: It’s the holiday season, sparkling lights, festive décor, and a stuffed mailbox. You eagerly sort through the barrage of envelopes to a find a small, wrapped package with your name on it. Your inner child squeals with glee as you tear off the paper and open the brightly colored box to reveal … a Christmas tree shaped stress ball with [VENDOR LOGO] plastered all over it.
Malory Atkinson
Disappointed, but not deterred, you spot a larger package with a massive red bow. This has got to be something good, you tell yourself. The bigger, the better, right? And it’s from one of your top vendors, a firm you tripled your spend with this year. The bow slips off, the tape undone, and out pops, literally, a massive tub of caramel popcorn. Your least favorite flavor. The popcorn ends up in the breakroom, its big bow in the trash, while the stress ball goes into your desk drawer, only to be thrown out years later in an ironic moment of deep desk cleaning rage. And your inner child consoles herself with dreams of better gifts in the years to come. The holidays are supposed to be a time of
happiness, joy, and gratitude. Nothing says the exact opposite more than a terrible holiday gift. We’ve all received them – the 2XL shirt when you typically wear a small, golf balls when you don’t play golf, a bottle of wine when you’re pregnant, and yet another knockoff Yeti insulated coffee cup. And the worst part? It just feels like no one cares. It feels like that new relationship you worked on this year didn’t mean anything. At a time when we should be thankful and grateful, we cringe with every “special delivery” which just adds another fruitcake to the never-ending pile of bad, cheap sweets in the office breakroom. Let’s take this opportunity to reset client holiday
See MALORY ATKINSON, page 4
THE ZWEIG LETTER NOVEMBER 1, 2021, ISSUE 1415
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