How to Maximize Food Gift Sales During the Next 5 Weeks

If you’ve been on the fence about whether to try selling food gifts this season, it’s time to make your move. Even though only five weeks remain in this calendar year, according to Tom Riordan, president of Maple Ridge Farms, that’s still plenty of time to generate food gift business from your customers. 

 

“Ninety percent of food gifts for the holidays are ordered and delivered between November and December,” explained Tom in a recent phone interview. Equally important? He says it’s easy to write the business. “The best place for any distributor to start is with their customers. Food gift programs are foreign to many distributors but they aren’t foreign to end buyers. In a Counselor magazine survey of business gift buyers, 61% ranked food gifts as the number one business gift for the holidays. And 53% of the buyers surveyed confirmed that their company purchased food gifts for the holidays.”

Here are a few of Tom’s favorite points to keep in mind as you consider jumping on the food gift bandwagon:

1. If your customers aren’t asking to buy food gifts from you, chances are it’s because they don’t know you sell food gifts.




2. Once you start selling food gifts to your customers, they will probably continue to buy them every year.




3. Your customers will save money buying food gifts from you vs. big box retailers or mail-order catalogs.




4. The quality of Maple Ridge Farms’ food surpasses retailers’ and mail-order companies because all food is packed-to-order.

When you’re ready to start calling customers to talk about food gifts, Tom recommends asking the following questions:

1. Does your company purchase food for holiday gifts? Consider it akin to when McDonald’s trains its employees to say, “Would you like fries with that?”




2. Do you want to give a gift that includes a logoed keepsake like a cutting board, pencil cup, or wooden box? While it’s true some customers will say no to this question, by presenting this option, many buyers will then eliminate retailers and mail-order companies who don’t offer logoed items with their food gifts.




3. What’s your budget per gift? Whether it’s $25 or $100, or somewhere in between, you’ll have options to show at the right price point.

If after reading this post you’re still on the fence about selling food gifts, here’s a story Tom shared that should drive you to pick up the phone immediately and start calling customers.

“A few weeks ago I was talking to a distributor about how buyers know they can purchase holiday food gifts from Costco, Sam’s Club, Harry & David, Hickory Farms, and Mrs. Fields, but they typically have no idea they can purchase food gifts from their promotional products distributor. This distributor said he knew this first-hand. The year before, while he was visiting a client, he pulled out a Maple Ridge Farms catalog. The client saw the cover and said, “I didn’t know you did food gifts. We just ordered 1,200 baskets from Harry & David!”

One of the best arguments Tom shared for turning to a distributor to buy food gifts has nothing to do with the product itself. “When companies purchase buy food gifts from their distributor, they are dealing with a promotion and business gift expert,” explains Tom. “They are dealing with someone who can help choose the right gift, the best method of distribution, and create artwork to make the gift even more memorable. As the promotion expert, the distributor also makes sure the order is properly handled. But the client will never get that kind of professional treatment and expertise from a mail-order company, retailer, or internet merchant!”

Here’s to five weeks of selling food gifts!