Not every person who comes your way will be a customer. Here’s when to say no to a gift basket order.
Sales under suspicion
Can you imagine turning down a gift basket order? Perish the thought, right?
It would be wonderful to say yes to everyone who comes your way, but you’ll find that you cannot say yes every time.
This is a point to understand as you review this definitive article on gift basket marketing.
Some people who want gift baskets test your abilities, and when that happens, you start to understand your own limitations.
You can’t imagine saying no to money, but saying yes to an order is not just about money. You must have internal rules and perform a gut check to realize the results before acceptance.
Here are two examples.
She wants something for nothing
One potential customer asked me to buy African violet plants in 200 individual pots for her sister’s upcoming wedding. More about this situation is explained in this article. The flower pots were to be placed on each reception table.
You’re thinking, “That’s not a gift basket order.” True. However, when you make gift baskets, you also become a gift solution specialist, a title I share at conferences where I speak and also with students in the Start Your Own Gift Basket Business course. You expand your talents outside of gift baskets to satisfy many gift needs.
Buying flowers for this person could have been part of that expansion, but here’s the kicker. She knew where the violets were sold, asked me to go to that location to buy them, and then I’d have to find a place in my studio to store live plants weeks before the wedding.
Prepare to gasp.
The customer expected to pay me for the flowers and only the flowers – no transportation, no delivery, no standard markup, no extra cost of any kind. In other words, she thought her only payment to me was what I paid to the flower supplier.
Why would I agree to a sale that costs me money? I said no.
She’s not my customer
After my live television appearance on CNBC talking to millions of viewers about gift baskets, a production worker asked me to make a birthday gift basket for a relative. He was to be 90 years old, and she wanted something special.
I returned to my studio and not only searched through my inventory but also considered some products at wholesale suppliers. I called the worker and described two options. She said no to both and asked me to try again.
The next day I provided her with two more options, and she declined those, too.
I understood and respected her decisions, and I also realized that I was not the person who would make that birthday basket. Before our final call, I researched two other gift basket retailers and recommended them when my final ideas were declined.
There was no reason for me to continue searching. I had to move on to satisfy true customers.
Why saying no is okay
It’s rewarding to be a gifted artist creating gift baskets that people love to give and receive.
Your gift is also the ability to know when to say no. Some people make it hard for you. Some situations aren’t ideal, and that’s okay.
Challenges are also great. You say yes to some, and others are out of your comfort zone or simply not what you wish to do because of internal rules that keep your business profitable.
I’ve said no to small orders as well as extraordinary opportunities, and I don’t regret anything. It’s all part of learning.
What gift basket making situation have you declined, and which have you fulfilled but wish you had declined?
