November 21, 2023 • 34 mins
It's time once again to plan your holiday gifts for your best customers and staff too. This year, let's challenge the autopilot mode most of us fall into during the holiday season, and let's question if our annual gifts to clients and employees are truly expressing our sentiments of appreciation and thanks. This episode promises to provide a fresh perspective on how to make meaningful decisions that resonate with your clients and team members, and to help make everyone's holiday just a little brighter.
What about custom, uniques gift baskets for top-tier customers; and what are the pros and cons of pre-packaged versus personally crafted gifts? The most significant impact of any holiday gesture is one of togetherness and camaraderie. This episode is brimming with holiday insights and inspiration that can positively impact your business relationships into 2024.
Thank you to Zastro for sponsoring this episode of Lighting with Lisa!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello and welcome fellow lighting nerds and
friends to Lighting with Lisa,the Lighting Industries podcast
sponsored once again this weekby Zastro, and I will give you a
little more information onZastro in the upcoming moments
of this episode.
But welcome back to Lightingwith Lisa.
I'm always delighted to speakto you all.
(00:24):
It's been a great week offeedback since last week's
episode and I really reallyappreciate the feedback so much.
It is so valuable to helping mefurther this podcast to keep it
relevant to things that youwant to hear about, which is
great for all of us.
(00:45):
So keep the feedback coming.
Email me at Lisa sorry, lisa atlightingwithlisacom.
Don't forget to follow me onall the socials.
My personal Instagram isLisaLight's life.
The podcast has an InstagramLWL underscore podcast my
(01:07):
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and consumer facing.
That's on Instagram at Lightingwith Lisa.
I cross post in all of thoseareas.
If you're on Facebook, join thefixture finder group.
If you're interested in it,also join the job board.
(01:27):
There's a lot of greatnetworking and ongoing community
within the residential lightingand fan industry and it can be
found in all of those places.
I'm just happy to be able to bea small part of it and I really
, really appreciate everyonetuning in every week.
If you're interested inbecoming a sponsor of the
(01:48):
podcast, please do reach out tome.
Lighting is going swimminglyfor our current sponsors and I
would love to get more sponsorson board and get your message
out to this very targeted andspecific audience who is truly
engaging with this content, andI look forward to more and more
(02:10):
of that as time goes on andinterviews.
It's a little early to bemaking New Year's resolutions,
but I'm going to go ahead andmake this one as a commitment to
everyone listening to thispodcast.
My New Year's resolution for2024 is to finally do interviews
on the Lighting with Lisapodcast.
I have been researching it.
(02:31):
I think I feel comfortable withit.
I will make it happen and bringthose interviews to you.
So, even if you're notinterested in sponsoring the
podcast, but have a suggestionof somebody that you would like
me to interview in the lightingand fan industry whether they're
a key player, somebody doingsomething interesting on the
(02:53):
fringes, whatever it may be sendme an email, drop me a DM so
that I can reach out to them andget something scheduled,
because I promise interviews arecoming in 2024.
And I think they're going to begreat triggers for ongoing
conversation.
So today's topic came to lifebecause of an email I received
(03:18):
from a listener, and I'm really,really appreciative of it.
It was actually just one ofthose really timely things,
talking about holidays and whatyou're doing around the holidays
, not only for your customersbut for your staff, and
literally as I got the email, Iwas trying to figure out what
Christmas bonuses we're going tobe for my team and I was like,
(03:42):
oh well, this is just everythingcoming together all at once.
So I really spent some timethinking about it and what I
realized which I think reallyresonates with everyone who
listens to this podcast, is I dothe same thing all the time and
I almost don't even think aboutit regarding, like, christmas
(04:04):
bonuses or holiday gifts orwhatever it is.
I find myself so frequently onautopilot that I'm like I was
almost a little disturbed.
I was like, oh, I don't know ifthis is really the most
effective and efficient way torun a business, just being on
(04:27):
autopilot and going through thesame motions I've always gone
through year in and year out andnot really stopping to think
about why am I doing that, butwhat's the reasoning?
Is this really benefiting methe way I expect it to?
Is it really benefiting myemployees the way I expect it to
(04:48):
?
Is this really benefiting mycustomers the way I want and
need this to, to increase theirloyalty, to increase their
commitment to my business?
Am I just kind of doing thingsto do them, or is there true
value in them?
And value doesn't always haveto come back in the term it like
(05:09):
in like financial gain, right,value can just mean a happy
workforce.
Value can just mean a customerthat appreciates you and when
some other supplier comesknocking on their door, they're
so committed to theirrelationship with you that
they're not swayed by somebodythat promises to save them like
(05:31):
a fraction of a percent on theirongoing orders or whatever the
case may be.
So we do these end of the yeargifts and thank yous to kind of
solidify things with all ofthese different parts of our
world moving into the nextcalendar year.
And then I thought, well, arewe really thinking about whether
(05:52):
it's useful or not?
Are we really thinking about ifthe things we're doing are
generating the value that wewant them to generate?
I don't know, just throwingthis out there because it really
got me thinking about what I'mdoing this year and am I happy
with it.
Am I not happy with it?
Is it really paying off in theways I really want these gifts
(06:19):
and thoughtful gestures to payoff, or is it just kind of empty
?
There's a thing gosh I cannotremember where I heard it at
this point.
I'm sure it was on a podcastsomewhere.
But this is in speaking aboutpersonal relationships, like
whether it's a friendship, amarriage, a partnership.
If you're doing something asperson A that in your mind, is
(06:44):
helpful to person B, but that isnot how person B wants to
receive help.
It doesn't resonate with them,then person A can want to be
helpful and supportive, all theywant.
But if person B just doesn'treceive things that way, it's
just going to fall flat.
You're not going to get theresults you want from it.
(07:05):
So the idea is in this kind ofscenario is that person A should
engage with person B, find outwhat really truly defines
helpfulness to them, what trulydefines support to person be,
and then person a should try tofulfill that in the best way
that they possibly can, ifthey're able to, you know.
(07:26):
So how much are we just likeships passing in the night with
our, with our good intentions,but they're not really resulting
in what we want.
So it's just kind of got methinking.
I it seems like an odd triggerfor having these like meta
thoughts, but it's really justsomething that I find myself
(07:47):
doing year in, year out, kind ofwith the same structure that
we've always done.
And I, this email got methinking like I, was this really
benefiting Me and my staff andmy customers in the way that I
want it to?
I don't know.
So let me rethink this.
So just Opening up theconversation with that, and then
(08:09):
I'm gonna talk a bit about Someideas of gifts and for
customers and team andeverything else Coming up after
the commercial break here.
But just food for thought onthat.
You know, like, how often do weJust do our processes like,
(08:30):
okay, it's that time of yearagain, we're gonna do this, this
and this, and what do we dolast year?
Okay, we'll match it, okay,we'll do.
You know, it just can become soRote and repetitive and I think,
like many things in life,that's really where, like,
staleness creeps in, and then wearen't really firing on all
(08:52):
cylinders, we're just goingthrough the motions.
And I think going through themotions is just kind of like the
death knell of any business,like when you're just going
through the motions, when you'rejust trying to make it from a
to be in in a day and you're notreally giving a lot of thought
(09:13):
to what you're doing or whyyou're doing it.
I think it really can start tobe where a business suffers.
We all need that energy andengagement and enthusiasm and
creativity, and the kind ofminute you take your eye off of
that it's when things can reallyget stale and boring and
(09:34):
frustrating and just creates notthe best atmosphere.
So just something to thinkabout as you're doing your year
and planning and looking towardstwenty twenty four.
You know other things to thinkabout in twenty twenty four are,
you know, the economy at largeand like how are we gonna use
these Creative thoughts thatwe're having triggered by this
(09:57):
podcast, to engage and continuesales through twenty twenty four
?
At the start of twenty twentythree I think a lot of us were
still living off of the backlogof orders from twenty twelve.
That's kind of all processedthrough.
The market in the home goodscategory has softened in the
(10:20):
second half of twenty twentythree.
I think I addressed it lastweek.
I do believe that's partly whywe're having so many factory
sales for such an extendedperiod of time right now in the
black Friday holiday season.
So it does perk up one's earsfor how things are going to go
(10:41):
in twenty twenty four.
It's a major election year inthe United States.
That's a thing.
The economy is in good shape.
I was reading news this weeksaying that the fed really feels
like they've aimed us welltowards the proverbial soft
landing.
That's all well and good.
I also read where yeah, but ifone little thing goes sideways,
(11:03):
that could all go away and we'regonna end up in a recession.
So there's just point being atthis, not like a political
judgment or anything.
At the point being, there'sjust a lot of uncertainty going
into twenty twenty four and Ithink consumers are gonna feel
that as much as we do asbusiness owners and managers.
So how are we going tocreatively work through that?
Because it will be a shock toall of our systems To see sales
(11:31):
decline in twenty twenty fourafter just three pretty amazing
years of sales and double digitgrowth and all of that.
I'm not expecting that in twentytwenty four for my business.
I am just trying to be smartabout what's coming and really,
(11:52):
yeah, apply this not doing thesame old mentality to the coming
year, because I really thinkit's going to need some extra
energy and engagement in orderto really grow.
And maybe growth in 2024 justlooks like maybe something
different than it's looked inpast years.
Maybe it's not like income andsales, maybe it's my social
(12:15):
media audience, maybe it's Idon't know something else
website traffic, seo somethingmight be a different definition
for growth in 2024 than it'sbeen in previous years, and so
I'm really trying to bethoughtful and strategic in that
.
So, all right, let me talk abit about our sponsor, which is
Zastro.
Again this week, I'm going tostart off right at the top with
(12:39):
your salespeople, because theseare the people you need to reach
out to to get yourself set upwith a demo.
Okay, so you're.
If you live west of theMississippi River, you need to
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If you live east of theMississippi River, you need to
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Get yourself set up on a demo.
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You're going to love it If youdo a demo and then become a
customer of Zastro and youmentioned that you came because
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You're going to get $500 off apurchase and I'm telling you at
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As I made this decision toconvert my database and
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operating, my business operatingsoftware from what I was using
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program, which is tailor madefor lighting showrooms.
The impetus behind thisdecision was what I talked about
a few podcasts ago margins.
Margins in our industry aretight, profits can be low and I
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do not have, with my currentsoftware solution, a really
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I have general ideas, I haveeducated guesses, but I don't
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(14:31):
me a much more robust picture ofmy business than I had with my
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Whether you elect to go with theNetSuite product or something
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But when you can really trackwhere your dollars and cents are
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(15:54):
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Check it out, sign up for thedemo Again.
If you're west of theMississippi, you want to contact
Gail and if you're east of theMississippi, contact Thomas and
(16:59):
check the show notes for moreinformation.
So thank you again to Zastro.
All right, so I'm going to spendthe second part of the podcast
talking about gifts for the teamand gifts for customers in the
holiday season.
So this year I'll start withtalking about gifts for our best
(17:20):
customers.
So this year I'm doingsomething a little different.
As you know if you've listenedto the podcast for any length of
time in late 2022 through 2023,I've really invested a lot in
merchandise accessories, hostessgifts, like small pick-me-up
(17:43):
items, like usually like I wantthings to have a retail value of
like $50 or less.
Traditionally, a lot oflighting showrooms do candles,
but I've really been expandingon that.
Just quick, easy items forpeople to pick up, make little
hostess gifts or just a gift fora friend.
We do a lot of stuff that iscoastal, themed for the area in
(18:07):
which I live and it's just beena great add-on to the showroom.
I'm really happy with it.
But what we're doing for ourgifts for our best customers
this year is we're making customgift baskets of these little
items that we sell in the store.
We just put them together thisweek.
(18:28):
We're going to deliver them theweek after Thanksgiving.
I'm super thrilled with them.
They look great and itreinforces this connection to
the brand of my business.
It's not what we've done in thepast.
It's been great.
Nobody's complained about it.
Since we live in SavannahGeorgia there's a few very kind
(18:50):
of nationally known businessesthat are candy makers, like
Savannah Candy Kitchen, otherplaces like that that are.
We have another one that's likeBird Cookie Company.
I don't know.
They do a lot of and theseplaces do a lot of corporate
gifts.
I just have to name drop oneother one in case they listen
River Street Sweets.
Anyway, these places do a lotof corporate gifts and
(19:14):
traditionally remember at thetop I talked about what I just
doing, what I always did.
Traditionally, I would just getgift baskets from these places
delivered to our customers witha thank you note Again.
Nobody ever complained, nobodywas ever mad to get a gift
basket of pre-leans for them andtheir entire staff.
So they were great gifts.
(19:36):
But I really was wondering, like, is this reinforcing the
connection to the brand, to mystaff, to my showroom, to all my
business offers?
Am I short changing that?
So what we decided to do thisyear for the gift baskets for
our best customers was to createcustom gift baskets of the
(20:00):
products that we're selling inthe showroom.
So we just got some.
You know, we did these sort oflike crates and got some
cellophane and we've puttogether these really cute gift
baskets.
All of the products that wesell in the showroom host us
gift variety and the primarysalesperson for each of the best
(20:24):
customers is going to godeliver these in person with a
huge thank you and a smile anddeliver our holiday present that
way.
I'll let you know how it pansout, but I'm much more excited
about this than the moreimpersonal ones we have been
doing.
The staff is more excited aboutit.
(20:44):
Actually, it's more fun to likeshow up and give a gift of
something that's like meaningfulto you than to just have like
some candy drop shipped.
And since I do have the luxuryof living in the same general
market area of my customers,it's been.
It's really great we candeliver it in person.
(21:04):
You know it's much harder ifyou're a manufacturer in this
industry and your customers arecoast to coast.
You can't very well show upwith something personal and give
it to them.
I guess your rep could, butit's just a more logistical
challenge.
But I would really encourageanyone that's a distributor with
(21:25):
local customers to really thinkabout doing something with a
truly personal touch andconnecting that customer back to
your business and making themfeel really great about their
relationship with you and yourbusiness.
Moving into the next year, I dowant to drop one logo item that
(21:45):
we got in 2023 for the storethat has done really well for us
.
It's this company.
They're Pirani Cups,p-i-r-a-n-i.
They're not a sponsor.
I'm just giving thisinformation out because they've
been good for us.
They're cups that theybasically look like red solo
cups, but they're reusable,they're insulated, they have a
(22:09):
lid.
They're really a great value.
You can get your company's logoon them.
They're not terribly expensive.
We've been giving these away.
When I got our first shipmentin, I gave everyone on my staff
one of these to use.
We gave some at that time toour best customers.
They have been really, reallywell received.
(22:29):
What we didn't give away, we'veput out in the showroom for
sale and we've even sold a few.
I would definitely recommendchecking them out if you want a
customized.
I don't know, mugs and tumblersare pretty traditional when it
comes to a Christmas gift, but Ireally like this particular
(22:51):
product.
The cups are stackable.
They're really fun.
Go check them out.
The other thing that we do thata lot of people do are these
hardcover sticky notebooks.
They're just super useful andwe give those out to our
customers all the time.
We actually leave them on ourcash wrap area for homeowners
(23:12):
anybody to grab and use.
Other logo items that we do arehoodies, t-shirts, both long
sleeve and short sleeve.
We do pens.
We have two kinds of pens.
We have our fancy pens and thenwe have our El Chippo pens.
We add, always keep a mix ofthose, all logoed.
(23:34):
I always want to encourageanybody buying a logoed apparel
to not forget to get ladies cutsas well as the traditional
men's sizes.
Now, not all ladies that aregoing to want the ladies cut,
but it definitely is somethingthat's important.
I want to rep your goods.
(23:55):
I want to wear them.
I want to have your logo stuffon.
I don't want to be drowning ina t-shirt that comes down to my
knees.
I want a ladies cut and I'm notalone out there.
Just don't forget to throw amix of those in when you're
doing your logo apparel, and Iguarantee you're going to be
shocked at how fast those ladiescut of logoed items go, because
(24:18):
oftentimes, if you give me thechoice, I'll just be like you
know what.
I'll skip it.
I'm never going to wear it.
I don't want it sitting in mycloset.
Let's just have somebody elseget it that might actually get
you out of it.
If you give me a ladies cut,I'm going to wear it.
I promise that's my two cents.
On gifts for customers Reallytry to connect going into the
(24:38):
holiday season, especially as athank you gift.
Really try to connect thatcustomer with your business,
with their primary contact foryour business.
Let them engage and and have agreat like mutual appreciation.
Give them something that is funfor them to unpack, something
(25:00):
that really shows yourpersonality as a business and
what you're offering to all ofyour customers.
I really think that probablygoes a lot further than just the
candy gift basket, or maybe doboth.
Maybe you do a smaller, morepersonal gift and then you do
(25:20):
the more standard corporate giftjust to cover all the bases.
That's totally fine, whateveryou think works best for you and
your business, of course, butI'm really excited about these
this year and I hope it'ssomething that works well for us
and we're able to continuedoing in the future.
Now, of course, again like Isaid at the top of the podcast,
(25:42):
I don't want any of these thingsto become just like Repetition.
Here we are, another year, samething.
So it is definitely going to bea challenge for us to do these
gifts every year and thenmaintain like creativity about
them and coming up with new funthings to put in there.
So I'm actually kind of lookingforward to that challenge next
(26:03):
year, and next year maybe Iwon't be no, I won't be going
through a huge databaseimplementation at the same time
and we'll be able to spend alittle more thought on these
things.
But the other part of this wastalking about gifts for your
team the traditional holidaybonus, of course, and I think
(26:25):
all of us really appreciate anice holiday bonus.
It is that time of year whereyou're spending a fair amount
more money than normal on giftsor whatever it is.
I don't think anybody is everupset by a nice holiday bonus.
So I definitely say, especiallyfor your team Continue to do
(26:49):
your holiday bonus in some formor fashion.
But then it's like what do youdo pass that like?
You don't.
You don't always just want tolike give cash and say thanks
for the great work this year andyou know we're going to do it
all again next year.
So I've done a few differentthings again.
This year is just a kind ofweird year in my business
(27:10):
because we are doing thisimplementation at the same time.
So it's really A lot of our, alot of my teams bandwidth is
taken up by these things, sowe're not necessarily doing as
much as we would typically do.
But I did want to throw outthere some things we've done in
the past or things I know otherbusinesses have done that were
(27:35):
really successful for their team, just to maybe spark a new idea
for somebody else listening tothe podcast.
So there's always the standardof renting out an event space,
having a A dinner or cocktailhour or something, a chance for
your team to like, relax andengage together and do the
(27:58):
traditional holiday party, andthere's really honestly nothing
wrong with that.
I think they, if they're donein a relaxing manner and
significant others are invited,it can be a lot of fun.
So that's always a good optionjust to get people out of the
office and connecting with oneanother.
What I did last year, whicheveryone loved and sadly I'm not
(28:23):
doing again this year, but lastyear I hired and it was
actually less expensive thangoing to an event space and
doing this Last year I hired alocal private chef and he came
to the house and he cookedbrunch for us.
I invited the whole team andtheir significant others and we
(28:43):
all hung out at my house forseveral hours on a weekend, like
mid morning, early afternoon,and we had a little boozy brunch
and it was fabulous.
It was very casual, so, no,there wasn't like a bunch of
pressure to dress up, do this,that it didn't run for hours and
hours.
It didn't like ruin a whole dayor evening or whatever the case
(29:05):
may be, and the chef wasexcellent.
It was really easily done and,again, actually the cost of it
was less than if we had likegone to a local restaurant and,
you know, did even like a prefixmenu or something where we sat
down and had a meal.
It was less than that.
So it was really, really greatoption.
You should check it out.
There's a great local chefs andprivate chefs all over the
(29:29):
place and they are.
It's a really fun thing to do.
We got to watch them cook, wegot to ask questions.
It was really really a greatexperience and I highly
recommend it.
One of my favorite things thatI've heard another showroom do
for the holiday times for theirstaff is, I think, probably like
(29:50):
a couple months in advance,they start connecting with their
reps and requesting gifts likeand it's not like all on the rep
to provide this gift like theywould.
The rep would work withwhatever lines that they have
and provide some sort of giftsof a small nature.
(30:10):
You know, none of these arenecessarily huge a $50 gift card
here, $20, you know, speaker, aStarbucks gift card, whatever
it is.
They would come up with a bunchof little gifts from their reps
that you know the reps eithergot from the manufacturer or
whatever it is, or just somemanufacturers swag, whatever it
(30:31):
is they start accumulating thesegifts and then at the holiday
time they do a little like awhite elephant exchange.
You know where you like, pick agift, you open it.
If you like it, you keep it, oryou like trade for somebody
else's or you know, we all knowthe games but Then they do that
for their holiday party withlike a potluck, and it's just a
(30:53):
really great idea and a way tohave great engagement with your
staff and not spend a ton,especially if you do it like
potluck style, where everyonebrings a little dish to share
and then do the gift exchangewith gifts you know, supplied by
whatever manufacturer, orgiving away your own logo,
(31:14):
apparel, what, whatever it is.
It's a great way to have niceengagement for everyone, to get
a cute gift and to really enjoyand appreciate one of one
another at the holiday time.
It's one of my favorite ideas.
I was going to do it this yearbut got really sidetracked by
this database thing I don't knowif you've heard me talk about
(31:34):
it yet.
So I just think it's a reallysmart way to provide a great
holiday and staff appreciationexperience without, you know,
breaking the bank.
So there, and you could do thatin combination with, maybe like
a sponsored lunch, like fromyour top manufacturer.
(31:54):
I'm sure they would be willingto spend a few hundred dollars
to sponsor a lunch for yourstaff, assuming you have a small
staff, you have big stuff.
It's going to be more than afew hundred dollars, but you
know what I mean.
I'm sure there is opportunitythere as well.
One other thing we always do atmy store is, you know like it's
(32:14):
usually right before it's theweek of the Christmas holiday.
Usually we will do like a staffpotluck where you know somebody
brings drinks, somebody bringsyou know this, that the other.
We all kind of sign up forsomething.
We bring food in to share.
We'll snack off of it for a fewdays after that and it's just a
(32:37):
lot of fun.
Everyone likes being part of aconnected team and you know we
all spend so much time with ourcolleagues and it's always a
very like familial relationshipwhere you're like I love this
person, but also they're drivingme nuts sometimes, and so
having these moments where wecan just interact with one
(32:58):
another and appreciate eachother for the great human beings
that we are, is always a lot offun.
So those are my ideas forholiday activities interactions
with your customers, with yourteam.
I definitely think the morepersonalized you can make any of
these experiences, the betterthey are, not just for you but
(33:22):
for the person receiving thegift or the whatever the
experience.
It just can go such a long wayand I think sometimes, again,
it's so easy to just process, todo what we've done before to
you know, here's what theholiday bonuses and the check
(33:42):
here's.
You know, here's the corporategift basket.
It's so easy to do that andjust tick that item off of our
to-do list.
But is in doing that, are youreally getting the value that
you want, not just for yourselfbut for the person receiving the
holiday gift?
Just something to think about.
Thank you again to Zastrow forsponsoring this episode.
(34:05):
I very much appreciate it.
Don't forget to reach out to me, lisa, at lightingwithlisacom,
if you want to sponsor, if youwant to be a guest, if you want
to share your two cents onanything in the world.
Drop me a line.
I'd be happy to hear from youand until next time, take care.
Hello and welcome fellow lighting nerds and
friends to Lighting with Lisa,the Lighting Industries podcast
sponsored once again this weekby Zastro, and I will give you a
little more information onZastro in the upcoming moments
of this episode.
But welcome back to Lightingwith Lisa.
I'm always delighted to speakto you all.
(00:24):
It's been a great week offeedback since last week's
episode and I really reallyappreciate the feedback so much.
It is so valuable to helping mefurther this podcast to keep it
relevant to things that youwant to hear about, which is
great for all of us.
(00:45):
So keep the feedback coming.
Email me at Lisa sorry, lisa atlightingwithlisacom.
Don't forget to follow me onall the socials.
My personal Instagram isLisaLight's life.
The podcast has an InstagramLWL underscore podcast my
(01:07):
Lighting with Lisa social mediamission, which is both industry
and consumer facing.
That's on Instagram at Lightingwith Lisa.
I cross post in all of thoseareas.
If you're on Facebook, join thefixture finder group.
If you're interested in it,also join the job board.
(01:27):
There's a lot of greatnetworking and ongoing community
within the residential lightingand fan industry and it can be
found in all of those places.
I'm just happy to be able to bea small part of it and I really
, really appreciate everyonetuning in every week.
If you're interested inbecoming a sponsor of the
(01:48):
podcast, please do reach out tome.
Lighting is going swimminglyfor our current sponsors and I
would love to get more sponsorson board and get your message
out to this very targeted andspecific audience who is truly
engaging with this content, andI look forward to more and more
(02:10):
of that as time goes on andinterviews.
It's a little early to bemaking New Year's resolutions,
but I'm going to go ahead andmake this one as a commitment to
everyone listening to thispodcast.
My New Year's resolution for2024 is to finally do interviews
on the Lighting with Lisapodcast.
I have been researching it.
(02:31):
I think I feel comfortable withit.
I will make it happen and bringthose interviews to you.
So, even if you're notinterested in sponsoring the
podcast, but have a suggestionof somebody that you would like
me to interview in the lightingand fan industry whether they're
a key player, somebody doingsomething interesting on the
(02:53):
fringes, whatever it may be sendme an email, drop me a DM so
that I can reach out to them andget something scheduled,
because I promise interviews arecoming in 2024.
And I think they're going to begreat triggers for ongoing
conversation.
So today's topic came to lifebecause of an email I received
(03:18):
from a listener, and I'm really,really appreciative of it.
It was actually just one ofthose really timely things,
talking about holidays and whatyou're doing around the holidays
, not only for your customersbut for your staff, and
literally as I got the email, Iwas trying to figure out what
Christmas bonuses we're going tobe for my team and I was like,
(03:42):
oh well, this is just everythingcoming together all at once.
So I really spent some timethinking about it and what I
realized which I think reallyresonates with everyone who
listens to this podcast, is I dothe same thing all the time and
I almost don't even think aboutit regarding, like, christmas
(04:04):
bonuses or holiday gifts orwhatever it is.
I find myself so frequently onautopilot that I'm like I was
almost a little disturbed.
I was like, oh, I don't know ifthis is really the most
effective and efficient way torun a business, just being on
(04:27):
autopilot and going through thesame motions I've always gone
through year in and year out andnot really stopping to think
about why am I doing that, butwhat's the reasoning?
Is this really benefiting methe way I expect it to?
Is it really benefiting myemployees the way I expect it to
(04:48):
?
Is this really benefiting mycustomers the way I want and
need this to, to increase theirloyalty, to increase their
commitment to my business?
Am I just kind of doing thingsto do them, or is there true
value in them?
And value doesn't always haveto come back in the term it like
(05:09):
in like financial gain, right,value can just mean a happy
workforce.
Value can just mean a customerthat appreciates you and when
some other supplier comesknocking on their door, they're
so committed to theirrelationship with you that
they're not swayed by somebodythat promises to save them like
(05:31):
a fraction of a percent on theirongoing orders or whatever the
case may be.
So we do these end of the yeargifts and thank yous to kind of
solidify things with all ofthese different parts of our
world moving into the nextcalendar year.
And then I thought, well, arewe really thinking about whether
(05:52):
it's useful or not?
Are we really thinking about ifthe things we're doing are
generating the value that wewant them to generate?
I don't know, just throwingthis out there because it really
got me thinking about what I'mdoing this year and am I happy
with it.
Am I not happy with it?
Is it really paying off in theways I really want these gifts
(06:19):
and thoughtful gestures to payoff, or is it just kind of empty
?
There's a thing gosh I cannotremember where I heard it at
this point.
I'm sure it was on a podcastsomewhere.
But this is in speaking aboutpersonal relationships, like
whether it's a friendship, amarriage, a partnership.
If you're doing something asperson A that in your mind, is
(06:44):
helpful to person B, but that isnot how person B wants to
receive help.
It doesn't resonate with them,then person A can want to be
helpful and supportive, all theywant.
But if person B just doesn'treceive things that way, it's
just going to fall flat.
You're not going to get theresults you want from it.
(07:05):
So the idea is in this kind ofscenario is that person A should
engage with person B, find outwhat really truly defines
helpfulness to them, what trulydefines support to person be,
and then person a should try tofulfill that in the best way
that they possibly can, ifthey're able to, you know.
(07:26):
So how much are we just likeships passing in the night with
our, with our good intentions,but they're not really resulting
in what we want.
So it's just kind of got methinking.
I it seems like an odd triggerfor having these like meta
thoughts, but it's really justsomething that I find myself
(07:47):
doing year in, year out, kind ofwith the same structure that
we've always done.
And I, this email got methinking like I, was this really
benefiting Me and my staff andmy customers in the way that I
want it to?
I don't know.
So let me rethink this.
So just Opening up theconversation with that, and then
(08:09):
I'm gonna talk a bit about Someideas of gifts and for
customers and team andeverything else Coming up after
the commercial break here.
But just food for thought onthat.
You know, like, how often do weJust do our processes like,
(08:30):
okay, it's that time of yearagain, we're gonna do this, this
and this, and what do we dolast year?
Okay, we'll match it, okay,we'll do.
You know, it just can become soRote and repetitive and I think,
like many things in life,that's really where, like,
staleness creeps in, and then wearen't really firing on all
(08:52):
cylinders, we're just goingthrough the motions.
And I think going through themotions is just kind of like the
death knell of any business,like when you're just going
through the motions, when you'rejust trying to make it from a
to be in in a day and you're notreally giving a lot of thought
(09:13):
to what you're doing or whyyou're doing it.
I think it really can start tobe where a business suffers.
We all need that energy andengagement and enthusiasm and
creativity, and the kind ofminute you take your eye off of
that it's when things can reallyget stale and boring and
(09:34):
frustrating and just creates notthe best atmosphere.
So just something to thinkabout as you're doing your year
and planning and looking towardstwenty twenty four.
You know other things to thinkabout in twenty twenty four are,
you know, the economy at largeand like how are we gonna use
these Creative thoughts thatwe're having triggered by this
(09:57):
podcast, to engage and continuesales through twenty twenty four
?
At the start of twenty twentythree I think a lot of us were
still living off of the backlogof orders from twenty twelve.
That's kind of all processedthrough.
The market in the home goodscategory has softened in the
(10:20):
second half of twenty twentythree.
I think I addressed it lastweek.
I do believe that's partly whywe're having so many factory
sales for such an extendedperiod of time right now in the
black Friday holiday season.
So it does perk up one's earsfor how things are going to go
(10:41):
in twenty twenty four.
It's a major election year inthe United States.
That's a thing.
The economy is in good shape.
I was reading news this weeksaying that the fed really feels
like they've aimed us welltowards the proverbial soft
landing.
That's all well and good.
I also read where yeah, but ifone little thing goes sideways,
(11:03):
that could all go away and we'regonna end up in a recession.
So there's just point being atthis, not like a political
judgment or anything.
At the point being, there'sjust a lot of uncertainty going
into twenty twenty four and Ithink consumers are gonna feel
that as much as we do asbusiness owners and managers.
So how are we going tocreatively work through that?
Because it will be a shock toall of our systems To see sales
(11:31):
decline in twenty twenty fourafter just three pretty amazing
years of sales and double digitgrowth and all of that.
I'm not expecting that in twentytwenty four for my business.
I am just trying to be smartabout what's coming and really,
(11:52):
yeah, apply this not doing thesame old mentality to the coming
year, because I really thinkit's going to need some extra
energy and engagement in orderto really grow.
And maybe growth in 2024 justlooks like maybe something
different than it's looked inpast years.
Maybe it's not like income andsales, maybe it's my social
(12:15):
media audience, maybe it's Idon't know something else
website traffic, seo somethingmight be a different definition
for growth in 2024 than it'sbeen in previous years, and so
I'm really trying to bethoughtful and strategic in that
.
So, all right, let me talk abit about our sponsor, which is
Zastro.
Again this week, I'm going tostart off right at the top with
(12:39):
your salespeople, because theseare the people you need to reach
out to to get yourself set upwith a demo.
Okay, so you're.
If you live west of theMississippi River, you need to
contact to Gail Gail atZastrocom.
If you live east of theMississippi River, you need to
contact Thomas Thomas atZastrocom.
Get yourself set up on a demo.
(12:59):
No cost to do a demo other thanyour time.
You're going to love it If youdo a demo and then become a
customer of Zastro and youmentioned that you came because
of the lighting with Lisapodcast.
You're going to get $500 off apurchase and I'm telling you at
full disclosure, as a customer,that $500 is going to be real
(13:22):
valuable to you and it's areally good offer.
I highly recommend checking itout.
As I made this decision toconvert my database and
essentially let's I'm just goingto call it what it is my
operating, my business operatingsoftware from what I was using
to the NetSuite platform poweredby the Zastro Illuminate
(13:48):
program, which is tailor madefor lighting showrooms.
The impetus behind thisdecision was what I talked about
a few podcasts ago margins.
Margins in our industry aretight, profits can be low and I
(14:08):
do not have, with my currentsoftware solution, a really
great way of knowing in detailwhere my money is going.
I have general ideas, I haveeducated guesses, but I don't
really know in detail and Ineeded a solution that provided
(14:31):
me a much more robust picture ofmy business than I had with my
current system and I literallycan't wait to go live.
I know it's nuts to do a bigdatabase conversion like this.
It's a huge undertaking.
Everyone involved in the in thesituation appreciates that it's
(14:51):
not something I would do oftenand I did not take this decision
lightly, nor should anybody.
Whether you elect to go with theNetSuite product or something
else, there's just a lot ofthought that goes into it, but I
really recommend taking a lookat this product.
I think you're going to beamazed at the level of detail
you can gain about your ownbusiness.
(15:12):
You're also going to be amazedif you start paying attention to
how many order confirmationsyou're getting from home goods
businesses that are using theNetSuite platform, and that, in
and of itself, says something tome about how well this tool can
be made to work for our homegoods businesses.
(15:33):
And yeah, you know it's not themost inexpensive solution out
there.
But when you can really trackwhere your dollars and cents are
going, when you can really geta good understanding of your
business and the health and yourreal profitability, the real
value of your inventory, wherethings are flowing, where you
(15:54):
might have like a slow drip ofmoney that you didn't even
realize you had because yoursoftware wasn't allowing you to
really drill into the details ofthings, it's going to be a
total game changer.
So absolutely check them outAgain.
It's Zastrocom is the websiteIf you want to learn about the
(16:15):
Illuminat feature.
It's Zastrocom, slash, illuminatthere's Lights America
integration.
It's just the best marketleading cloud ERP software.
With NetSuite it integrateseasily.
You have a whole dashboard,you've got KPIs, you've got all
(16:36):
gosh any number of things youcan do.
And my new little thing in myhead about this is if you can
dream it, they can build it.
So it's just been a reallyinteresting process.
Check it out, sign up for thedemo Again.
If you're west of theMississippi, you want to contact
Gail and if you're east of theMississippi, contact Thomas and
(16:59):
check the show notes for moreinformation.
So thank you again to Zastro.
All right, so I'm going to spendthe second part of the podcast
talking about gifts for the teamand gifts for customers in the
holiday season.
So this year I'll start withtalking about gifts for our best
(17:20):
customers.
So this year I'm doingsomething a little different.
As you know if you've listenedto the podcast for any length of
time in late 2022 through 2023,I've really invested a lot in
merchandise accessories, hostessgifts, like small pick-me-up
(17:43):
items, like usually like I wantthings to have a retail value of
like $50 or less.
Traditionally, a lot oflighting showrooms do candles,
but I've really been expandingon that.
Just quick, easy items forpeople to pick up, make little
hostess gifts or just a gift fora friend.
We do a lot of stuff that iscoastal, themed for the area in
(18:07):
which I live and it's just beena great add-on to the showroom.
I'm really happy with it.
But what we're doing for ourgifts for our best customers
this year is we're making customgift baskets of these little
items that we sell in the store.
We just put them together thisweek.
(18:28):
We're going to deliver them theweek after Thanksgiving.
I'm super thrilled with them.
They look great and itreinforces this connection to
the brand of my business.
It's not what we've done in thepast.
It's been great.
Nobody's complained about it.
Since we live in SavannahGeorgia there's a few very kind
(18:50):
of nationally known businessesthat are candy makers, like
Savannah Candy Kitchen, otherplaces like that that are.
We have another one that's likeBird Cookie Company.
I don't know.
They do a lot of and theseplaces do a lot of corporate
gifts.
I just have to name drop oneother one in case they listen
River Street Sweets.
Anyway, these places do a lotof corporate gifts and
(19:14):
traditionally remember at thetop I talked about what I just
doing, what I always did.
Traditionally, I would just getgift baskets from these places
delivered to our customers witha thank you note Again.
Nobody ever complained, nobodywas ever mad to get a gift
basket of pre-leans for them andtheir entire staff.
So they were great gifts.
(19:36):
But I really was wondering, like, is this reinforcing the
connection to the brand, to mystaff, to my showroom, to all my
business offers?
Am I short changing that?
So what we decided to do thisyear for the gift baskets for
our best customers was to createcustom gift baskets of the
(20:00):
products that we're selling inthe showroom.
So we just got some.
You know, we did these sort oflike crates and got some
cellophane and we've puttogether these really cute gift
baskets.
All of the products that wesell in the showroom host us
gift variety and the primarysalesperson for each of the best
(20:24):
customers is going to godeliver these in person with a
huge thank you and a smile anddeliver our holiday present that
way.
I'll let you know how it pansout, but I'm much more excited
about this than the moreimpersonal ones we have been
doing.
The staff is more excited aboutit.
(20:44):
Actually, it's more fun to likeshow up and give a gift of
something that's like meaningfulto you than to just have like
some candy drop shipped.
And since I do have the luxuryof living in the same general
market area of my customers,it's been.
It's really great we candeliver it in person.
(21:04):
You know it's much harder ifyou're a manufacturer in this
industry and your customers arecoast to coast.
You can't very well show upwith something personal and give
it to them.
I guess your rep could, butit's just a more logistical
challenge.
But I would really encourageanyone that's a distributor with
(21:25):
local customers to really thinkabout doing something with a
truly personal touch andconnecting that customer back to
your business and making themfeel really great about their
relationship with you and yourbusiness.
Moving into the next year, I dowant to drop one logo item that
(21:45):
we got in 2023 for the storethat has done really well for us
.
It's this company.
They're Pirani Cups,p-i-r-a-n-i.
They're not a sponsor.
I'm just giving thisinformation out because they've
been good for us.
They're cups that theybasically look like red solo
cups, but they're reusable,they're insulated, they have a
(22:09):
lid.
They're really a great value.
You can get your company's logoon them.
They're not terribly expensive.
We've been giving these away.
When I got our first shipmentin, I gave everyone on my staff
one of these to use.
We gave some at that time toour best customers.
They have been really, reallywell received.
(22:29):
What we didn't give away, we'veput out in the showroom for
sale and we've even sold a few.
I would definitely recommendchecking them out if you want a
customized.
I don't know, mugs and tumblersare pretty traditional when it
comes to a Christmas gift, but Ireally like this particular
(22:51):
product.
The cups are stackable.
They're really fun.
Go check them out.
The other thing that we do thata lot of people do are these
hardcover sticky notebooks.
They're just super useful andwe give those out to our
customers all the time.
We actually leave them on ourcash wrap area for homeowners
(23:12):
anybody to grab and use.
Other logo items that we do arehoodies, t-shirts, both long
sleeve and short sleeve.
We do pens.
We have two kinds of pens.
We have our fancy pens and thenwe have our El Chippo pens.
We add, always keep a mix ofthose, all logoed.
(23:34):
I always want to encourageanybody buying a logoed apparel
to not forget to get ladies cutsas well as the traditional
men's sizes.
Now, not all ladies that aregoing to want the ladies cut,
but it definitely is somethingthat's important.
I want to rep your goods.
(23:55):
I want to wear them.
I want to have your logo stuffon.
I don't want to be drowning ina t-shirt that comes down to my
knees.
I want a ladies cut and I'm notalone out there.
Just don't forget to throw amix of those in when you're
doing your logo apparel, and Iguarantee you're going to be
shocked at how fast those ladiescut of logoed items go, because
(24:18):
oftentimes, if you give me thechoice, I'll just be like you
know what.
I'll skip it.
I'm never going to wear it.
I don't want it sitting in mycloset.
Let's just have somebody elseget it that might actually get
you out of it.
If you give me a ladies cut,I'm going to wear it.
I promise that's my two cents.
On gifts for customers Reallytry to connect going into the
(24:38):
holiday season, especially as athank you gift.
Really try to connect thatcustomer with your business,
with their primary contact foryour business.
Let them engage and and have agreat like mutual appreciation.
Give them something that is funfor them to unpack, something
(25:00):
that really shows yourpersonality as a business and
what you're offering to all ofyour customers.
I really think that probablygoes a lot further than just the
candy gift basket, or maybe doboth.
Maybe you do a smaller, morepersonal gift and then you do
(25:20):
the more standard corporate giftjust to cover all the bases.
That's totally fine, whateveryou think works best for you and
your business, of course, butI'm really excited about these
this year and I hope it'ssomething that works well for us
and we're able to continuedoing in the future.
Now, of course, again like Isaid at the top of the podcast,
(25:42):
I don't want any of these thingsto become just like Repetition.
Here we are, another year, samething.
So it is definitely going to bea challenge for us to do these
gifts every year and thenmaintain like creativity about
them and coming up with new funthings to put in there.
So I'm actually kind of lookingforward to that challenge next
(26:03):
year, and next year maybe Iwon't be no, I won't be going
through a huge databaseimplementation at the same time
and we'll be able to spend alittle more thought on these
things.
But the other part of this wastalking about gifts for your
team the traditional holidaybonus, of course, and I think
(26:25):
all of us really appreciate anice holiday bonus.
It is that time of year whereyou're spending a fair amount
more money than normal on giftsor whatever it is.
I don't think anybody is everupset by a nice holiday bonus.
So I definitely say, especiallyfor your team Continue to do
(26:49):
your holiday bonus in some formor fashion.
But then it's like what do youdo pass that like?
You don't.
You don't always just want tolike give cash and say thanks
for the great work this year andyou know we're going to do it
all again next year.
So I've done a few differentthings again.
This year is just a kind ofweird year in my business
(27:10):
because we are doing thisimplementation at the same time.
So it's really A lot of our, alot of my teams bandwidth is
taken up by these things, sowe're not necessarily doing as
much as we would typically do.
But I did want to throw outthere some things we've done in
the past or things I know otherbusinesses have done that were
(27:35):
really successful for their team, just to maybe spark a new idea
for somebody else listening tothe podcast.
So there's always the standardof renting out an event space,
having a A dinner or cocktailhour or something, a chance for
your team to like, relax andengage together and do the
(27:58):
traditional holiday party, andthere's really honestly nothing
wrong with that.
I think they, if they're donein a relaxing manner and
significant others are invited,it can be a lot of fun.
So that's always a good optionjust to get people out of the
office and connecting with oneanother.
What I did last year, whicheveryone loved and sadly I'm not
(28:23):
doing again this year, but lastyear I hired and it was
actually less expensive thangoing to an event space and
doing this Last year I hired alocal private chef and he came
to the house and he cookedbrunch for us.
I invited the whole team andtheir significant others and we
(28:43):
all hung out at my house forseveral hours on a weekend, like
mid morning, early afternoon,and we had a little boozy brunch
and it was fabulous.
It was very casual, so, no,there wasn't like a bunch of
pressure to dress up, do this,that it didn't run for hours and
hours.
It didn't like ruin a whole dayor evening or whatever the case
(29:05):
may be, and the chef wasexcellent.
It was really easily done and,again, actually the cost of it
was less than if we had likegone to a local restaurant and,
you know, did even like a prefixmenu or something where we sat
down and had a meal.
It was less than that.
So it was really, really greatoption.
You should check it out.
There's a great local chefs andprivate chefs all over the
(29:29):
place and they are.
It's a really fun thing to do.
We got to watch them cook, wegot to ask questions.
It was really really a greatexperience and I highly
recommend it.
One of my favorite things thatI've heard another showroom do
for the holiday times for theirstaff is, I think, probably like
(29:50):
a couple months in advance,they start connecting with their
reps and requesting gifts likeand it's not like all on the rep
to provide this gift like theywould.
The rep would work withwhatever lines that they have
and provide some sort of giftsof a small nature.
(30:10):
You know, none of these arenecessarily huge a $50 gift card
here, $20, you know, speaker, aStarbucks gift card, whatever
it is.
They would come up with a bunchof little gifts from their reps
that you know the reps eithergot from the manufacturer or
whatever it is, or just somemanufacturers swag, whatever it
(30:31):
is they start accumulating thesegifts and then at the holiday
time they do a little like awhite elephant exchange.
You know where you like, pick agift, you open it.
If you like it, you keep it, oryou like trade for somebody
else's or you know, we all knowthe games but Then they do that
for their holiday party withlike a potluck, and it's just a
(30:53):
really great idea and a way tohave great engagement with your
staff and not spend a ton,especially if you do it like
potluck style, where everyonebrings a little dish to share
and then do the gift exchangewith gifts you know, supplied by
whatever manufacturer, orgiving away your own logo,
(31:14):
apparel, what, whatever it is.
It's a great way to have niceengagement for everyone, to get
a cute gift and to really enjoyand appreciate one of one
another at the holiday time.
It's one of my favorite ideas.
I was going to do it this yearbut got really sidetracked by
this database thing I don't knowif you've heard me talk about
(31:34):
it yet.
So I just think it's a reallysmart way to provide a great
holiday and staff appreciationexperience without, you know,
breaking the bank.
So there, and you could do thatin combination with, maybe like
a sponsored lunch, like fromyour top manufacturer.
(31:54):
I'm sure they would be willingto spend a few hundred dollars
to sponsor a lunch for yourstaff, assuming you have a small
staff, you have big stuff.
It's going to be more than afew hundred dollars, but you
know what I mean.
I'm sure there is opportunitythere as well.
One other thing we always do atmy store is, you know like it's
(32:14):
usually right before it's theweek of the Christmas holiday.
Usually we will do like a staffpotluck where you know somebody
brings drinks, somebody bringsyou know this, that the other.
We all kind of sign up forsomething.
We bring food in to share.
We'll snack off of it for a fewdays after that and it's just a
(32:37):
lot of fun.
Everyone likes being part of aconnected team and you know we
all spend so much time with ourcolleagues and it's always a
very like familial relationshipwhere you're like I love this
person, but also they're drivingme nuts sometimes, and so
having these moments where wecan just interact with one
(32:58):
another and appreciate eachother for the great human beings
that we are, is always a lot offun.
So those are my ideas forholiday activities interactions
with your customers, with yourteam.
I definitely think the morepersonalized you can make any of
these experiences, the betterthey are, not just for you but
(33:22):
for the person receiving thegift or the whatever the
experience.
It just can go such a long wayand I think sometimes, again,
it's so easy to just process, todo what we've done before to
you know, here's what theholiday bonuses and the check
(33:42):
here's.
You know, here's the corporategift basket.
It's so easy to do that andjust tick that item off of our
to-do list.
But is in doing that, are youreally getting the value that
you want, not just for yourselfbut for the person receiving the
holiday gift?
Just something to think about.
Thank you again to Zastrow forsponsoring this episode.
(34:05):
I very much appreciate it.
Don't forget to reach out to me, lisa, at lightingwithlisacom,
if you want to sponsor, if youwant to be a guest, if you want
to share your two cents onanything in the world.
Drop me a line.
I'd be happy to hear from youand until next time, take care.
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