The Ghost of Christmas Present

You know, you really should feel sorry for me and all the other people working in the promotional merchandise industry. Why? Well for you lot, Christmas can be a time of great joy - a festive season of giving and receiving, good will to all men and a shed load of Christmas pudding with brandy butter and cream.

Well not for us. OK, to be fair, wild horses couldn't drag me away from a Christmas pudding with brandy butter and cream. Heck, I'd even eat it without the extras. I'm not a proud man, I just love the stuff. Don't judge me!

But I digress. The problem is that for us, Christmas is a time of last minute decisions, late deliveries, low stock levels, early factory closures and generally nervous customers. Now don't get me wrong - we do solve people's problems for them. we do find the best gifts and we do get the items delivered on time. We take our clients' headaches and gladly make them our own.

Obviously, I say 'gladly', whereas if were to be brutally honest, I mean 'reluctantly'. It's not that I'm complaining about the work - I'm delighted to be busy, it's just that we all preach on, year after year, to get your Christmas gifts out of the way sooner rather than later. The benefits are easy to name - more choice, more time to choose the right gift without a last minute panic, more chance to amend any errors which may (and do) occur and above all - I will like you so much more than I already do.

Last week we put out out first Christmas mailer, and the response has really not been that strong. It seems that people think that November is the best time to be thinking about showing appreciation to their customers. Well it's not the worst time to think about it, but it does mean that your gifts are going to be arriving around about the same time as your competitors'. What if they spent more than you? What if they had access to a more creative promotional merchandise company? What if, what if what? Too many questions and none of them necessary.

Last week I spoke of the importance of sending gifts to new potential customers, but I don't want you to think that I don't consider your existing clients too. So if you haven't seen the first of many Christmas gift catalogues, drop me an email and I will gladly send it to you. Better still, call me and let's arrange to meet.

Right, enough preaching - Tesco is already well stocked up on Christmas pudding, so I'm off for lunch.....