• Corporate gifting is a $100 billion industry, but technology has yet to improve the process of sending clients and prospects gifts.
  • Sendoso makes it easier than ever for salespeople to send personalized gifts to help close deals and nurture relationships.
  • The technology platform integrates with Salesforce and other software tools to seamlessly suggest gifts at the right time in the sales cycle.

 

When it comes to closing a deal, timing is everything. 

Great salespeople know that a thoughtful, well-timed gift can make a world of difference. But many people still resort to cheap wine, baskets of fruit and other unwanted gifts to woo clients and prospects. 

Kris Rudeegraap, co-founder and CEO of Sendoso, aims to change that. Sendoso helps salespeople send personalized gifts tailored to each prospective buyer. The platform integrates with popular software solutions like Salesforce, making sending a gift just a click away.

Sendoso cofounders Kris Rudeegraap (left) and Brayden Young (right)

“Corporate gifting is a $100 billion industry, and there really isn’t anyone else who’s doing what we’re doing,” says Kris. “We want to develop tools to help suggest the right gifts at the right point in the sales cycle for our clients.”

Kris joined the podcast to share his vision for Sendoso, how he built it and the success he’s seen using the platform.

Interview Highlights — Kris Rudeegraap from Sendoso

Personalized gifts close deals

I came up with the idea for Sendoso from my experience working in sales for 10 years. Through my career, I saw email evolve into a channel that people saw as impersonal, even though it was still one of the most common ways to reach buyers.

As a creative salesperson, I was searching for other channels to augment my emails. And I realized that besides phone and social media, the only other channel was offline direct mail. These days most businesses lack a physical touchpoint. I wanted to find a way to create one. 

I found buyers’ interests on social media and I sent them personalized gifts with a handwritten note. It was taking me a ton of time. I had to find the gifts, handwrite each note, pack the boxes, make sure they were shipped on time. It was an extremely tedious process. 

And then it dawned on me, “Why isn’t there a platform that allows you to click and send physical items just as easy it is to send email?” 

Creating a fully-integrated solution

When I started building the initial product, I was really building it for myself. I wanted it to integrate into all the software I currently use, so I could go straight from Salesforce and send gifts to buyers. Additionally, we included features to add notes about the prospects, so if they tell us that their kid plays baseball, we can get them tickets to a game. The important thing is to show that you’re always listening. 

As a channel, offline direct mail performs really well for salespeople. Our best customers use it throughout the sale cycle. They use Sendoso as door openers and meeting makers in conjunction with email and phone calls. 

It’s part of a concept I call deal acceleration or deal nurturing. You don’t always want to seem like you’re constantly trying to sell. So with this, you can send  a gift as a thank you. The goal is to catch the buyer at the right moment in the right channel. It helps to break through the noise and catch the buyer’s attention. 

From software solution to business partner

Oftentimes, we see a lot of really great marketers and salespeople who have ideas for gifts but they don’t know how to find the correct vendor. In these cases, we just help them source the gifts they want.

With six warehouses around the globe and strong sourcing and project management teams, we can send gifts out very quickly. And the best part is that we’re completely connected through software, so Sendoso easily integrates with Salesforce and other software tools. 

Corporate gifting is a $100 billion industry, and there really isn’t anyone else who’s doing what we’re doing. So as we continue to scale, we’re focusing on building globally and investing in research and development. We want to develop tools to help suggest the right gifts at the right point in the sales cycle for our clients.

Sendoso is used by tens of thousands of companies and people still haven’t really heard of us, so there’s really only room to grow from here.

Find this business interesting? Check out other interviews with similar companies: