"THE catalogs are arriving by the score and the decorations have already started appearing in the mall. Christmas must be approaching, and with it the gift-giving season.

Recently released survey results from American Express shine some light on the whole corporate holiday gift-buying craziness. As a prelude to the forthcoming Christmas frenzy, we thought you would like to see the results and gauge how you shape up against your small-business peers when it comes to client and employee gift-giving.

The survey was conducted among small businesses with annual revenues in the $50,000 to $10 million range, and with fewer than 100 employees. The numbers reveal:

* A total of 38 percent of small businesses that responded to the survey are planning on holiday gift-buying this Christmas.

* Corporate gift-giving is viewed as providing both tangible and intangible results, including improved employee morale (84 percent), improved business (78 percent) and higher sales (56 percent).

* A significant number worry about ethical or legal issues inherent in corporate gift-giving (40 percent).

* Slightly more small-business owners will be purchasing gifts for their employees (58 percent) than for their clients (53 percent).

* E-commerce has a ways to go with small business. About half of survey respondents say they would not consider buying anything online. In fact, only 6 percent have ever bought holiday gifts via the Internet.

* Most small businesses will spend less than $5,000 in total on Christmas gifts (65 percent). A total of 36 percent said they plan to spend less than $50 per client/gift.

* When it comes to small-business spending on gifts for employees, 34 percent will spend under $100 while 30 percent will spend $100 to $499.

* The most popular client gift categories are food gifts, including liquor, wine, gift baskets, chocolate and fruit (36 percent); office supplies (11 percent); and money/gift certificates (9 percent).

* Many small businesses say they intend to take their clients to a holiday meal (45 percent), though a majority won't (52 percent).

While Christmas gift-giving is not a dead tradition, nor on life support, it's certainly showing degenerative symptoms. The corporate need to cut unessential expense is part of the cause. But, ironically, it is the client recipients who, more than anyone else, are driving a stake through the heart of the tradition.

One remembers the days when convoys of couriers arrived with food baskets, cans of popcorn and other unnecessary items. There were so many of them that he forgot whom they came from. It was part of the ever-growing Christmas excess.

The trend, if it continues, will be to reward employees, nurture clients and vendors who count and with whom we have established relationships, and engage in gift-giving that speaks to the heart and the soul, rather than the stomach.

In line with that thinking, many small businesses are choosing to donate their Christmas gift budget to a local charity, with the donation proffered under the auspices of the company's clients, vendors and friends. Others are seeking greater employee involvement in the gift-giving process.

One Atlanta-based small business has all of its employees purchase, wrap and deliver a specific gift for a specific child at a local orphanage. Another, a consultancy, has its much-traveled staff collect thousands of shampoo and conditioner bottles from hotel rooms throughout the year. These are then collected and distributed to battered women's and homeless shelters at Christmas.

Incidentally, 69 percent of the survey respondents say they buy their gifts in person. For those of you with the desire, energy and time, may we wish you a happy, rewarding and successful holiday shopping spree.

Art of the sale

More is written on the subject of successful selling technique than any other in the field of marketing. Everyone wants to know how to close the sale.

In the traditional selling process, the relationship between buyer and seller has always had the hint, if not the overt feel, of an adversarial relationship. Often the buyer questions the seller's motives and the salesperson assumes that the buyer will automatically resist the pitch.

The initial contact can be a pushy, in-your-face approach or a warm, ""let me help you"" overture. Either way, the salesperson is viewed as the aggressor. Selling becomes more a game of wits and finesse than a true business encounter.

To add insult to injury, the marketer establishes the need for the product, communicates the message, induces buyer interest, only to have the salesperson lose the sale because of competitive gamesmanship.

But it doesn't have to be that way.

The proponents of ""value-added selling"" and its derivatives, ""consultative selling,"" ""needs-based selling,"" etc., have always understood the importance of showing the customer how their product or service can provide a benefit or solution.

It's a common-sense approach for marketers, but not necessarily so for salespeople. And, while the value-added selling approach won't work in every case, it does in most.

According to Chuck Reaves, president of Twenty-One Associates, an Atlanta-based sales training and consulting firm, the key to effective selling lies in establishing what he has termed a rainmaking mentality. The seller and buyer work together to take the buyer's products or services to the buyer's customers. Ultimately, everyone in the chain focuses energy and effort on the final end-user.

""You and your customer form a strategic alliance,"" says Reaves. ""As the seller, your time is spent in looking at and understanding the customer's customer.""

What had been a seller or a vendor in the traditional selling model, he added, now becomes a rainmaker. What had been a buyer, customer or client now becomes a ""tier one."" The focus of the sales effort is on the tier one's customer, known in rainmaking as the ""tier two.""

The end result is obvious. Rainmakers essentially take on the job of selling their customers' products and services for them. Rather than trying to transact a sale to the customer, rainmakers look for new market opportunities for the products and services they want to sell.

It provides an entirely different response to the question to the salesperson, ""Who do you work for?"" But, most importantly, it involves a transition in thinking -- one that says to the customer, ""I'm not here to sell you something, I'm here to bring you a market opportunity.""
"