Which Clients Get a Gift? An A/B/C Tiering Playbook, and What Including Everyone Costs

We sell a $35 logo mug gift box, printed, packed and shipped to each person's address. This guide covers the other options too.

Key facts

• About 10%: "We send all clients a holiday card and about 10% get a treat as well" (r/Accounting, 2025).
• About half of vendors gift: in business.com's 2022 poll, "just over half (53 percent) will send client gifts this holiday season", and "nearly half of vendors send the same items to every client on their list" (business.com).
• The same gift is fine: givers buying for several people over-individualize and pass up gifts recipients would like more (Steffel & Le Boeuf, 2014).
• Some clients can't accept much: a federal employee may accept "$20 or less per source per occasion" (5 CFR 2635.204).
• Company caps are common: in a 2013 survey by SAI Global, a compliance-software company, 35 percent of companies required gifts "under $25" (Ogletree, 2014).

Part of our client holiday gifts playbook.

Do You Send a Gift to Every Client, or Only the Top Ones?

Owners do both. In the tier systems they describe, a small top tier gets a gift and the rest get a card. With no minimum, including everyone is arithmetic: with Personalized Gifts Delivered, 40 clients at $35 delivered come to $1,400. A card thanks the whole list; a gift adds something they keep.

Four of these five are tier systems: a small group gets a gift, and a wider group gets less or a card. The cut points differ (10% of clients, $25,000 a year, the top 8 to 10), but the shape is the same. The other one sends something to the whole book.

How to Sort Clients Into A, B and C

Score each client on a few signals you already have. None of these is a formula from research; they're the signals owners use, in the order we'd weigh them (our suggestion):

Then sort, in this order:

1. Export your client list with revenue and start date in one sheet.
2. Mark tier A: your top tenth or so by revenue, plus anyone you'd miss who falls below the line.
3. Mark tier C: one-time clients, small accounts and prospects.
4. Everyone left is tier B.
5. Flag anyone who needs a rules check: a flagged client gets one (next section) before anything ships.
6. Save the sheet. Next year, tier A starts from who replied, renewed or referred someone.

Or include everyone. With no minimum, a gift for the whole list costs the list size × the delivered price: with Personalized Gifts Delivered at $35 delivered, 40 clients come to $1,400.

Budget per tier, with a worksheet: how much to spend on client gifts.

Who Needs a Check Before Any Gift?

Some clients can accept only a small gift, or none, and in some trades the rule binds you, the sender. Flag these on the sheet:

The Emily Post Institute's advice covers the rest: "Be sure to follow your own company rules AND check with the HR department at the intended recipient's company first" (Emily Post). Every rule, side by side: client gift limits by industry.

This is information, not legal or tax advice. Check the current rule (or ask your compliance officer, or the recipient's agency ethics official) before you send.

Same Gift for the Whole Tier? Yes. Personalize the Card.

Giving everyone in a tier the same gift is fine, and research suggests picking one is often the better choice: givers shopping for several people tend to pick a different gift for each and pass up the one recipients would like most (Steffel & Le Boeuf, 2014). In business.com's poll, "nearly half of vendors send the same items to every client on their list."

Put the personal part in the card: one specific thing from the year, under the name the client knows. Templates: holiday card messages for clients and thank-you messages for clients.

Turn the Tier Sheet Into a Send List

Keep your tier sheet as your own record; it's next year's starting point. When you're ready to send, copy the tier A rows into an address list. Our client address spreadsheet template has the columns, and its First Name column also fills each card's greeting. Missing addresses: how to ask clients for their address.

Can You Send Tier A's Gifts Yourself?

Yes: you can buy, pack and mail tier A's gifts yourself, and the hours add up fast. By our estimate, 25 logo mug gift boxes take about 9 hours of hands-on work, plus a week or more waiting for supplies: about an hour to find a mug printer and approve a proof, an hour placing about 8 supply orders, 1½ hours cleaning the list and buying 25 labels, 45 minutes of cards, 3½ hours of packing at about 8 minutes a box, and an hour at the drop-off and on 25 tracking numbers.

Per box, the money comes out about even: about $38 a box with USPS counter postage and about $34 with commercial postage, against our $35 delivered. You pay $1,192.84 up front for the mugs, the supply packs and 25 postage labels (DIY vs ordering, as of Oct 29, 2026). One slip costs a second round. A mug packed without a collar can break at the handle, a stale address sends a box away and back, and a typo on 25 printed cards means printing 25 again.

What to know before you order

• One price, any list size. $35 per box, delivered, whether you send 1 or 50, with no minimum: an order can be your tier A rows or the whole list.
• Gift limits. Each box is $35, delivered. Some employers and industries cap the gifts their people may accept; the limits, quoted from their sources: client gift limits by industry.
• One message per order. Every card carries the same message and sign-off, with each client's first name filled in. A line only one client would recognize goes in an order of its own; one box is a complete order.
• Where we ship. The lower 48 states and Washington, DC, except Texas for now. We don't ship to Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, APO/FPO addresses or other countries, and the order page flags any row we can't ship to, so you can fix it or take it out.
• The treats. LINDOR truffles contain milk, soy and barley malt (gluten); read the labels.

Where Personalized Gifts Delivered Fits: The Gift for Tier A

Tier A is the short list where the gift has to land, and Personalized Gifts Delivered makes a custom logo mug gift box, shipped to each client, no minimum for it: an 11 oz white ceramic mug with your logo printed small, a 1.5 oz packet of Ghirardelli premium hot cocoa and 4 Lindt LINDOR milk chocolate truffles packed inside it, black tissue closed with a gold seal, and your printed card in a sealed envelope on the lid of a matte-black gift box with a magnetic lid, at $35 delivered.

The mug is the part that stays. In ASI's 2026 Ad Impressions Study, a promotional-products industry survey, 87% of end-users said they would keep a branded drinkware item because it's useful (ASI). The card is the part that says who sent it: one message for the order, and every card greets its person by first name, filled in from the First Name column of your list.

Copy the rows you're sending to into the address list. Add your logo (or type your website and we'll find it), or a photo or a few words for a personal gift; check the preview of your mug and card; add your address list; and pay $35 per box. We print, pack and ship each box to its own address. When your boxes ship, you get one email with a spreadsheet of recipient, ship date, carrier, tracking number and $35 per box, which you can keep beside next year's tier sheet.