“Oh well,” I thought as I exited my browser and shut my laptop for the evening.

It was mid-November of last year and I had participated in a giveaway from Sendoso but just learned I wasn’t the winner. I didn’t think much of it and went on my way. Does anyone actually win these things anyways?

The next day I received a message from one of my newest connections, Katie Penner, who was also the one conducting the giveaway: “Hey Ben! I hear you're the absolute best and I'm one for breaking the rules every now and then. 😉 Enjoy some cupcakes on me & Sendoso for spreading kindness each & every day!”

“Wow, didn’t expect that. Awesome!” I thought.

A few days later I received a massive box full of gourmet Baked by Melissa cupcakes. I remember thinking it was so over-the-top and just way too valuable a gift for someone who didn’t even win the giveaway.

But that’s exactly who Katie is, and what’s more – it reflects the ethos of her company Sendoso as well. Naturally, Katie and I began to develop a friendship and discovered how much our networks already overlapped. We even discovered we would be attending the same content house in a month’s time – an opportunity to meet in person!

To think a great relationship started simply because of an undeserved giveaway gift! I often find that the people who give freely of themselves are some of the best at building great relationships. This is one of the many reasons why Commsor and Sendoso are partners.

If you’ve opened LinkedIn regularly over the past few months, chances are you’ve seen how our two companies have joined hands in surprising and delighting the people in our networks.

Katie and her team live this out every day. “We have several Go-to-Network strategies in place from events, product-led growth offerings, creator programs and customer-led programs. Aside from this, our product helps people send gifts and teaches them to build authentic relationships within their communities.”

As revenue professionals, much of the way we engage with prospects and customers is entirely boxed in to simple forms of communication like text, email, phone calls, direct messages, and video. As these mediums grow more and more saturated, the less meaningful they become as tools for growing relationships. Katie and her team at Sendoso recognize this and offer a fresh medium everyone can appreciate: gifting!

Zooming out a bit, we are in the midst of a massive shift where businesses and organizations are no longer the atomic unit of measurement – people are. And when people become the atomic unit of business, authentic relationships become the currency. And when authentic relationships become the currency, gifting becomes a way to do business.

We asked Katie, the Gift Queen, to comment on her views of Go-to-Network as a strategy for conducting business in this way: “When companies have a Go-to-Network strategy, they’re prioritizing building relationships and authentic connections first and foremost. They build trust and brand loyalty by being authentic within their communities so that when buyers are ready to buy, those companies are first to come to mind.”

Gifting well requires a thoughtful heart. People who gift well are always scanning for opportunities to surprise and delight those around them and it takes an acute sense of attention to detail to remember the little things. Given how close our networks are, Katie and I surely would have met eventually. But the massive box of Baked by Melissa cupcakes made a lasting impact on me and was the start of a great professional relationship that began with thoughtfulness.

The enriching partnership between Commsor and Sendoso goes beyond the people as well. Katie described this perfectly: “We share a very similar brand ethos, our purpose at its core is helping people to build more authentic connections and our products facilitate that in different ways and actually work very well together.”

While we’ve built exciting marketing campaigns together like the Secret Santa campaign in early December, some folks have even started finding ways to use Commsor and Sendoso’s products in tandem with one another.

One revenue professional, Josh Norris, leveraged Commsor’s Bronto to find a meaningful note he made about a recent connection and then used the Sendoso platform to send a thoughtful gift to that person in under 3 minutes flat.

Commsor is proud to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Sendoso as we help people invest and pour into the networks, communities, and relationships around them.

If you are interested in learning more about our partner Sendoso, check out their team here.