For most B2B companies, completing a sale is only the first stage of their relationship with a 
client. Reinforcing and maintaining that relationship so the client will continue to come to your company for future sales is an important part of doing business. A method of strengthening client relationships that many businesses have found highly effective is the use of promotional gifts. However, not all gifts are created equal, and choosing the right kind of gift for your clients and leads will help maximize your return on investment. When considering the many different forms of promotional gifts you can buy, the one that stands out far ahead of the pack is the desk pad calendar.
You may have already heard marketing advice regarding the traits of an effective business promotional gift: it needs to be useful, it needs to be business-related, it needs to be unique. Those tips are helpful for weeding out the more off-the-wall ideas, but there are other criteria that are not mentioned as often that are just as important, and these are the traits that set the desk pad calendar apart as a promotional item. A truly effective promotional gift needs to stick around, it needs to act as a useful reference, and it needs to be singular enough not to get lost in the shuffle.
Take that first point: a worthwhile promotional gift needs to stick around. What does that mean? It tells you that your gift won't promote anything if your client loses it. That's the problem with one of the quintessential promotional items - the personalized pen. It's handy, it's needed for everyday business, but it's incredibly easy to lose. All it takes is for one customer or friend to need to sign something, and they accidentally walk off with your client's pen. Now someone has it who has no use for the service your business provides. Your promotional gift shouldn't be able to end up hiding in the couch cushions or in your client's child's crayon box. That's the beauty of a desk pad calendar – it's a useful item to have in the office, but once it's placed on your client's desk, it's not portable. It stays right where you need it to be: on the desk where your client makes his business decisions.
Promotional items are intended to keep your company in your client's thoughts, but a really effective gift will do more than act as a reminder. It should also serve as a reference for important facts about your company. That's why almost all promotional give-away items contain the company's telephone number, website, or other contact information. But a desk pad calendar has room for more than just your name and website. While the ever-present 
customized pen has tiny, cramped lettering that wraps around the pen, a desk pad calendar has wide margins on either side of the date grid, and above and below as well. This gives you plenty of space to include all your company's contact information, business hours, services and specialties, and other important information without looking crowded or out of place. The lettering is big enough to read easily, making it possible for your client to learn about services he didn't know you offered while he's waiting on hold on a business call.
The other thing that makes a desk pad calendar an excellent choice of promotional gift is that everybody only needs one. Your clients may have an entire drawer of customized pens, and a whole cabinet of coffee cups with corporate logos. But they only need one desk calendar, which will stare up at them from their work surface every day. Every time they need to scratch down a phone number or make a note of a meeting, they can do it on the calendar with your company name across the top, regardless of whose pen they're using to write down the note.
