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I am getting tons of sample requests from the people that I am trying to sell to.
I am getting tons of sample requests from the people that I am trying to sell to. However, I don't offer a samples. Just because my product is a USD 12.97 per 300ml and I don't have enough budget to create a sachet samples type. If I give samples for free, I am loosing a lot of money. So do you guys charge samples or give it for free? please help.
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I would advise against charging for samples. Either don't give them out at all, increase the price of the product to make up for it or give it away for free and hope that by giving a small sample away, that will translate into more customers later You can kind of look at it as a return on your investment.
You mention milliliters and sachet samples. I take it the product is either perfume, lotion or shampoo/conditioner?
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I'm currently selling cosmetics myself, and I'm offering it to friends and family at a heavily discounted, 'promotional' price, and they seem very happy with the arrangement. I've been able to build up some positive buzz within my circles, so my friends are selling other friends on the product.
However, if I weren't selling to people who already know and trust me, I'd probably need to give them free samples. You want to remove as many hurdles to your customer as possible. Maybe, you might need to start marketing to wholesalers, so that your initial investment in free samples, could bring you great returns?
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If it's something your competitors do then you put yourself at risk by not offering samples. A sample request is a question of trust. Your prospects are asking if they can trust the quality of your product and service. If you can't prove that trust before asking for payment but your competitors can you'll typically be last choice for those who get samples from competitors.
If you're speaking directly to customers (i.e. face to face or phone, not email or text) you have the opportunity to handle it as an objection, in which you understand what they're looking for and assure them with words that you can deliver (i.e. build the trust not with a sample but by explaining your experience, manufacturing process, etc.)
If you're running marketing campaigns, are you building trust in those campaigns? Maybe look at including some real world "success" stories or customer feedback, links to reviews, etc.
If your business is large enough you could also discuss that as a way to say "hey - we're reliable and X amount of customers trust us."
How competitive is your market?
If you're in a highly competitive market then your marketing needs to be able to win trust fast and get your name out there. Free samples can be a big opportunity, but there's often little immediate or visible ROI.
Are your products sold individually or in bulk? Or a combination of both?
If you sell in bulk then samples are generally required for anyone to make a large order. However, if you're only selling them individually your price is (presumably) reasonable and you should look back towards why the trust is not there.
Do you generate most of your revenue from new customers or from repeat business?
If you generate most of your revenue from new customers then offering samples doesn't sound like it'll ever be profitable. But if you understand what your average customer value is (i.e. how many purchases will a customer make over the course of a year? And how much revenue does that get you?) you may be able to justify offering samples.
If you understand the cost of samples and what your average customer value would need to be (even if it's not there now) you can also look at strategies to increase that value to justify samples to increase new customers in future.
Things to look at would be
My advice at this stage would be to do the following: