3 Reasons Why Handing Out Free Product Samples Usually Don’t Work

If you have been involved in a network marketing company for the past year or so, you’ve probably heard of a popular technique to get new customers called “samples.” It doesn’t sound like anything new, right? You see fast food restaurant employees at malls and grocery store cooks handing these out all the time and it seems like a legitimate way to get people to try your product. Then if they like it, they will want to buy more of it. Simple.

The main problem with following this trend in network marketing is that it costs the distributor money and time that should be spent on proven techniques that will really help them grow a business. A grocery store is given free products for the sole purpose of handing out samples to “customers”, and they’ve already got someone on the clock to distribute them. Please note they are handling out samples to “customers” of the store not going out in the street handing out samples. Got the picture. They’re already customers and that’s why it works.

If you are serious about growing a profitable home-based business, think twice before committing yourself to a sampling program. Here are the three reasons why.

1. Sampling Attracts The Wrong Prospects

What happens when you focus on giving someone a free gift through advertising? You wind up getting the type of people who are only looking for something they don’t have to pay for. These people are not serious about what you have to offer. They will try your product, then find an excuse not to buy it because they are already on to the next advertisement offering something for free. It’s possible you might get a few customers out of a hundred or so samples, but how is that going to seriously build your business and how much is going to cost you financially?

Your focus shouldn’t be on who you can dangle a free sample in front of in order to get business. You want people who have a want, need and desire for what you have to offer, regardless of how much it costs. If your company provides every customer with a money back guarantee, isn’t that really the same thing as a free sample? The difference is that you don’t need to put your money out first. If a prospect is serious enough, which is what you are looking for, they shouldn’t even want a free sample anyway. Save you samples for you “customers.”

2. Sampling Doesn’t Provide Enough Of A Supply

If you are in network marketing, I seriously doubt you are selling cheese and crackers like the sample pushers at the grocery store. Your product is of good quality, if not great, and you have a personal attachment to it. How did you first decided to use the product? What made you so excited about it that made you want to market it? I am guessing that you needed more than a sample supply to get your results, right?

Free samples simply do not offer a prospect enough of a supply to get a serious result. You are in business to fill the supply of your target audience. How can you do that if you are only giving a portion of it away? The best way for a prospect to get a good indication of the product benefits is to experience them for at least a month. If a person is only interested in instant gratification, chances are slim that they are willing to incorporate your products into their daily lives anyway.

3. Sampling Is Not Worth The Time, Money And Energy

My experience using a free sample program will provide you with a good example on why it doesn’t work. I bought sample packages of several products from my company, and set out to advertise this as a good way of just getting people to use them. I was told that all I needed to do was get the prospect to try it and the rest will work for itself. This proved to be very far from the truth.

After I added up all of my expenses over a six-month time period and gauged my activity, I was amazed to find a debt of about $500. My upline’s check increased because I was ordering a large volume of inventory for sampling purposes, so it worked out great for him and the company. I, on the other hand, only found hopeful prospects either ignoring my calls or simply telling me they weren’t interested in becoming a customer. I wouldn’t go as far as saying that I didn’t get any customers at all, but after six months of hard work, only one customer still remains actively purchasing products from me today.

As a result of keeping gauges and continuing to track my data, my expenses finally broke even after one complete year of quitting the sample program. My story is tame in comparison to the debt that is accrued by those who follow online business systems designed to “help” people grow a home-based business. Even so, it led me to start looking elsewhere for proper marketing education with a money-back guarantee. How could I seek anything less after spending a whole year spinning my wheels?

It is possible to succeed in network marketing, but you won’t find the answers by giving away free samples. Only offer samples of new or different products for your customers who have already purchased something from you. That is what will increase your business because they will appreciate it.

You will grow a more solid business by taking that money you invested in buying products to give you as samples and invest it in proper marketing education… and a willingness to think outside of the box.