[powerpress]
There, I said it. Screw sampling. This has sparked one of three reactions for you. You are either completely offended, thinking “heck yeah, preach,” or just curious why I would say something like that.
I’ve been training network marketers for seven months now and while my gut has always told me sampling isn’t the answer, now I’m ready to make a stand.
Today I’m going to go over why sampling leads to less sales, a few stories of what happens when you lead with sampling instead of selling, why you don’t need to sample, and the one time where I do think sampling makes sense. And right after I totally mess with your head, I’ll give you an idea of what to do instead.
Why Sampling Lead to Less Sales
- It’s a “toe in the water” approach. You are telling the customer to try it out and then see. So your customer from the get-go is non-committal. It’s totally wimpy on your end, and encourages the same from your customer.
- Sampling only addresses one specific problem, and is not going to have the same life changing effect of the kit or package. Therefore, their results will be minimal. A sale for a kit after this requires a solid sales conversation, so why even bother with the extra step?
- Many people don’t use their samples. You just spent money, and now you have to follow-up until they use it. You feel uncomfortable bugging them about using it, and they aren’t thrilled with the stalking either. So you stop doing the business altogether, or give up on that customer.
- If they do love the sample and want to buy it, they are inclined to buy that one product. Tack on that enrollment fee and the value doesn’t outweigh the cost. Now you have a no sale.
Sampling is risky business. It’s expensive, and there are too many variables involved. There are just too many risks to it. And the ones that you are thinking right now that you sampled and bought? They would have bought anyway.
Story time.
I wanted meal replacement shakes because I hate eating lunch. I told my friend that. By my calculation she sent me $20 worth of samples and the shipping was $20. My order was $80, and I would have bought with or without the samples because I believed my friend and had a specific problem. The samples simply cost money and prolonged the sale. And a few of the samples are still in the drawer. Oops. I hope she isn’t listening to this.
My essential oils rep gave me samples for toothpaste and shampoo. Ok cool. We used them. And nothing. There wasn’t enough product to make a noticeable difference and they weren’t connected with my health goals so I had no motivation to move forward with ordering them.
But sampling is such a big deal and I wanted to test the approach. Everything I teach you is tested, either by me, or by one of my clients. So my brother said he doesn’t eat breakfast. I gave him a sample of a shake to eat for breakfast the next morning to make his life easier. I followed up. He didn’t use it. I followed up again, he still didn’t because he wanted to buy frozen fruit. Seriously? So then I started to build value, but the foundation of the sale was already shaky. “I’ll research the company and think about it” is what he said. Sampling. Never again.
You don’t need to sample. You need to learn about their goals, explain the products and kits in a way that helps them reach those goals, and let them buy. You need to do a sales conversation. Last week’s podcast is a recording of me doing a sales conversation, and that’s what I’m talking about. Go back there and listen before you try to do this on your own.
I don’t actively sell in network marketing, that takes time away from my coaching clients. But I sold to 6 out of the 7 people I met with, and guess how many were sampled? None.
This past week, one of my clients sold $150 kits to 6 out of the 8 people she met with. Guess how many were sampled? None. That’s because saying, “try this and then let’s follow-up” does not work effectively as a tried and true business process for retail products.
Your word, your credibility, and your ability to build value a greater gift to your potential customers than your samples. And your word, credibility and value doesn’t eat your profits.
Are samples ever effective? Yes, when they address a specific concern that can only solved by a sample. Let’s go over a few examples.
- You have a potential customer who is on board due to your sales conversation, but is concerned with the smell or taste. That is the only thing holding that person back, otherwise the kit will be purchased. Give a sample, overcome the objection, and process the order.
- Repeat customers will order with a powerful sampling strategy of auxiliary products. Strategy is the key here. Make sure they line up with a conversation and a connection to buy. Your previous customers are already used to pulling out their money to buy things, so there is less risk. And at this point they are already in with the basics. It has to line up with their health goals though. Or those samples won’t get used, or they will be used and then nothing.
- Just to help someone. There should be no expectation of business. If you sell essential oils and someone is at your house with a cold, give them something to help out of the goodness of your heart. If it helped them, schedule an appointment so you can serve them with a proper sales conversation.
So what do you do instead? When you hear a concern, listen, and tell them, “usually what I do is take some time to learn about your goals, and explain the products that makes sense. Then you can decide if you want to get some or not. My part takes about 30 minutes.” Schedule the appointment. Then do the appointment.
I have a couple of free resources for you. You can download a copy of an approach to schedule appointments that is usually housed in my online class by going to emergesalestraining.com/phone. You can watch the video and get the transcript for an example sales appointment at emergesalestraining.com/example.
Thanks for listening today. If this makes sense to you, I’m really glad and I hope it will truly help you. If you didn’t like this podcast, you think I’m nuts, and you think sampling works well for you, keep on doing it if you are reaching your income goals with your current strategy.
Talk to you next week.
Tasha