If your product is applied to the outside of the skin or taken internally, you should consider packaging your product in sample sizes, so that prospective customers and representatives can experience your product without having to purchase a full-size container of it.
Why Offer Samples?
The purpose of offering a sample is to increase the likelihood of a full product size purchase. This is important.
A product sample should be provided only when a high percentage of people trying it will experience the product benefits quickly, preferably immediately or within a few hours, or at most within a few days of sampling it.
Should Samples Be Sold At Company Cost?
I recommend that companies never plan to sell anything at or below the landed cost of the item. Companies are in business to make money, so plan to make money on everything you sell.
The only time when a company should sell an item at or below its cost is when the company decides to discontinue the item due to a lack of demand.
How To Price Samples
Samples should always be priced at a higher cost per dose than the full-size product. Your representatives will decide whether to sell samples or to give them away to prospective customers.
Should You Pay Commissions On Samples?
Good question. My answer is “yes.”
As a compensation plan expert, I advise my clients to pay compensation upon all products sold because whenever you don’t, you will discourage the sales of the non-commissionable products. The only exception to this advice is your required starter kit.
If an independent representative earns money when downline representatives buy or sell product A but not product B, the sales of product B will suffer. If product B is a sample-size product that you, the company, want your representatives to buy, the last thing you want to do is discourage the sale of it.
For a refresher on compensation plan behaviors, read 12 Key Behaviors For Good Compensation Plans.
Jay Leisner, the President of Sylvina Consulting, is a top compensation plan and direct selling expert, a trusted adviser to new and established network marketing and party plan companies. For more than 30 years, Jay has enjoyed assessing and improving network marketing, party plan and referral marketing companies across the globe.
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