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Unsolicited products

by Corina Crisan
7 replies
Hi. As part of our strategy to grow our network of distributors, we came up with the idea of sending them one of our products, as a gift, completely free of charge and no strings attached whatsoever. Our goal is to have them try the product, and decide if it is a match or not for their business. Have you tried this before? Have you some good advice about how to implement this?
#products #targeting distributors #unsolicited
  • Profile picture of the author DABK
    How do you choose who to send to?

    I mean, if you send 1000 and 900 become distributors is different than if you send 1000 and 12 become distributors. And, regardless of my made up numbers, how much is a distributor worth to you? how many gifts can you lose and still be profitable (short term and long term, lifetime value). Have these people raised their hands to say they're interested?

    What goes with the gift? I am assuming it's some kind of letter, but what the letter says is highly important.

    Can you partner up with someone/some other business?

    Originally Posted by Corina Crisan View Post

    Hi. As part of our strategy to grow our network of distributors, we came up with the idea of sending them one of our products, as a gift, completely free of charge and no strings attached whatsoever. Our goal is to have them try the product, and decide if it is a match or not for their business. Have you tried this before? Have you some good advice about how to implement this?
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    • Profile picture of the author Corina Crisan
      Hi thank you for the input. I am planning to run this as an experiment, with 15-20 distributors in the beginning to get a feel of how they respond to it. The letter will state that the product is a gift and they can use as they see fit, no obligations on their part whatsoever. If they are convinced by the product, then we can talk further.
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  • Profile picture of the author Woomeister
    I have done this successfully.

    I manufacture health and fitness related products. All are barcoded for easy transition into a retail environment, this is vital in some sectors.

    I sent out packs of free products to the main independent gyms in the areas of the country that I already had deemed the best. I did this based on 2 years of sales data.

    I sent the packs out with a very low key sales pitch letter, re order forms, copies of all our relevant product specifications and waited.

    The process cost me about 1000 in total, with packs of different sizes going to about 50 gyms in total.

    I acquired 6 large gyms as customers and many more smaller ones.

    The main reason this works, i believe, is the following.

    Imagine you owned a company/shop/restaurant and somebody sent you a pack of goodies that you could sell for 100 at no cost whatsoever, no strings attached. You then sell the products and get good feedback from your customers. So what do you do with the 100 pure profit? Well, what you should do is reinvest it in the products you just sold surely?. Some do and some don't, the ones that do become your new customers and it is then up to you to keep them.
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  • Profile picture of the author Woomeister
    The pound symbol wouldn't work in the above post so this is a test post which can be deleted.
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    • Profile picture of the author Corina Crisan
      Thank you for sharing your own experience. It offered me some insight about how they could perceive this action from our part.
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      • Profile picture of the author Woomeister
        Originally Posted by Corina Crisan View Post

        Thank you for sharing your own experience. It offered me some insight about how they could perceive this action from our part.
        No problem at all.

        The accompanying letter is vital in its tone. It needs to point out the potential of continued business with mutually assured benefits.

        I would be careful with using the term 'free gift' as this doesn't say 'business opportunity' it says freebie!!! This is a significant psychological difference.

        Free partnership opportunity - This is what our research showed worked best.

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  • Profile picture of the author Robert Bridgen
    Do a squeeze page in the market you are targeting build a list for future sales Robert
    Signature
    http://robertbridgen.com/reviews
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