Giving it away at what cost?

We all love something for nothing. We like to be able to try before we buy, to taste a sample, to use the product, to try the service without parting with a penny. The free offer is a tried and tested method of growing a business or increasing the profile of a product. 

It is not necessarily a simple promotion to get right though...

Giving something away will of course get people interested, the key is to ensure that the people interested are fully engaged and understand what you are trying to achieve.  I always think a free item should be just that - free. The old school tricks of "give us your credit card details now and just cancel if you don't like us" do not deliver customer confidence and can be one of the biggest turn-off's. 

I often see some examples of give-away's that leave me feeling exasperated at the lack of planning and consideration applied. A great example of this is a product I sampled recently at a local event. This product was available to taste for free. It was simply delicious and so original that I instantly purchased some. Within a month the bottle is empty and I really want some more. Can I purchase it in the town where I sampled it? No - I have to order it online with delivery costs that are higher than the product itself. What a disaster for this business - all this effort and investment to develop such an impressive product (with great branding too) and then to engage a local audience so well with your product but fail to ensure there is a local outlet willing to take advantage of the obvious sales that will ensue for such a brilliant new product.

This is a classic example of a business that has a great product, a great brand, a clear commitment to expanding the profile of the product but has not completed the sales cycle before pushing the product into the outside world. If this business had a strategy planned through from the initial brand to how the customer can access the product then I know with a product of this quality they would have seen far greater sales performance.

Sales advice and planning is so important and yet people do not give it the attention it deserves. SalesFriend really can help businesses like this, we do not charge the huge fee's of management consultants and in some instances we won't charge you at all while you are growing your business and funds are precious. The longer we work with you the more of an impact we can make and if we need to forget fee's in the early days we will!

We have many clients who simply use our telephone package that means we are always at the end of a phone to listen to your ideas and help you plan and make sure you have covered all the required steps to make your give-away a commercial success. We think for as little as £49 per month businesses would be crazy not to use our skills and benefit from our experience.