It has been asked many times and whilst the answer is no, there are a lot of reasons and thoughtful considerations put behind this decision. We are confident it is the right one too.

A Bit of History

It isn’t always the case, we used to offer ready-made sample boards free of charge a few years back. We followed this marketing method for around two years and found it was very ineffective. So, what went wrong? Well, our team of business development managers gave us feedback that most of the sample boards/stands are not performing for a variety of reasons. The main ones are:

1. The customer’s main business isn’t wood flooring and the display board was just tugged in the shop’s corner gathering dust.
2. The customer’s main business is wood flooring but our standard-size sample board looks… well, a bit too “standard” and not very eye-catching or appealing.
3. The customer didn’t even display our samples, because they got them for free anyway – hence lack any motivation to show the board to their customers.

So, a meeting was held to discuss why we were not hitting what we wanted to achieve, and we found the following:

1. It’s rather difficult to filter to the right audience while you offer a free sample. Every shop that does floor covering will say yes. The trouble is, they don’t take the effort to familiarise themselves with our product or are just not familiar with wood flooring full stop.
2. Being a premium product in its nature, most wood flooring shops would have a unique way to display it and a readymade display board makes it look quite shabby.
3. Sample boards are a considerable cost to us, and while giving them away for “free” has its attraction, this makes its perceived value close to zero to some customers and led them to be treated as disposables.

Of course, samples are not free. They are factored as part of our UK operational cost and this is considered in our selling price. It isn’t just about money, but why waste resources when we could provide our customers with better pricing? So the ‘free sample’ campaign was very unsuccessful and unappealing. Just like our UK motor insurance; a portion of it is to pay for people who claimed despite you never having a claim in your driving history. We got used to it for insurance but that doesn’t mean we have to abide by it in our business.

So, we decided to come up with a new plan for our sample arrangements.

The Change

We have come up with two alternative sample arrangements and taking our position in the market into account, standard sample boards are not the preferred options for most of our clients if not all of our clients. Since bespoke sample boards are favoured in the market, our sample arrangement now has two simple options: Subsidised or Rebate.

Subsidised – Our Subsidised options are offered to our Gold, Prestige, Foundation & Signature tier customers. On top of your agreed MSRP discount term, you will get a subsidy of a further 40% off.

Rebate – Our Rebate options are offered to our Foundation & Signature tier customers. All sample packs are sold at the normal rate and invoice from the rebate account. 5% of the monthly sales value will be rebated as credit for spending in the following month until the sample spent has fully rebated as credit.

The Final Verdict

We still get challenges from our prospective clients that our competitor offers free samples and so should we. Our products are professional products that required in-depth knowledge to be able to provide professional advice to their clients and certainly, not for start-ups. We provided enough headroom for the margin therefore reputable businesses would invest in our products to generate revenue and would see the real benefit of a premium product being offered at a competitive rate rather than being mesmerised by the smoke screen of a “free” sample stand. We also wanted to screen our prospects to see if they have the confidence, experience, knowledge and commitment to our products, after all, our reputation is also at stake. Having our product for sale is an investment, if lack confidence in our products or have the attitude of “having a go” since it doesn’t cost me anything, then our business model is not best suited. If you think our products would be loved by your customers, then we are also willing to work with you and jointly invest with a heavily subsidised sample pack agreement.