If you are a business person then you surely know how important it is to build trust with your suppliers and clients. You try your best to do the market research and evaluate every bit of aspect that can affect your business.
But the final product or service you are going to provide will eventually decide the fate of your business and surely you don’t want things to go down and for that matter, you inspect everything beforehand like doing market research and attending trade shows.
The same goes for the products that you receive from suppliers; you can’t just make the deal and ask for your order instead you ask for a product sample. A product sample is the best way to evaluate your suppliers and the product.
Now if you are wondering why product samples are important for any business then we are going to answer that question for you in this article.
Why Are Sample Products Important for Any Business?
Let’s say you are trading with China, did the required market research, and hired a China product sourcing agent. Now that agent will help you with making contact with potential suppliers and will give you the required information.
But just trust what the agent says, see it with your own eyes, indulge yourself in it, and ask for all the required documents and a product sample from the suppliers.
Product samples are important to any business because:
1. Product Quality
Imagine ordering tons of goods from suppliers without asking for the product sample and it turns out to be of poor quality, now you are left with tons of waste without having done any business.
Nobody wants that to happen to them and that’s where the product sample helps you. You get to check the quality of the product that you are finally going to receive. Is it up to your business standards? If the market will accept this kind of quality?
And if the sample quality isn’t up to the mark, then you can question your supplier or can ask them to make amends but even for the upgraded quality version of the product ask for the sample first.
To be on the safer side, don’t just stick to one supplier, ask 3-4 suppliers for a sample product and then decide which one will be best for your business.
2. Product Design
After quality comes the product design. The shape, size, design, and measurements are crucial when it comes to evaluating the product.
What if you got a sample of good quality but its size is too small for you to use in your business or the design isn’t appropriate? To avoid such things, you should ask for a product sample.
You should send the measurement and design chart to your suppliers so that they have an idea of what you exactly want. This eventually will help you with reducing the last-minute hassle.
3. Allocating the Resources
The product sample will give you a vague idea of allocating all the resources. Once you are satisfied with the product sample and ask for your final order then comes the real work.
To make it easier and avoid any inconvenience, you arrange all the resources now that you got the idea for your product.
You’ll get the idea of the shipment process for your order like whether air shipping, sea shipping, or express courier. The sample product will give you an idea of the size of the warehouse and what kind of condition the product will require for storage.
Likely you get the idea of the machinery or any other resource that will be required when it comes to the product.
4. Feedback
Another benefit you get from the sample product is the feedback from your customers. You can ask the supplier for the sample product in a good amount and then distribute them amongst your potential clients or existing clients and get feedback from them.
This is the best way to know if you are going the right way or not. Ask customers for their honest reviews and you can make changes to the product accordingly.
5. Price
Sample products also help you with the money part. You get to examine the sample product and decide whether the supplier is asking for reasonable prices or not. Compare the quality and cost of the product of different suppliers and then finally stick to one.
However, you’ll get charged for the sample product too but make sure that the sample product charges shouldn’t be much expensive and if that’s the case then you really need to think about considering that supplier. In the name of the sample, products don’t get fooled by the suppliers especially if you are a newbie.
6. Trust
The sample product helps you in deciding whether the supplier is trustable or not. If the sample product turns out to be exactly how you wanted it then it helps you to build healthy business relations with the supplier.
This will give you an opportunity to check the liability of your supplier and if the supplier is worth doing the business with.
Conclusion
Meeting the suppliers, examining their work, and finally cracking the right deal gets exhausting but it is the best way to do things as it helps you in avoiding many risks in the business.
Handling a business and going through all the tasks can get daunting for anyone but a good sense of decision making and trusting your intuitions can help you in the long run.
