If you’re selling chemicals, then you know how important it is to your business to have an efficient sampling process

In a recent survey of sample end-users, 95% of respondents reported that they “rarely or never” purchase chemicals without first testing a sample – efficiency, then, is clearly an imperative to the success your programs.

In-house sampling programs can be a drag on your bottom line – while working in-house might work for your business now, it may prove difficult to keep up with best practices in the long term, and inefficiencies tend to make themselves known the longer they go untended.

Impact on your Bottom Line

An in-house sampling programs costs your business more than it needs to, ultimately impacting your profits. Sample fulfillment is labor-intensive, with your total costs including additional benefits, insurance, and employer rates. Freight costs for international, HAZMAT, or air freight shipments can be incredibly costly, particularly if you don’t have an expert partner handling your logistics network. There are packaging costs for containers and packaging supplies, inventory management costs as you maintain your sampling stock, order entry costs, training costs for personnel handling dangerous substances, fines and penalties for improper packaging, labeling, or documentation, and much more.

Perhaps most importantly of all, when you run an inefficient, in-house chemical sample fulfillment operation, you’re incurring the costs of missed sales by having unsatisfactory turnaround times, and late or incorrect sample shipments. It doesn’t have to be this way.

Reduce your Costs

With the right partner, all the impediments to growth that an in-house, inefficient chemical sampling process incurs can be overcome. Excess labor and training costs will be reduced drastically, if not entirely. Using the larger volumes of shipped samples as leverage to negotiate friendlier pricing with carriers, freight costs for all manner of shipments will be reduced by as much as 50%. A partner will handle packaging, inventory management, order entry and more, eliminating the potential for fines and penalties, and making sure that through a sample fulfillment network, costs are reduced across the board. Most importantly, with a finely tuned, expertly managed and operated outsourced chemical sampling operation, there will be no more missed sales.

The Bottom Line

72% of sample end-users surveyed say samples have a “strong influence” on their purchases, and it’s imperative that these samples make the best possible first impression. Outsourcing your sampling needs delivers an enhanced customer experience while significantly reducing costs and time.

Interested in learning how to turn your samples into sales? Reach out to us today!

About Odyssey

Odyssey Logistics & Technology Corporation (Odyssey) is a global logistics solutions provider. Odyssey’s services include international transportation management, intermodal services, trucking services, and managed services and consulting. With operations in North America, Europe and Asia, Odyssey operates across all modes of transport with TL/LTL trucking, container ship, rail, air, and bulk transport including bulk truck, ISO Tank, railcar and tanker, as well as food-grade product lines.

The Odyssey Global Logistics Platform^SM features transportation management systems that supports the safe, reliable and efficient delivery of client products throughout the world. WIN^TM (Web Integrated Network) offers a scalable technology solution with an accelerated deployment and faster time to value.

Chemical Marketing Concepts is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Odyssey Logistics & Technology.  Whether products are shipped across state lines or across oceans, CMC takes advantage of the  power of a truly global operation to make sure that samples get where they need to be, when they need to be there.

To see Odyssey’s full suite of chemical logistics solutions, click here.