Let’s start by thanking you for having confidence in buying my guide. What you are about to discover in this guide is actually no secret in the business community, and soon you will be thanking yourself too for buying this guide. I really mean it because once you have read this guide; you will be convinced and will treasure this information.
Let’s remind you of something to start this wonderful guide off with. Remember those free samples of shampoo, soap or even cat food that sometimes we get through the door? Those samples are worth nothing but the idea behind them is the same as what I am about to explain to you.
Companies (manufacturers/suppliers) are busy marketing hard; they want you to buy their products. In order to persuade you to buy their products, they give you a free sample! I know this may sound ludicrous and you must be thinking, “Huh! Free sample of shampoo is one thing, but to get hold of a £400-worth FREE mobile phone is just impossible!” It’s not impossible! There are so many companies and suppliers using this sales practise. I highly recommend you carry on reading this guide because it CAN be done! You just need to do what is shown to you below. Read on, my friend…
If you’re either a distributor, wholesaler, retailer or basically interested in selling a supplier’s or a company’s specific product, you will discover that they are usually very keen to send you one or two free samples beforehand.
All it usually takes is a request for price, quantity and a sample or two and the companies are more than willing to comply – it’s that easy! (I’ll explain that in detail below) Hey guess what? Once you have contacted a company regarding a product, it’s not uncommon for them to automatically ship you a similar or related new samples in future.
Anyway, onwards we go! A phone costing you £400.00 may only cost a manufacturer £50 to produce or the supplier £100.00 to acquire, if not less. However, these companies think they stand a good chance of gaining more out of you, so they take a gamble and send you a free sample in no time, usually by UPS 48-Hr delivery, and most of the time they cover the delivery costs – not you.
So, are you interested? What do you mean you have wasted your money on my information and you are giving up already? Come on, you know you want to find out how you can get your very own free goodies!
Right! Let’s get started – it’s easy! First thing you must have is a mailing address like your home address or wherever you live. This is needed because the parcels would most likely need a signature upon delivery.
Secondly, you need a good email address. I know you have one already since you received this file off me, however, I suggest you set-up another email account for ‘business’ use. Your new email address that you’ll be setting up soon must look professional, e.g. “th3dud3@hotmail.com” just won’t look good and the companies will probably ignore you. What you need is a good email address, one that won’t get you ignored, e.g. if your name is Peter Piper, then an email address like peterp@executives.com would be ideal to have.
Below is some of the ideal email hosting services that I know of. Don’t use the common services like Hotmail or Yahoo considering the usernames that you can think of is taken and they are well known for spam.
www.mail.com - free
http://www.econofinance.com/free_email.html - free www.xrs.net - free
www.techemail.com - free
www.joinme.com - free
Next thing I would suggest is you open a free account with UPS, FedEx or DHL courier. You will get issued an account number. This number will come handy on the off chance that a company wants you to pay for the delivery costs – can’t be bad for something you’re getting for free!
Anyway, if you’re not familiar with this method, imagine it as your credit/debit card for delivery. You can include this account number with your emails to companies. If they want you to pay for the delivery, they can simply enter your shipping account number on the international airway bill for the parcel. Then the delivery costs will be billed on your credit/debit card on your shipping account. Bare in mind that you don’t want these parcels to be shipped overnight or by any other expensive means! I mean you wouldn’t want to be billed for an arm and a leg if you’re getting a widescreen television sent overnight by UPS from Taiwan!
The best thing to do is check with your courier/shipping company that your account is with by phoning them. Speak with customer services and find out which international shipping method would be the cheapest. DHL is one I know of being the cheapest since they offer slower delivery than FedEx courier.
Make sure you know the name of the type of shipping you want, e.g. International Economy Rate. Mention this in your email to the manufacturer/supplier that you want this type of shipping method. Bare in mind, the paying for shipping is not necessary to receive free products. The cost of the sample is usually not a problem for the manufacturer or supplier; the problem for them is the delivery/shipping costs.
For phones, laptops etc and many other great products, try the following sites:
http://www.ebigchina.com/main.phtml
When you’re on the site and you’re looking at a company of your choice, you’ll need to scroll down the page to the contact details. Here you should be seeing their contact details. OK, now you did set up an email account with one of the above email services, haven’t you? Good! This is where it will come handy, you can email from your new account so that you don’t have to fill in any information that could take a while and is meaningless.
By now you must’ve had a look at some products so it is time to make a request for free samples! OK, since you’re just starting out, you’re advised to begin with products – from any category – that have a consumer retail value of $20 or less. Reason being is because you need to gain a little bit of experience on how to request and receive samples. Having received a few samples and learnt from the procedure, you’ll be ready to request more expensive items such as Mobile Phones, DVD players, Widescreen TVs and etc, etc. Bare in mind this: you won’t get these costly items straight away!
It is highly recommended that you have a company or know somebody who is in the business of bulk buying already and has orders in for bulk purchase, then you have an easy chance to receive these free samples. Companies are usually very helpful and are prepared to give you many options to go forward with your requests – just be patient while you do this.
Now that you are ready to get busy, let’s begin. On the main page of the website, click on “Product Search”. From here you can either search or browse products. Sit back, relax and take your time to look around at products that interest you. Please don’t rush it by requesting any samples yet!
You have several ways to make contact with companies to receive your samples. Once you’re on the page of a specific product of interest, you can click on the company’s name which will take you to a page that will have their contact information, including at lease one or two email addresses. You could then email them from your email account you made earlier for this guide.
There is another way to make contact with them, by clicking on “Request a Sample” just under the picture of the product you may be viewing, or above the picture where it says “Inquire Now”; these links will allow you to contact the companies through this website instead of emailing them directly from your email account.
When contacting these companies, you have to approach them in a professional manner. Introduce yourself and mention that you are interested in their product(s) and you would like them to send you more information regarding the product(s) as well as a sample unit for inspection. Be sure to include your mailing address.
Here I have enclosed an example picture of an actual sample correspondence. The censored text is due to company policy. What you write in your letter is entirely up to you, it doesn’t have to be long; maybe a paragraph or two will do.
I do not advocate nor support you writing any type of fictional information in your correspondences. Include your FedEx, DHL or UPS courier account number as well as your preferred delivery method, if you have created an account. Some companies may require you to provide them your courier/shipping account number so it is good idea to include it, but it isn’t essential.
You must bare it in mind all along that you have to, no matter how long it will take: stay calm and patient. Mark my words, you will have to send emails back and forth a couple of times after your initial request, this is good because the companies do reply and tell you exactly where you stand. Patience is the key here if you are to succeed.
In Britain and United States, we do everything punctually. Our attitude is “Let’s get it done quickly - no time wasting!” and we stick to a strict schedule. On the other hand, in some parts of the world, including Asia, it’s not like this. You might not receive a reply to your email for a week, two weeks or even up till three weeks later. This doesn’t mean they’re ignoring you. That is how they conduct business there and they reply just as slowly to large corporations too.
Below are two pictures of actual invoices (notice they have no charges listed?)…
OK, when you do receive your free samples, they will usually be delivered as a “commercial sample – no value” so you do not pay any duty/customs tariffs on them. This is a very good thing as tariffs can sometimes be almost 40% of the product’s value!
Remember, RESPECT and CONFIDENCE plays a great role in helping you to successfully get what you want. Make the companies think they are going to make money off you and you will see the rewards in return.
WARNING: anybody pretending to be a company and is asking you to send money to them by Western Union because they have to pay for “expedition” taxes or for blah, blah, blah at their end before they can send you the sample(s): avoid them! They are most likely to be scammers who will walk away with your money after promising to send you a free sample and handing you a fake UPS tracking number. These scammers are most likely to be East Europeans, e.g. Romanians, or even from Spain. A few of them pretend to be based in US but when it comes to sending them the money, it turns out they want you to send the money to another country, e.g. Romania! So be cautious when making contact with anyone.
So there you have it, you now know how to get free sample products!Here’s a brief rundown of tips and tricks to bare it in mind:
1) Be patient, calm and approach in a professional manner.
2) Start out by requesting for low value items, i.e. $20 or below. This will give you the experience you need for future. It is vital that you follow this step.
3) Get in touch with companies that do not have any of their products pictured. Click on the “View More Suppliers” when you have come to the last page of the pictured products in a category. Contact them by email and have them forward you their product brochures first.
4) Paying for delivery costs will definitely give you a greater success rate.
5) Bare in mind there is no limit to how many different companies you can request samples from. The more you contact the more free samples you will receive.
6) Having gained your experience, you could start contacting companies by locating them with search engines such as Google.com or Yahoo.com.
7) In some cases, you may want a free sample of a product that you must have. In this case you could always purchase one or more at true wholesale price.
8) Start getting lots of free bits and pieces to begin with. This will help you gain experience. Some of my favourites are:
a. Premium pens and stylish desktop clocks
b. Health and exercise supplies (electronic ab belts, etc)
c. Golf/Football or any sporting accessories
d. Novelties
e. Things for your house, e.g. extension cords, smoke alarms or even door knobs
9) If you receive a product and you don’t like it or have too many of, sell it!
10) I must stress it again: stay calm, don’t rush things and act professional.
Please make sure that you use this information within the law. It can be used entirely legally or quite illegally. Be honest! Make sure you follow this document exactly. In addition, do not be naïve and think that people are not scammers; I have encountered a couple myself and if they have poor grammar or just talk about getting payment then do not bother. Even if it sounds like a great offer, you will lose more than you gain when you send off payment and get nothing in return!
A good tip is to scan your handwritten signature and put it at the end of your emails to produce emails that are more professional.