Sampling packaging: what to send, what to charge and when to follow up

A buyer asks for "some samples". A box goes out with whatever was on the shelf: a pouch from one job, a label from another, a carton with another brand's print. The buyer cannot tell what any piece is for, and the follow-up call gets "still checking". Send a set chosen for this buyer, numbered, with a line on what each piece is and where it is used. Decide in advance which samples are free and which are charged. Then follow up on the buyer's tests, not on your own calendar.

Not every sample costs you the same

Decide this once, write it down, and give every buyer the same answer. A qualified enquiry, in the table below, is one with a product, a size, a quantity and a named person who will test the sample.

The general case, with a written sample note that ties the tests to a first order, is in our note on handling a sample request without giving away your margin.

The note that travels in the box

Number every piece with a sticker and keep an identical set at your end. When the buyer rings about "the white one with the shine", you will know which it is. Then write a cover note for this buyer, not a brochure. Here is one a label printer might send:

These samples are for your 500 ml and 1 litre car shampoo bottles. Every piece is numbered, and we hold an identical set.

1. Paper label, gloss varnish. Used on dry products such as boxed accessories. Shows our print quality, but it is not right for bottles handled wet.

2. White film label with a stronger adhesive. Used on squeezable HDPE bottles. This is the option we recommend for your range.

3. A roll of sample 2, wound for your applicator. For your machine trial, charged at material cost and adjusted against the first order.

To order: the minimum quantity per design, and what changes the price, are on the attached sheet.

A note like this does two jobs. It tells the tester what to look at, and it tells purchase what each piece would cost to buy.

Follow up on the buyer's tests

Samples die on a desk. Tie each follow-up to something the buyer is doing, not to a number of days.

1. When the courier shows delivered, message the person who asked, not the reception, and ask who will test which piece.
2. Ask when the line trial or the marketing review is planned. Put that date in your diary with the buyer's name beside it.
3. On the day after that date, ring rather than message. Ask what happened on the line: did it run, did it seal, did it stick, how did the print look.
4. If quality says yes and purchase goes quiet, a different follow-up starts; our note on sample approved, no order covers it.
5. Nobody can name a test date? Then the sample is sitting unopened. Ask whether the project is live and when it will be decided, note the answer, and stop chasing until then.

See lead response and follow-up for the related service.

Imagine a label printer in Kundli

Imagine a self-adhesive label printer in Kundli, Sonipat, approached by a Delhi car-care brand that sells shampoo and polish in HDPE bottles. The details are illustrative. The owner sent a thick envelope of labels from past jobs, mostly paper, and one printed roll, all free. Marketing liked the print. Then the line trial failed. The roll was wound the wrong way for the brand's applicator and sat on the wrong core. The paper labels wrinkled on the squeezed bottle and lifted when wet.

The owner then asked the questions that had been skipped: the applicator's make, the unwind direction, the core size, the largest roll it takes, and a few empty bottles. He sent a numbered set with the note above, and a roll of film labels wound for that applicator, charged at material cost against the first order. The follow-up call was booked for the morning after the brand's next line trial. The roll ran, and the brand asked for a press sample, with plates quoted separately. The failed trial had cost the printer a rewound roll at its own expense and an awkward call.

When to send nothing but the range kit

If the enquiry has no product, no size and no quantity, send the range kit and ask for those three. A buyer collecting samples from many converters to brief a designer gets the kit too, and anything custom is charged.

And if the order is too small to repay a custom sample at all, say so plainly and point the buyer to your stock range.

Write the sample table for your own range

Write the sample table for your own products, with your free and charged lines, and pin it where the sales desk can see it. The wider picture for converters is on the packaging manufacturing sales and marketing page. If you want help setting up sampling and follow-up for your plant, tell us what you need.