I asked my LinkedIn audience If the Sales and Marketing functions were merged and run by Sales, What would be your main focus? Why?

As you can see, 68% of those surveyed said that increased lead generation and demand generation was a top priority. What this means is that people see Marketing as a vehicle to increase Sales and Revenue.

Free Trials

Previously, I have discussed the marketing strategy of free trials, discounted trials, and loss leaders.

Free Samples

Another great marketing strategy for brands to get prospects and current customers to try a new product or retry an existing one is to offer a free sample. This can be done by handing out the product sample during online, field, and tradeshow marketing.

Field & Trade Show Marketing

Samples can be in the form of a physical product, a link to an online offering, offering a discount to make a purchase. Recently, I attended the 9th Avenue International Food Festival in New York. I received sample food products. One of the vendors offered a food sample and a coupon to make a purchase.

At Tradeshows, brands can offer physical and digital products in exchange for customer information. This is an excellent tactic for lead generation. Most times brands scan the badge of customers to collect this information.

Online Marketing

Brands can also reach customers online to get them to request a free sample. The sample can come in the form of a download or a physical offering depending on the product type.

Brands can also offer branded merchandise as a way to be remembered by prospects and customers.

How have you used free samples to attract new customers, renew, upsell, and cross-sell existing customers?

Share your thoughts and join the conversation.

Additional places to find my content and blog

WordPress: https://dangalante.me/

Tumblr: http://www.askdangalante.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/today/author/DanGalante

Medium https://medium.com/@DanGalante

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/trendsettingsm

Anchor https://anchor.fm/dangalante

About Me

I’m a Strategic Marketer with Field Sales, Sales Enablement, Content Creation, and, Classroom Teacher/Trainer skill sets using Marketing to drive Sales/Growth.

As a Marketer, I’ve worked with Start-Ups, a Political Campaign, and a Digital Marketing Conference.

I’m certified in Inbound Marketing with classes in Marketing, Product Management, Product Marketing, SEO, and SEM.

Before teaching, I was an Outside Sales and Marketing Rep. selling and marketing dental products to Dentists using consultative selling, trade show marketing, field marketing, and market research.

I publish Sales, Marketing & Social Media Today; a blog that covers industry events and trends.

I’m seeking a full-time role in

Inbound Marketing, Digital Marketing, Content Marketing, Product Marketing, Competitive Intelligence, Demand Generation, Social Media Marketing,

Sales Enablement, Enablement, Sales, Account Management, Customer Success, Sales Strategy, Marketing Strategy, Employer Branding, and Recruitment Marketing.

Open on the title, industry, company, location, and level. Reach out on LinkedIn or at dan@dangalante.com to start a conversation.

Using Technology, Data & AI to Improve Traffic Safety: Insights from The 2025 World Traffic Safety Symposium 

I covered the World Traffic Safety Symposium at the New York International Auto Show this past April. The symposium focused on using data and AI to reduce pedestrian fatalities and to make roads and cars safer.

Mark Scheinberg, President of the Greater New York Automotive Dealers Association and the New York International Auto Show, opened the symposium. 

Guest Speakers included:

Mark F. Schroeder, Commissioner, NYS DMV, Governor’s Representative for Highway Safety, Richard Martinez, Former NHTSA Administrator and current Adjunct Professor of Emergency Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine, Garret Eucalitto Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Transportation, Eric Teoh Director of Statistical Services Insurance Institute for Highway Safety IIHS , Tara Andringa, Executive Director at PAVE , Jon Baldwin, EVP of Government Solutions a Verra Mobility, Jonathan Miller, VP Enterprise Growth at Nexar Inc., and Zach Rash, Co-Founder and CEO of COCO, and many others.

Mark shared his commitment to road safety in New York State. He described the various task forces working to make roads safer for drivers and pedestrians. I was shocked to learn about the 20 percent pedestrian death rate on roads. 

Richard Martinez, Former NHTSA Administrator and current Adjunct Professor of Emergency Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine, shared some interesting findings about enhancing vehicle and road safety through data and AI. 

He shared that unintentional motor vehicle traffic accidents are one of the leading causes of death in the United States. For example, in 5 to 14-year-olds and 15 to 24-year-olds, it is the leading cause of death. In 1 to 4 year olds, 25 to 34 year olds, 35 to 44 year olds, 45 to 54 year olds, 55 to 64, and 65+, it is the second leading cause of death, with all ages ranking third in under one year of age. Overall, unintentional traffic accidents rank as the third leading cause of death across all groups. 

This data suggests that motor vehicle accidents are a serious issue. I was shocked to see how motor vehicle crashes are. 

Richard shared a way to improve road safety, achieving a vision zero through a safe system approach. Safe system elements include safer people, safe roads, safer vehicles, safer speeds, and enhanced survivability post-crash care. The creation of a safe environment for first responders to prevent secondary crashes through robust traffic incident management practices.

The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine presented critical findings in their report Tackling the Road Safety Crisis.

Critical Findings

Challenges

Opportunities

The goal is to go from Reactive to proactive to Predictive to reduce crashes.

The Connecticut DOT commissioner shared the challenges in AI. 

Eric Teoh, Director of Statistical Services Insurance Institute for Highway Safety IIHS shared that motor vehicle crashes are down over the past 50 years, but motor vehicle crash fatalities are up 30 percent. 

The goal is to go from Reactive to proactive to Predictive to reduce crashes.

Tara Andringa, Executive Director at PAVE, shared some interesting research about whether people would ride in an autonomous vehicle. Taxi and/or ride share, 48 % said that they would not. However, the poll found that 60 percent said that they would trust AVs if they understood the technology. 58 percent said that they would have greater trust in AVs if they could take a ride. PAVE educates the public showing demystifying technology and highlighting different ways AVs might be used. 

In a panel discussion on the safety of Urban Mobility Safety Technology,

Jon Baldwin, EVP of Government Solutions a Verra Mobility, Jonathan Miller, VP Enterprise Growth at Nexar Inc., and Zach Rash, Co-Founder and CEO of COCO, shared how their companies’ offerings use Technology, AI, and Data to make urban mobility safer. Verra Mobility offers Automated Enforcement. Nexar offers Smart Dash Cameras that can be used in multiple applications and a robust Data platform, COCO offers autonomous delivery vehicles with mapping technology. They provided Cookies in one of their autonomous delivery vehicles, demonstrating the technology. 

The 2025 World Traffic Safety Symposium highlighted issues, insights, and solutions to improve traffic safety. 

I learned a great deal.

Thank you to the New York International Auto Show and the Greater New York Automobile Association for allowing me to cover this event.

Key Ideas from WOBI 2024 In New York

I covered the World Business Forum in New York this past week. World Business Forum or WOBI for short is a global conference that shares the leading trends in Business. WOBI brings industry thought leaders together to share insights on business topics such as Creativity, Marketing, Innovation, being creative, Leadership, Management, and more. 

My favorite talks were from Gary Hamel, Angela Ahrendts DBE, and Jon McNeill.

Gary Hamel shared an idea called Humanocracy which is the title of his latest book. Gary shows that employees and not just executives should lead at all levels to get things done and improve outcomes. Gary states that AI will not solve organizations’ productivity issues instead he says that productivity issues need to be solved by people which is a different opinion.

Angela Ahrendts DBE shared her insights from leading at Apple and Burberry. One point that stood out is that Angela said that Profit and Loss (P & L) statements do not tell the whole story, instead, she said that leaders need to examine the People and Impact (P& I) along with the (P& L) when examining the performance of the organization and its employees. 

Jon McNeill was the former head of innovation at Tesla. He shared how he used innovation when he was tasked with increasing Tesla’s Digital Sales 20X and the steps he took to reduce customer friction in Tesla’s Online Buying Journey; reducing it from 63 clicks down to 10 clicks to achieve his 20X Digital Sales Goal. 

I enjoyed the lunch and learn by Texas Tech where Gary shared even more insights on how his management and innovation ideas improved healthcare outcomes for patients at a healthcare system.

Attendees did more than just go to talks, attendees had a chance to network, connect with event sponsors, meet the speakers, and get their purchased books signed by speakers at the Barnes & Noble station right after their talk.

Additional pictures can be found on Instagram.

I learned so much at WOBI.

WOBI, thank you for having me as your guest.

If you want to learn more about the latest business trends from industry thought leaders, attend WOBI.