As the weak chemicals outlook drags on through 2026, manufacturers are scrutinising where deals are slipping … and one operational gap is getting harder to ignore. Sample fulfilment is where ground can be won or lost in three key areas, says Will Schweda, Odyssey Logistics.
Few in the chemicals industry expected the downturn to last this long.
Across much of the sector, what was once treated as a cyclical dip is increasingly being managed as a longer-term condition. Overcapacity persists, many end markets remain subdued, and most forecasts point to an uneven, gradual recovery. Producers have responded decisively, rationalising portfolios and streamlining costs.
The bigger opportunity now sits on the other side of ledger: how business is won while the market stays soft. With fewer active opportunities and more suppliers competing for each one, buyers hold the leverage, and when several products in front of them appear capable of meeting the technical requirements, the evaluation stage decides the deal.
And evaluation starts with a sample. Across the supply chain, I see manufacturers losing ground at precisely this step, because sample fulfilment is too often managed as a secondary operational task rather than a critical part of the sales process.
The ground is won or lost in three places: speed to sample creation, quality, and data — who received the sample, and when.
Speed as the deciding factor
When a prospect requests a sample, fulfilment can still take several days or, in more complex cases, weeks.
The people preparing samples frequently have other responsibilities competing for their attention, while each request brings its own demands. That may include small-run packaging, product-specific paperwork, quality checks or an urgent deadline the process was never built for.
The most competitive manufacturers have moved sampling out of the overflow pile and into a dedicated programme, one with its own process, ownership and service standards.
Where that discipline exists, samples move in a day or two rather than sitting in a queue for days or weeks. In a soft market, that difference compounds.
Buyers may begin testing as samples arrive rather than waiting for every candidate, and in most cases the first sample to arrive is the first one tested. Arriving late can mean the prospect is already working with a competitor’s material.
There is a second cost, less visible but just as consequential. The sample is often the first time a prospect experiences a supplier’s operations first-hand. A request that takes weeks to fulfill doubles as the answer to an important question: what will this company be like to work with?
Where samples get stuck
Speed is only half the equation, because a sample that moves quickly with the wrong paperwork doesn’t move at all.
Many chemical samples are subject to dangerous goods regulations, depending on the material, quantity, destination and mode of transport. Yet they are prepared by teams whose expertise lies elsewhere.
On cross-border shipments, that vulnerability is especially visible. Classification, documentation, and labelling requirements can vary significantly, and small errors can quickly compound. A misclassified substance, incomplete declaration, or label that doesn’t meet the destination market’s requirements can be enough to hold a shipment at a border or see it rejected outright.
Here, too, a dedicated programme can make a meaningful difference.
When sample teams work with dangerous goods requirements every day, classification, documentation and labelling become routine for each order. That consistency reduces the risk and costs of border holds and outright rejections.
This expertise does for the border what the process does for the warehouse: it keeps the sample moving.
Losing sight of the sample
There’s another sampling gap that can be harder to spot than speed or compliance: visibility.
Because sample fulfilment often happens at a distance from where deals are managed, the commercial team may have little insight into where it is, or when it will arrive without chasing someone for an update.
The risks run in two directions. In the short term, follow-up suffers: a salesperson who doesn’t know a sample has landed can’t time the next conversation around it. In the long term, chemical manufacturers lose valuable information that can inform future actions or pipeline reviews.
A well-designed fulfilment programme can make this gap avoidable. Among their core capabilities is real-time tracking, giving sales teams a live view of fulfilment status, shipping timelines and sample inventory. That visibility also travels upstream: manufacturers can confirm samples are being prepared, packaged and handled to their own standards.
When the data is connected to a CRM, it can begin answering commercial questions as well. Which samples have arrived? Which prospects are due for follow-up? Which requests progressed to testing, qualification or closed business?
Sampling stops being a black box and becomes a measurable stage of the pipeline, showing manufacturers where deals slow down, where opportunities leak and what needs to be fixed first.
From afterthought to advantage
Speed, compliance, and visibility in the chemical sampling process each take dedicated effort to get right.
Some chemical manufacturers will develop that capability internally. Many will find it faster and more efficient to work with a partner for whom sample fulfilment is a core competency, following the same calculation behind most decisions to outsource specialised work.
What matters is that someone treats sampling as part of how the company wins business, because buyers already experience it that way.
A soft market offers manufacturers few levers they fully control. Sample fulfilment is one of them.
Will Schweda is a Senior Vice President within the Managed Services division at Odyssey Logistics. He brings deep experience helping chemical manufacturers manage complex, highly regulated supply chains, with expertise spanning global sample fulfillment, managed transportation, liquid bulk transportation, and supply chain optimisation strategies.
