Ten Tips for More Effective Food Shows

How to stand out from the trade show crowd and improve your ROI

Planning for the pain of yet another round of food shows? If this is your attitude, you’re probably doing it wrong. Too many people in sales and marketing believe both large and (especially) small food shows are a painful necessity of doing business. When done right, though, trade shows are exciting business and relationship building opportunities.

Insufficient preparation or booth design can make or break trade show performance and dramatically influence how everyone associated with a booth feels when it’s all over.

With that in mind, here’s a list of ways to show like a pro.

Tip #1: Illustrate a bigger idea or solution than you could normally create during a sales call.

Here’s your unique opportunity to bring ideas to life and illustrate concepts on a live scale. Go beyond the talk and trial you’d get from a sales call and show what your products or services can really do for distributors, operators and consumers.

Trade shows allow the benefit of time, resources, planning and space. This is your opportunity to differentiate your brand and shift perceptions about it. Use the opportunity to spotlight the solution your brand offers.

Tip #2: Lead with the insight or solution, not the product.

Operators don’t lie awake at night wishing for a different brand of <whatever your product is>. They lie awake wondering how to bring more consumers through the door. How can your product or service help operators do that? What trend does it address? Can it help increase check sizes? Decrease labor costs or increase back of house efficiency?

Lead with a message that speaks to an operator need, and make that message big, bold and obvious. Operators shop trade shows looking for solutions to their challenges and needs, so advertise boldly that you have their solution.

Tip #3: Start marketing months in advance.

Build excitement for your booth long before the event. Use social media, email, newsletters and other marketing platforms to drive traffic to your booth. What can you do now to ensure people add you to their show planners and don’t forget to stop by and see you? How can you make sure they’re looking forward to seeing you and your product, even before they get on the plane to travel to the show?

Tip #4: Don't waste space on the obvious.

Is your company synonymous with a specific product or solution? Do you enjoy complete and total brand awareness? If so, don't waste valuable trade show space showing that well-known product.

Talk about what’s new and different or communicate something operators don’t know about you. Surprise guests to your booth with information they haven’t had, ways to think about you differently or reasons to look to you for something they may not have previously considered.

Tip #5: Don't barricade the booth.

Is your booth set up like a pinball machine, with your big table in the middle and the people you’re trying to connect with bouncing off the other side of it? If you’ve come to sell, don’t barricade your team in the booth, separated from the people who could buy.

Design your layout to draw customers into the booth, get them on your turf and use all sides of the inner booth perimeter to sell. If you have an island booth, make sure you are not blocking the middle and that you can see and get to the customers wherever they are in the booth.

 Tip #6: Ditch the raffles and games, you have food!

Raffles, prizes and other non-product/solution related activities draw the wrong type of traffic. Remember what you’re there for.

Trade show value comes from attracting the right type of customers -- those who are looking for solutions and will actively engage in what you are showing – and not from a huge number of badge scans. The right kind of booth visitor results in better quality leads.

Besides, this is a food show! You should have your most delicious and interesting products to try. Make an impression with your product, and if you still want some fun trinkets to give away, use branded merch that at least contributes to brand awareness.

 Tip #7: Communicate the plan and patter before you go.

Communicate the key messages, solutions & objectives to all show participants and sales partners a few weeks in advance. Provide those talking points so your sales teams, whether they attend or not, can be out pre-selling the show and helping drive the right type of traffic to your booth.

Consider a webinar with your sales and broker teams reviewing all the basics of the event including key messages, background research and insights that drove the show strategy. Review the booth layout, desired traffic flow, station highlights, etc. Get everyone prepared, on message and ready to sell.

Tip #8: If it is worth doing, it is worth tracking.

The obvious part here is capturing the leads and disseminating them out to the appropriate personnel for follow-up.

Revisit lead status often to track lead qualification and sales conversions. You want to understand the quality of the leads generated and new business acquired to determine your ROI.

Tip #9: Is everything going into your CRM? It should be.
Tie marketing and sales results together by starting your pre-show marketing efforts and results in your CRM. Then add your show leads to your CRM. And finally, use your CRM to make sales calls that feel genuine and personal, backed by the information you’ve recorded about each lead.

Then, make data-driven decisions about marketing, booth design, and even event attendance, based on the information you gather this year. When budgets are tight and you’re deciding which show is best, don’t count on vague recollections and subjective impressions about which shows are “good” and which ones aren’t. Your CRM will help you know for sure which events pay you back for your investment of time, resources and money.

Tip #10: Follow up, follow up, follow up.

Use the information you collect at the show not only to make sales, but to gather information. Collect opinions from booth visitors, and from your team, as well.

Beyond leads, formalize feedback from all show attendees. What did they see? What did they hear? How did the booth work for them? How did booth visitors respond to what was displayed? Was it an effective selling platform? Collect feedback from attendees and remember to revisit it in advance of show planning next year.

Food shows are worth getting right – they’re a significant investment of time and resources, and the payoffs cane be huge. In the sometimes-frustrating, often-tedious trenches of planning for an event, remember that they’re a great opportunity to come face-to-face with decision-makers, in a forum where they’re looking for new ideas and to make changes. Restaurant operators and chefs still list food shows as one of the top places they find new ideas, so take the time to bring your new products and solutions to life.

Interested in more ways to make sure you’re prepared for trade shows this season, before, during and after the events? Reach out for more information from the foodservice experts who can help you find the sure path to trade show success.