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Trade Events - Best In Show or BeSt Stay at Home?

As trade show season approaches FNW provide a brief guide to making the all important decision to exhibit and how to get the most out of it if you do.

Trade shows are certainly expensive, you have to consider stand costs, travel and accommodation, and staff time (not to mention your own time), but there may be no better way to meet more people and show off your products and brand to more potential customers in one place.

Trade shows can be worth the expense but how do you ensure that trade shows are right for you?

First of all make sure that the show you’re considering has the right audience for your product. Try and find out who’s going to be attending the show. Ask your current customers if they attend, use your social media channels to find out other people’s opinions about the show.

Try previewing the show as a visitor before exhibiting. Seeing the show in action could be the best way to find out if it’s right for you and your company, and could save you a lot of time and money.

If you’re new to trade shows consider exhibiting at a smaller, local show for your first time. These may have fewer attendees, but they will also cost less and could have a better geographically targeted audience. If you are looking for customers from a particular area, that’s where to look for shows to attend.

In the North West the Northern Restaurant & Bar show, which runs on the 12th & 13th of March, might be a good place to start. As the name suggests this is a hospitality focussed event with exhibitors from all sections of the industry, but with a lot of chefs coming through the door it could be a good place to exhibit if you are looking to get your product on the dining tables of pubs and restaurants in the area. Alternatively the Harrogate Speciality Food Show on the 24th & 25th June is aimed more towards the retail buyer and will also attract visitors from across the North.

If you want to go all out and really make a splash the big national shows might be right for you. Food & Drink Expo is the biggest event in the trade show calender for the industry and attracts a huge variety of exhibitors and visitors of all shapes and sizes, it runs from the 25th - 27th of March and also features the Farm Shop & Deli Show which is aimed at the smaller and more speciality producers. The event's Birmingham NEC location also means that buyers from across the country will attend making it a good prospect for companies from our neck of the woods.

The other big national trade show to be considered is Speciality & Fine Food Fair, which takes place 2nd - 4th September at London's Olympia exhibition centre. This is the big event for the artisan and speciality side of the industry and will attract all sorts of buyers from the delis, farm shops and independents, to the multiples and luxury retailers. This is the show to visit if you want to make the maximum impact in this sector, and are ready to go national with your product.

So why should you exhibit at trade shows?

Because they bring suppliers, buyers, retailers and media, together in one place, giving you the rare opportunity to meet a wide spectrum of potential customers and also see what else is happening in the marketplace.

Obviously a big part of attending trade events is to show off your product and brand to new customers. These might be people who’ve seen your products in their competitors’ stores, people who are looking for a particular product to fill a gap in their range or even complete virgins who didn’t know you or your product even existed!

Trade shows also provide a great opportunity to strengthen relationships with your current clients, introduce new products to them and remind them why they are supporting your great products. It’s also a chance to put a face to a name; buyers change all the time and this could be your opportunity to make a personal connection with a buyer you’ve never met face to face before.

Shows can also provide a perfect forum for testing new products, and receiving immediate feedback. If you have something new in development, trade shows can provide you with the perfect opportunity to try it out – maybe save it for your current customers, it could be a good way to build rapport and loyalty – make it clear that you value their opinion, it will make them feel special and more personally involved with your brand. The show might also be an opportunity to find out why your less popular products aren’t performing as well as you’d like; is it the packaging, case size, cost? Or is it just the product itself? It might be time to drop it altogether or just try a different way of selling it.

To sum up - trade shows are good for;

generating new leads
meeting & building relationships with existing customers
personal selling to new potential customers
building customer databases for future sales targeting
launching new products
building brand awareness
networking with peers
generating media coverage

What do you want to achieve from attending the show?

It’s all very well deciding that you should attend a trade show, but before you can take advantage of the points listed above you really need to decide what YOU want to get out of it and what will make it feel worthwhile. It’s worth thinking about this before you make any decisions;

How many sales leads do you want to generate?
Who are the buyers/organisations you want to target?
Which of your current customers do you want to meet up with?
Do you want to launch new products?
Is market research on NPD or current products important?
How will your stand design best service your goals for the show?

What else do you need to do to prepare?

The next thing to think about is how you are going to present yourself at the show. What size stand do you need and more importantly what size can you afford? What will you use to dress your stand? You might already have banner stands and pop ups that you use for farmers’ markets or consumer shows but are they suitable for a trade show? Are they in good condition and do they represent your brand as a whole? Do they reflect the way that you want to sell yourself to trade buyers? If you need to invest in new marketing materials this is another expense that you need to consider.

You’ll also need to prepare some leaflets or brochures to give out at the show. Try and keep these simple, an eye catching postcard or flyer that sums up your product and contains all your pertinent information; website, social networks, contact details etc. is ideal. You don’t need to hand out full product and price lists to every prospect, offer to email these after the show, or even on the spot from your phone, this gives you the perfect opportunity to get your prospect’s details and make contact in the future. And you don’t need to give away a lot of freebies at the show either, generally speaking serious buyers aren’t going to want to take product with them on the day, the last thing they are going to want are heavy bags of samples to drag around with them!

Are you planning on offering tasters? Are you going to need to prepare these on your stand? Do you need refrigeration and extra electricity? More things to consider…is it all getting a bit much? The more you think about and prepare before the show, the easier it’s going to be when you get there.

Another thing to consider is the opportunity to speak or demo at the show. Many trade shows have demo theatres and providing an interesting and entertaining workshop or demonstration could be a great way to promote your brand and create a focus for any media activity. Ask the show organisers if there are any ways you can get involved.

What to do at the show.

So, you’ve decided to exhibit at your chosen trade show, your stand is dressed and prepared, you’ve had a hearty breakfast and you are wearing your comfiest shoes…what now? Well, this is where the really hard work starts, so for the preparation time you’ve put in to really pay off try and remember a few simple things;

Focus on your goals – remind yourself what you want to achieve and go do it!
Consider your sales skills – smile, make eye contact, be engaging, invite communication and interaction, be positive and speak good body language!
Read your customers – you will be meeting a lot of different people and it’s important that you spend time with the right ones.
Effectively collect your leads and follow ups – make sure you have a quick and easy way to record what future actions you need to take, a simple form with space to make notes and attach a business card is one way, or invest in the show’s data capture system.
Finally, don’t forget to take a break, you’ll need to keep your energy up!

So what about after the show?

Ok, the show’s over, you’ve met more new people than you can remember, you’ve caught up with lot’s of your customers and quite possibly you’ve over indulged at the post show networking, what now?

First of all have a post-show debrief. Think about how things went and what you might do differently next time. Include everyone who has been involved in the event and try to do it while the experience is fresh in your memory.

Sort out your leads and follow ups. Put them in priority order and plan how you are going to process them. Try and follow up every single lead within the week following the show, whether it’s an emailed price list, a personal phone call or an arranged meeting, it’s important that you make the most of your investment.

Finally, measure your results – did you meet the goals that you set yourself? This could be something that you do in the weeks following the show, but should also be done again six months and even twelve months later to truly judge your successes. This is a vital stage of the process and will help you decide whether to attend the same show the following year.

Well, I hope this brief guide has been useful and that if you are thinking of adding trade shows to your marketing plan that it has been helpful.

You can seek further (if not entirely impartial) advice from the sales teams for the individual trade shows via the weblinks below, or speak to companies you know that have been through the process themselves - failing that, drop me a line, or give me a call; Darren Hill // 07751 507728 // darren.hill@foodnw.co.uk

Northern Restaurant & Bar

Harrogate Speciality Food Show

Food & Drink Expo // Farm Shop & Deli Show

Speciality & Fine Food Fair