Natural Products Expo West
Selling vs Show & Tell
So, you’ve bought your Natural Products Expo West registration, designed and paid for an eye-catching well branded booth, paid for sales material and shelled out for travel, accommodations and a snappy new pair of shoes. How do you now ensure that all these marketing and selling expenses return on your financial investment rather than just amounting to one big show & tell?
The short answer is…you can’t.
Like all tradeshows, Natural Products Expo West is more a fishing trip than a hunting expedition. You are relying on buyers to come to you rather than you going to them. The best salespeople never wait their ship to come in...they swim out to meet it. Unfortunately, you can’t control buyers’ no matter how many pre-show email blasts and LinkedIn messages you send.
However, there are a few things you absolutely should do to bait buyers and maximize the odds of securing sales from Expo West. Here is a list of 20 Ghost Tree Sales recommendations to help ensure success:
Demand progress, not perfection. For brand owners & managers, this may sound preachy and irrelevant, however deviation from this all-important principle can cause all kinds of problems and avoidable stress. Don’t take yourself too seriously. This is particularly true for new brand owners who come into their first few Expo West years needlessly sweating every single detail. Control issues aside, this negative energy is unnecessary because results are all that matters rather than show details. You see the details, nobody else does. Further, things will go wrong- they always do. Relax. Don’t make the experience miserable for you and everyone around you. Whac-a-mole problem solving is the best you can do – do it with a positive attitude and a smile. You will sell more this way.
Premature Exhibition: If you don’t have a distributor, you shouldn’t be at Expo West. Just in case you missed that, if you don’t have a distributor, you shouldn’t be at Expo West. Yes, the likes of Walmart and Costco are in attendance, but so are hundreds of smaller regional and independent retailers – particularly West Coast retailers. Without a distributor for the Western US at the very least, you will just be running a very expensive Show & Tell week. If you are set up and coded with a distributor, buyers know they can buy your products should they decide to after the show. Further, do not go to Expo West expecting to land a distributor. You need to have retail commitment first which involves pounding the pavement store by store or securing a large enough “anchor” account like Sprouts or HEB. Odds are very low you will be able to do any of this at the show or even during your show follow-ups.
Premature Exhibition – Part 2: If you are a new product with valuable points of differentiation that are on or just ahead of trend, you may not want to expose yourself to potential competitors too early. It’s best to build some valuable distribution with key retailers before exposing yourself at Expo West. There are plenty of potential competitors who will see your product at Expo West, they may have the resources to copy you and might very well get to market before you. There is a risk they will get the jump on you and be first to get listed at accounts you could have won if you did so under the radar.
Collect Coordinates: Get contact coordinates from every buyer who comes to your booth that interests you. Don’t make the mistake of letting them walk away with the promise of contacting you after the show. They will never do so. They are overstimulated, overwhelmed and probably a tad hungover. Be sure to get their contact details before they walk away so you can follow up after the show. At the very least, take a picture of their badge so you can chase them down after the show.
Keep a Show Journal: When I started out at Expo, I collected hundreds of business cards during my first show. I thought I was a sales rock star. But my star faded quickly after the show because I couldn’t remember what conversations I had with who nor which were hot leads so I could prioritize my follow-ups. I learned that when you follow-up, it is best to do so by reminding the buyer about your conversation so you can short-cut them to convert. It’s amazing how many buyers will forget about your Expo encounter. So, keep a paper and pen journal or quickly shoot yourself an email on your phone (or both because batteries die). The better your notes, the better your follow-up success.
Tire Kickers: Don’t expect buyers to place orders on the floor at Expo West – most buyers are just tire kickers with no plans of buying immediately. For some buyers, Expo West is just a paid vacation if they’re from a northern cold climate. For others, it’s a great way to discover what’s new and hot so they can refresh their categories in the coming months. Buyers like to research what they saw at the show and will happily book a sales meeting with you after the show to dive into details.
Private Label Problems: I’ve personally experienced many times the rush of talking to a buyer from a large retailer who is showing a lot of interest in my product. We have a great conversation about all the features and benefits of my product, and we end agreeing to speak after the show. I later learn that the person I was speaking to was a retail private label manager digging for product information. Read point 8 below.
Vet your Visitors First: Given the aforementioned, don’t be afraid to ask who your booth visitor is right from the get-go. “Hi, who are you with and what’s your role?” Along with potential competition, there are plenty of Expo attendees walking the floor trying to sell stuff, pitching to broker your product on fat monthly retainers, or become investors. Know who you are speaking with before you speak. You want to invest time and attention on retail buyers with a budget to spend…don’t waste samples or time on anything else. After all, you are paying a small fortune to feature at Expo West – vet your visitors first.
Keep it Simple. Bigger is not better. If it’s arduous to set up – it’s a nightmare to take down when you’re tired and ready to go home. Expensive to ship and hard to manage booths should be avoided. Your product is the hero, not the booth. You can have a booth backdrop with big impact that is light, inexpensive, and easy to set up and take down. As a rule of thumb, if you need power tools, it’s too complicated.
Follow-up, Follow-up, Follow-up, Follow-up: I think you get the point. The show is nothing, it’s the follow up that makes the show a success. Wait a week and let the buyers get back to their desk after the show. Rookie salespeople will follow up immediately. This is a mistake because buyers are inundated with follow-ups the week immediately after the show – or they are still in California taking a few extra days to enjoy…well, California. We highly recommend Carmel. Brad Pitt is in the Crossroads Safeway all the time. So is my fellow Canadian Justin Bieber…by the way, thanks again for taking the last box of chocolate chip Perfect Bars…jerk!! Anyway, pause a week, organize your follow-ups, prioritize, and then pull the trigger the following week. You’ll have more success this way.
Be a Party Pooper: Expo West is a long show so don’t go in like a lion and out like a lamb. It’s a party hard place as much as anything else so go easy the first few days. Pace yourself, get lots of rest and know that no sales happen after 8pm at the bar. Take it from me, I happily spent years testing this strategy.
Quote SRPs – Not Wholesale: Ensure everyone at your booth only quotes SRPs to buyers. You will not have enough time at the show to understand what programs & terms come with the sales opportunity. Politely decline to engage the buyer when they ask and suggest you speak after the show to learn more about the opportunity so you can better understand how they get their product (ie., direct or via a distributor, etc…). If you are with a distributor, you can certainly quote their published price, but know that the retailer probably gets a discount. Visit our blog for plenty of strategies around CPG price optimization.
Portable Power Banks: Bring a portable battery charger if you don’t have power at your booth. It’s a long day and batteries will die which can frustrate your selling. Also, good luck getting an Uber with a dead cell at the end of the day.
Avoid Expo West “Bells & Whistles”: Expo West sells plenty of marketing services that you can certainly buy. The jury is still out on most of these with respect to ROI. If you have a big budget, knock yourself out. For most emerging brands, it is advisable to avoid these expenses.
Padded Floors: I know we said to not sweat the details…this is one you should however demand. It has a massive impact on your energy level. You will be standing for hours every day, for several days straight. Padded floors will save your knees and back and help keep your booth staff happy. It’s worth the investment. If you have ever worked a show in a booth without padded flooring, you know what I mean. Try after standing all day on cement to find a booth with a padded floor and stand on it for a minute…it’s like stepping onto a cloud!
Stand Up or Sit Down?: If you are sitting down, you are less approachable vs standing up. Take this from someone who has worked thousands of Farmers Markets. If you sit, you sell less. So stand.
Don’t Be a Hero: Take breaks and eat when you can. Try not to graze on samples at the show because frankly, most of the food at Expo is not great. Hydrate too, because you’re in California and you will dehydrate quickly. You are doing your brand a disservice if you stay glued to your booth for 8 hours a day.
Broker Management: Don’t expect much from your brokers during Expo West. There are just too many buyers in attendance and trying to organize buyer/broker meetings at the show is like trying to herd drunken cats.
The Last Day: Don’t expect much on the last day of the show. If you haven’t had success the first few days of Expo West, the last day usually won’t do much for you. Brands and buyers are in “go home” mode. This is also the day booth staff will walk around filling bags full of samples – it’s the Expo West shopping day.
The Hook vs The Repellent: Which question do you think works better?
“Hi, would you like to try some haskap?”
or
“Hi, have you heard of haskap?”
If you’ve read this far, we will reward you with a golden nugget. The answer to this question could be the difference between getting a million-dollar account and not. Knowing the difference and phrasing proper questions is probably the most important part of any tradeshow. One is a hook that will bring prospects to you, the other will repel them. Contact us on LinkedIn for your golden nugget which could be worth millions to your business. You’ll be glad you did.
