#236 - Expo West Tips for New Exhibitors

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1:09hello startup cpg listeners today we are talking all about expo west it's one of those shows that everyone tells you that you have to do but almost no one tells you how to do it really well i hope you have friends that you're already talking to about it you have your new hope rep as well but i want to share some of my learnings from over five years of exhibiting today is a solo episode I'm going to be talking through the prep that you can do ahead of time, the outreach, creating buzz, and then actually at the show, how do you execute really well? And then how do you follow up? I'm going to be dropping a lot of practical tips that you may not know about.

1:41And I hope, especially for those of you where it's your first time, that this makes a lot of difference. I want to remind you, we have a lot of events going on at the show. Check out our Eventbrite. It's startupcpg.eventbrite.com to see all of the events that we have available. And be sure to stop by our section. We are on the top floor of ACC. If you know where Hall E is, it's the top floor above that. We have 20 booths, some of the most incredible brands at the show, launching new brands, new flavors, new product lines. Come by and say hello. So overall, I hope that you will look at this episode as the kind of advice that I would give a founder friend if we were grabbing coffee the week before the show.

2:18Like, did you know you can actually pay$100 for a hand truck service? you drive your car up and can drop almost a pallet of product and they will actually cart it right to your booth. It's one of the best deals of the show that I think very few people know about. So make sure you're listening to all the tips here, read through all the materials and get your Expo right. All right, here we go. Let's get into it.

2:43I have exhibited at Expo West so many times, I can't even count anymore, as well as Expo East and so many other shows. and I wanted to share a bunch of my tips over the years for how to get the most out of your investment at the show. Because if you haven't done it a bunch of times, it can be totally overwhelming. There are 70 ,000 people there, 3 ,000 booths. Think how much real estate that is for all of the buyers to cover. And so whether you are attending or exhibiting for the first time, or you're looking to level up your experience, here are a bunch of tips from my time exhibiting, a lot of people that I've learned from as well.

3:17And I hope that some of this helps you get even more out of the show. So starting with before the show, what do you need to do? The first and most important thing that I always talk about is having a real strategy. So hopefully you're not just showing up to Expo and hoping to land a bunch of accounts in a really random fashion. Hopefully you actually have your own business strategy, your channel strategy. You already know the kind of buyers that you're looking for at the show. Otherwise, you're just not even going to know where to focus. And so there are a bunch of ways to do that. Hopefully you have some advisors for the business, or maybe you already have experience and know I'm doing natural channel or I'm doing a regional strategy.

3:56You can use resources like our retail tracker to look through all the retailers that are out there and hopefully become familiar with them. But I really want you to walk into the show with a targeted list of buyers and distributors, meaning there are specific chains that you've identified. You're looking for them. If you know who the buyer is, great. You have actually written down their name and you are looking for them. And if you don't know who it is, at least least you know the chains that you're looking for. And I want a real list on your phone of who you're looking for every day. And throughout the show, you're actually going to put a check if you find that person.

4:25And so there are a lot of ways to also understand who's going to Expo. So many people do, but you can look at attendee lists that are out there. A lot of brokers will have those as well. So if you have a broker, you should be asking them which buyers are going to Expo. You can also look on the Expo website. Often they are showing logos of which retailers are attending. You can also talk to other founders and ask them who they've heard is going. You can also search LinkedIn tags because a lot of people will post that they're attending the show and use a specific hashtag for it. And then you can also comb through the speaker list because there are a bunch of people who will be speaking during the CPG Innovation Day that's happening on the Tuesday or just throughout panels during the show.

5:06And that's a great way to just see who is going to be there, who's where, and then actually do proactive outreach to them. And so you should be able to find their emails or at least their LinkedIn when you figure out who's going to be there and reach out to them. And hopefully you do it in a nice way that isn't just the same message they're going to be getting from everyone else. And ideally, you've actually been reaching out to them throughout the year. And now this is, hey, looking forward to finally connecting at the show. Here's where I'm going to be. They will get a barrage of outreach right before the show.

5:37I know I've talked to some buyers who are telling me, yeah, I get that one image of where your booth is from so many people. I don't even look at it. I just end up going to the show. But probably they do remember. And maybe when they're walking by your booth, they do have a mental note that they want to stop there. Okay. Next, I want to talk about a little bit of pre-show marketing that I think you can do because you want people to come in warm, not just, oh, this brand is here. I'll check them out. But actually be excited to come and check you out at the show. And so hopefully you have been creating that buzz around your business for the whole year.

6:09You've been sharing your wins and creating buyer FOMO and getting people pumped about it. But a lot of people will specifically create assets or drop a really hot data slide right before Expo to get people even more excited to come by. Maybe you are launching a new flavor or launching your business at Expo. Maybe you have a really great new data point about how you are the fastest growing brand or the leading velocity at some retailer. It's great to be featuring that stuff to share where your booth is and have just really nice design, I think, on that stuff. Buyers do scroll LinkedIn before they get to the floor, especially if they're really interested in innovation.

6:50It's a great place to be showing up. If a buyer does tell you, by the way, like, yeah, I'll stop by your booth, they may or may not. They're going to have so many things to do. A few of them I see actually walk around with a clipboard and they have a list of booths that they're trying to hit, but a lot of others just, yeah, I'll try it if I remember. There may be ways that you could gently try to make sure that they remember. If you know them well enough, say, hey, do you want me to text you a reminder that day? When do you think you'll come? And they won't know where they're going to be because you can get really lost on the show floor.

7:20But if you don't see them, maybe you could text them like, hey, I know you're coming by. You'll know when and if that's appropriate to do. probably buyers don't want to get hit up by people they really would not expect to but especially if you have a friendly relationship with them or maybe even there's a way where they'll appreciate if you do that so that is a pro move if you can figure out how to get it done next i just think there are some options that you can consider ahead of time to add on a little bit of marketing pizzazz there are things through the show specifically that you can look at things like the new product showcase they have marketing packages that you can look at i personally have never pulled the trigger on those.

7:58I have done the new product showcase. Some people will see your product there, which if you have something you're really just all in on, it's something to consider. You should look through the marketing packages and really with a critical eye of like, would that work on me? But I think even more than that, booth design is really going to be important as to your overall visibility. I think a lot of people get stuck on this. In the Slack channel, people ask all the time, like, hey, who can design my booth for me? I need like a full consultant to go and engineer this booth. You actually really don't need that.

8:28And as an early brand, I wouldn't recommend a huge booth expenditure. I think you can do pretty well with just the basics, which would be a backdrop. So like a wall at the back of your booth, it can just be two poles even that has a curtain on it or something a little bit more substantial of a structure. And then at the front of the booth, you basically have a six foot table and you'll get a tablecloth that'll go over that. If you want some additional stuff, you could do a pull-up banner, which is maybe seven foot banner that rises high and has some graphics about your product on it. And just think about how all of those things go together and how it's going to look when you have a pop-up banner, where you're going to position it in front of the backdrop.

9:07And then if you want to add some swag, maybe people would be legitimately excited to have a koozie or a bag, something like that. But the last thing I'll say is the product is the hero for me. If you have a product that looks cool, a can, a bag, you can actually just put product everywhere and it can look beautiful. And it does keep the focus for people instead of on the brand and how nice your backdrop is, the product, thinking about the product. So I love that. When it comes to actually executing at the booth, I have a few tips for people. My biggest pet peeve is when a beverage company's product is not cold enough or a food product is not hot enough.

9:46and for me it really is just a lack of attention to detail and it will make all the difference in the world you know this you've had products that just don't quite hit the way that they should and it's because there isn't an ice cold ice chest sitting down at the bottom of the booth where the product is staying cold if you're a beverage founder i really think you can do this without it being too expensive i never bought electricity in a fridge that kind of stuff i would buy a collapsible cooler off amazon which takes up no space in your luggage bring that to the booth bring a couple garbage bags this is how scrappy i get fill one up with ice at the hotel and take that and just keep that you put the cans in first put the ice over it they stay cold in there and then you pour out of a sample that sits on your booth in a koozie it will keep it very cold and carbonated if it's carbonated it'll be fine and that's a great way to have ice cold products all the time and check the temperature of it take a sip yourself every now and then just to make sure it really is hitting the way it should.

10:43And same with just if your food is hot, just don't make too much of it and leave it sitting out there. There's nothing worse than a lukewarm sample or a cold sample. And especially if it's not the founder doing it, it's hard to make your booth employees or ambassadors care as much as you do about this being served in the right way. But it is so important. If you're going to Expo, you understand the opportunity and the decision makers who are there, don't waste your shot by giving them a sample that isn't as perfect as it could be. You have this great opportunity. You've done all the work to get them to your booth, that magic moment where they're going to experience your branding and you as the founder or whoever is telling the story and trying your product all at once.

11:25You have their eyes and their ears and their attention. It's great. That is the moment to just make sure everything is locked in. The other thing you can really get wrong is sometimes I've heard of plenty of buyers going to a booth and then not even figuring out how to get their attention. And that's a good thing if your booth is so busy that it's hard to even see who's there. But there are a couple of things that you can do to try to do a little bit better on that front. And so one is getting volunteers. You get a lot of badges with your booth. We at Startup CBG facilitate volunteer matching because there are plenty of people who want to come to Expo.

11:57Maybe it's their first time and come and volunteer for another brand and then maybe they work a day or two and then they get to walk around. Those are great people to have because they can do a lot of the hard work of just repetitively telling people the quick sound bites, the story, giving out a sample, while you can more strategically stand around and look at badges and try to understand which conversations you need to jump into. And then you won't be exhausting from just pitching and pitching. So you'll have full energy to hit them with that full passion pitch when it really matters the most.

12:29So I really recommend getting the help, even if you're not sure you're going to need it, because, oh, it's exhausting. It's very tiring. especially there are people who are not buyers who are there at the show and they have their businesses to build as well. But when you do have service providers, especially who come by, often they're going to come up and ask about your product because they want to show interest before they start pitching you their service. And those are the kinds of conversations, especially that when I'm there, I try to step back from and have some help to deliver to them. Sometimes you don't know.

12:59It could turn out to be a buyer in disguise and they just have some other badge. I don't know, always good to be aware. But in general, do conserve your energy. Do try to have people who can reliably deliver the pitch for your brand while also making sure you've got your eyes open for the people who you absolutely came to meet. I think also there are a lot of things you can do to look for the buyers you're trying to meet, even if you didn't manage to get a commitment from them to come by the booth. You can ask people around you, other booths, people who are walking around the show, hey, I've got my list of buyers that I'm looking for.

13:28Have you seen them here? Have you seen this retailer here? If they have, or they might even know the buyer, you could say, hey, could you introduce me? You'll never know unless you ask. And that actually has worked out really well for me. Sometimes where someone might say, yeah, they're actually over there. You know, we could go stand over there and probably you'll bump into them, something. You never know. And then the other thing is often you might be looking for a specific retailer and not even know who your buyer is. But if you see somebody from that retailer, the thing that I've had 100 % success doing is saying, hey, I see you're from this retailer.

13:58I just wanted to know, is the buyer for my category here? I've never had them react poorly to that. And you can say, cool, what's their name? And you might even get them to actually come and stop and try your product and get them to love it. and then be like, hey, do you want to text them a picture of this and tell them to come by? That has worked for me so many times. I really recommend trying. But again, I just have never had them react poorly to me asking that. Just saying, hey, I'm Daniel from this brand. I'm really interested to talk to your so-and-so buyer. Can you help me out? They're pretty cool about that because especially it's not like you're pitching them directly.

14:30Although sometimes it turns out they are that buyer. But that's been a great way for me to learn the names of the buyers. And sometimes they'll even give you their email on the spot. Great. I'll just send them a follow-up note. They're used to that. Just remember, these first impressions are so important. So be there with good energy, be smiling, be welcoming them to the booth with a sample. It's going to matter a lot. Sometimes they are coming because they have heard about your product and they're already thinking maybe they'll carry you. So just don't do anything to ruin that. And you have made this huge investment.

14:59So let's make it all pay off. We'll be right back. Friends, did you know that a party has been going on this whole time with 35 ,000 people and you're invited? It's our Startup CPG Slack. You hear about it all the time on here. And if you haven't yet joined in, this is your moment. Take out your phone, type in startupcpg.com and then click to join our community. You'll be at the party. You'll hear about all our events. You'll get in front of buyers, investors, brands, whatever's most important to you. We have such big plans ahead, but you got to be in the community to hear about all of it. See you on the Slack.

15:42I want to talk about follow-ups a little bit because we get a lot of questions in our Slack channel that are around, hey, should I buy the lead scanner or when should I follow up with people? How many sheets do I need to give them about my product, your sell sheets? How many samples do I need to have? One thing I would say is you're going to be really tempted when the buyer comes by to try to force them to take one of every one of your samples in their bag. Just remember they are walking around all day. So I wouldn't be too forceful about trying to make them take too much because they may resent it.

16:11If it's a really target buyer, you can offer like, hey, do you want ones to take away or do you want me to follow up and send some to you? They may really appreciate that. I also try not to demand a business card from them because often buyers don't have a lot of business cards or they don't really love giving them out. I've always just said, hey, do you mind if I write down your email and I will send you a follow-up note with my sell sheet over email and I can figure out where to send you samples. Typically, they're really open to that. I've never had them refuse to give me their email, anything like that, if I ask that way.

16:41And I just write it down on my phone at the same time. And then I make notes, follow up with this person and send samples. You think you're gonna remember all of that, but after the fog of Expo clears, you will have blanked out meeting so many different people. So the notes will really keep you on track. So I recommend doing that. The lead scanner, I think I've talked to some people, Maybe they're running a bigger sales team. They have a lot of people to show and they want to make that investment. They especially want to make sure they understand who everybody met and have that all in one place.

17:10As an early brand, it's not a choice that I made to buy those scanners just because you're trying to be really scrappy at that stage. And again, I just find I do pretty well asking for their email, writing it down and making the note there right away. I have never lost that. Or if they hand you a card, I always take a picture of it as well to make sure I really have it. And then I'll go through all my photos at the end. but that has worked for me. And it also is a great time to ask buyers questions like any tips for how to win on the shelf. You can get some great info from them then that can actually go into your pitch or your proposal.

17:43So it is a really good opportunity with them. In terms of how and when to follow up, I don't know the perfect answer. I wish somebody could AB test all of this, but you know, you're gonna wanna follow up right away. You've just had a great conversation with them, but remember they walked around and had a bunch of those great conversations. So if they didn't give you any specific direction, just wait a while. Wait until you'll kind of know when it's time. And definitely don't wait too late and lose that momentum from a great conversation that you had. And then follow up after a reasonable amount of time.

18:14I sort of like maybe if they don't respond to your first one, you try again in 10 days, something like that. And then maybe again a month after that. And maybe have some new info to share when you do it. or have something from the conversation that you had with them. Like, oh, I remember you asked about this, and here's a new piece of info. Or, by the way, I wanted to let you know, we just learned we're the top performing SKU at this one store. All of that stuff can be a nice way to follow up without really bothering them and getting on their bad side. I use this analogy about stripping the screw.

18:46You know, when you're trying to get a screw out of something, like if you're using a screwdriver, if you really try to force it, the thing strips, and then you'll never get the screw out. you can do that with buyers if you're over eager so try to figure out what is the nicest balance and remember this is a long game and a lot of these great leads that you get from the show aren't going to work out right then they may longer term and so it's great to just try to stay on people's good sides because this is not just a long game for your brand but for you in this business okay next topic i want to talk a little bit about booth logistics the one thing i really recommend to everybody is like a camping trip, test all of your gear before you go.

19:23If you are setting up your booth, it's not ideal to have the first time you set it up be at the show because you're gonna realize you're missing something. Almost without fail, you've forgotten something. I love the idea of just doing a practice set up at home. It'll make sure that you have all the tools that you need, that you didn't forget some key piece of collateral. And then also, I really encourage people not to waste any time looking for things that you might forget because you can get there one year. we didn't realize about the hand washing kit and then spent two hours that evening cabbing around Home Depot trying to find something that would work and they did come by and check so we definitely needed it just really have a list of everything that you need ask around make sure you know and order the stuff ahead of time it just is such a waste of time to be looking around when you're at the show for something that you need and things like that hand washing kit you can get them off Amazon you can get there's a cool Gatorade cooler that you can get that has the soap and stuff in there.

20:17And as long as you just get it ahead of time and keep it every year, it'll save you a lot of money for having to rent it from the show. I also, this is kind of a minor note, but one tip about shoes, it doesn't matter what kind of an athlete you are, your feet are going to hurt at the show and maybe your lower back also. I really like the idea of bringing two pairs of shoes. I personally will typically bring a flat pair of sneakers, Nike Air Force One's my go-to, and then also a pair of running shoes because they have the padding, but also the elevation. So when your feet start to hurt, you can try to at least have them hurt in different places and by switching throughout the day.

20:50But I do pull a Mr. Rogers shoe change a couple times during the day, and I just really recommend it. And next, I think I'd like to talk a little bit about some of the opportunities available around the show. It's good to just look for absolutely everything and anything. You're going to see things on LinkedIn if you're following the right people. Follow people, follow brands, follow buyers. They're going to be posting opportunities. There are a lot of pitches that are run by different brokers, by the show itself. I apply for everything. And I just do it as soon as I learn about it. If there's a video required, I don't try to have something really highly produced.

21:25I just grip it, rip it, pull the phone out and record a really passionate selfie video where I'm not reading off anything. And that's been typically really successful because they're looking for the energy. And if you're going to do well on stage, that kind of stuff, but just try not to give that nervous energy, give the, I love what I'm doing and I've done this before. There are so many great things out there that you can apply to meet with Kroger, with Whole Foods. They have the Kehi Trend Finder awards going around and those can be huge moments. I remember my first year releasing a new product.

21:58I actually won the Kehi golden ticket at the show and that was a major moment for me in the business because they come by like it's Ed McMahon's check bringing it to you right on the show floor and I got this amazing picture of it. We were happier than ever. I probably didn't even know what it actually meant at that point, but it just felt incredible. And I posted that on LinkedIn during the show and it immediately went viral. There were so many views on it. And so everybody was at the show that was in my sphere saw it and they would come by like, oh, I guess this is a hot brand now. And that's a great way for them to come into the show.

22:33Often you can post a really nice piece of content on LinkedIn that isn't just that graphic, but it's just something super exciting. Your team at the show or something awesome that's happening to really just raise that awareness. I remember one year I was somehow just next to Jennifer Garner's booth. And as soon as she popped in, I walked over and said, Hi, Jennifer, I'd love to get a picture. Oh, do you mind holding your product up? And she was thrilled to do it. She was so nice. And I got a picture of me holding my product and her holding her product. I immediately went back to my booth and posted online and it got 1000 likes.