Top 10 tips for sampling in supermarkets!

After visiting 14 Booths stores over a 3 week period this summer, here’s our top 10 tips for sampling your products!

1. Location, location, location! We found the best location for sampling and sales to be in the foyer of the stores. In the Booths supermarkets almost all had a wide enough area for us to locate our stand and catch customers coming in.  The ideal scenario is where the store has just one entrance/exit but that not always the case so you might not catch everyone, just aim for the majority!

2. Take a stand. A good friend of ours designed and built a stand/desk which has a top/backboard and importantly storage plus we printed our logo and key information on the front and sides. This gave us room for two people to stand behind and was eye catching to the customers coming in. We could have borrowed one from each store but this ‘all in one unit’ was ideal for us.

3. It’s really you! One of the best tools we had for the sampling sessions was a pull up banner which had a picture of Yoyo on it. This immediately helped customers know that they were speaking to the founder. There is huge power in meeting the maker and it changes the whole conversation from those people who think it’s the brand employees sampling to engaging with the founder or maker. If the latter, it's far easier to secure a sale. 

Supermarkets and other stores can also offer sampling on your behalf. In this case, it's worth thinking how they might best represent you - what key information could they share and any marketing materials.

4. Meet and greet. At one store which was very busy but felt like customers didn’t have much time, we took the pull up banner outside the front of the store and Yoyo greeted customers to say there was free sampling inside. This strategy worked well and increased sales because people were already warmed up to the idea and were introduced by the maker/founder of the product.

5. Go wild in the aisles. No not literally… but do spend some time in the aisles where your stock in placed. This is where having two people really does help. We sold a substantial number of bottles by striking up a conversation in the international food aisle or condiments aisle by recommending a sauce....and then following up to say it was our own brand – again the power of meeting the maker has an impact.

6. What’s your line? Sampling and selling in the supermarket is different to an artisan market. You are catching people as they come in to the store and they are shopping for a whole host of reasons. It might be a weekly shop and they have time to browse or they could be dashing it to grab lunch and head back out. Often you have a short window to grab their attention and for them to invest some time with you. 

We found people assumed we were just 'hot sauce', so often we asked if they liked ginger which gave us an opportunity to introduce our mild ginger chilli sauce (which is very mild!). This appealed to people who wouldn’t normally try a product that they perceived as spicy.

Another strategy which certainly works is using your awards or accolades. We find that posing the question, would you like to try the sauce that won the national chilli awards for the UK? Has a close to 100% success rate of getting a potential customer to taste it. Use whatever awards or accolades you have and pose a question.

7. Solve a problem. We found that supermarket shoppers are looking for quick wins for their meals. Providing them with a few ideas, “this sauce can be used as a salad dressing and works well in a prawn salad”, or "you can marinade Salmon as ginger is a perfect pairing with fish” instantly provides them with a meal idea which they can get everything for as part of their shop. Additional recipe cards or links to recipes on websites direct from your products are another bonus.

8. Stereotypes are just that. It’s easy to fall into the trap of assuming a customer won’t be interested in a spicy sauce but we are constantly reminded that it’s worth engaging everyone and that 75-year-old grandmother may very well devour the hottest product you have without breaking a sweat!

9. Staff are customers too.  Engage the staff and get them to taste your products too. If they like them, they’ll most likely buy them (and they often get a staff discount too). Even better, they now know you’re stocked in the store and when customers ask for recommendations, you’re more likely to be mentioned!

10. Perfect timing. When is the best time for sampling?  We sampled from late morning through till around 5-6pm and found the best times for sampling and sales were late morning (10.30-midday) and late afternoon (3.30-5.30pm). This is likely to  differ for other products of course but for food which has some heat then later in the day proved to be more successful overall.

....and here's a bonus tip! Have a think about how you want to serve your products and what might pair best for both taste and inspire the customer. As our sauces work well with salad, we find chopped cucumber on a cocktail stick a great way to sample our sauces. We do of course have a contingency for those who don't like cucumber using chopped carrot and failing that a good old fashioned spoon!

Finally, you need to get used to people asking you for directions to toilets, cafe, questions about the car park. You'll soon be able to answer these after being in the store for a while and it's an opportunity to get more customers sampling your product!

We had a great time sampling in Booths and a thank you to all the staff who supported us and especially those kept us fuelled with coffee (and an occasional cake!).