A Sales & Marketing Game Plan for IFPA Global Show
Two weeks out from a major show, the booth graphics are ordered, and the sales calendar is filling up. What’s usually missing is a plan that sales and marketing built together.
The International Fresh Produce Association’s (IFPA) 2026 Global Produce and Floral Show runs Wednesday through Friday, October 14 to 16, in Orlando, and this year the show moves from a weekend format to a midweek schedule. Last year’s show brought some 3,500 buyers to the expo floor alongside nearly 1,100 exhibitors. That works out to roughly three buyers for each exhibiting company, spread across three days and a very large convention center. Floor space is expensive, and so are the hours it takes to get there.
We spent seven weeks this summer writing about sales and marketing alignment within the fresh produce industry; in Part 4, we argued that alignment either succeeds or fails at tradeshows. Now that Orlando is two weeks away, here is how to put that idea into action.
Plan Together, Not in Parallel
Tradeshow prep often splits along department lines. Sales books meetings. Marketing books freight and orders the swag. Both teams work hard, just not on the same plan. Fixing that takes one meeting this week.
Share the meeting list: Sales should bring the confirmed meetings and the target customers and suppliers they hope to catch on the floor. That list tells marketing where to focus. A short email to key accounts or a well-timed LinkedIn post the week before the show means buyers have context before the handshake.
Agree on the story: Pick two or three things you want buyers to remember when they leave your booth, and make sure both teams tell them the same way. If you have a brand messaging guide, pull it out now. The guides we create with brands typically include key messages and proof points written for this kind of conversation. Build what sales will use: In Part 2 of the series, we covered what sales needs most from marketing. Before a show, that means a current sell sheet, a clear view of seasonal availability, and talking points ready for the price conversation. Buyers will bring up price. As we covered in Part 6, a strong brand story gives sales something to talk about beyond it.
Before You Leave: Decide What a Good Show Looks Like
If you ask five members of your team what constitutes a successful show, they might give you five different answers: sales will count meetings, marketing will count booth traffic and social engagement, and leadership will likely count dollars spent. Part 7 of our series made the case for a shared scorecard, and a tradeshow is a good place to test one. Choose a few measures both teams own, such as meetings held against meetings scheduled, new buyer contacts, and follow-ups sent within a set window after the show. Keep it short enough that someone will fill it out.
Then agree on how conversations get captured. One shared format, whether that’s a lead app, a simple form, or a shared spreadsheet, beats a stack of business cards. I started my career in fresh produce sales, and I know how good that stack feels on the flight home. It feels a lot less useful two weeks later, when nobody remembers which buyer asked about the organic program.
The show lasts three days. The ROI depends on how the weeks are spent on either side.
On the Floor: Sales Leads the Conversation, Marketing Captures It
Once the show doors open, the roles get clearer. Sales owns the buyer conversations. Marketing listens, observes, and captures. That capture is the feedback loop from Part 3, happening in real time. Which questions do buyers keep asking? Which product stops people in the aisle? What are competitors putting front and center? When sales points marketing toward the conversations worth capturing, marketing can turn them into content that tells the brand story better than anything planned. Our recent playbook on live posting from a tradeshow covers the social side of this.
Build in 15 minutes at the end of each day to compare notes over dinner or drinks (both count!). Enter buyer contacts in the shared format you picked before the show. Everything else needs a home too, including what you hear on the show floor, takeaways from the education sessions, and highlights from IFPA’s CEO Cathy Burns’ State of the Industry address. A joint notes document works, or a shared project in Claude, where both teams can add notes each day and work with Claude to compare them and pull-out common buyer questions and themes. PRO TIP: A quick voice memo is a great way to capture thoughts and conversations on a busy show floor. Three days go fast, and the details fade faster.
After the Show: Follow-Up Is Where It Pays Off
There is a clear advantage to the midweek schedule when it comes to follow-up. The program ends on Friday, and the buyers are back at their desks on Monday, so the companies that send them something useful first become noticeable among the numerous “great to meet you” emails.
Sales should send follow-up emails in the first week that reference the actual conversation. Marketing can support those with content tied to what was discussed, such as a show recap, a
recipe featuring the product that drew attention, or a consumer trend that relates to your product, your packaging, or a buyer’s question.
Then hold a debrief within 10 days of the show. Bring the scorecard, compare notes, and decide what to keep and what to change. Use the same game plan for the shows on your calendar between now and next October, when the IFPA Global Show heads to Atlanta.
A tradeshow is one of the largest single investments on a fresh produce marketing calendar. It deserves a plan both teams own. If you’d like help getting your team aligned before Orlando, or building the follow-up strategy after, we would love to help.
Summer Sales & Marketing Series:
Part 1: Why Sales and Marketing Aren’t as Aligned as You Think
Part 2: What Sales Actually Need from Marketing (And How to Deliver It)
Part 3: The Feedback Loop That Makes Both Teams Better
Part 4: Making Tradeshows Work Harder for Both Teams
Part 5: The Role of Packaging in the Sales Conversation
Part 6: When the Brand Story Meets Price Pressure
Part 7: Building a Shared Scorecard
