Do you sell homemade jams, jellies, sauces or dips at craft shows? If so, you really must allow customers easy access to sample your products.

I recently attended a craft show as a customer and came across someone who was selling homemade jams. They sounded intriguing: the packaging was beautiful, the ingredients were unusual and interesting, and the names of each flavor were descriptive. The problem – customers were not allowed to freely sample the jams. The person at the booth was very friendly, but when she mentioned that I would have to ask if I wanted a sample of her jam (she didn’t want to leave open bottles because she said she didn’t want to attract bugs – bugs crawling in your jam is not the image you want to bring to a customer’s mind), unfortunately, the likelihood of me buying anything at her booth was significantly reduced.

Of course, if you sell homemade food items at craft shows, there are some reasons why you may hesitate to provide samples to customers:

• You have to absorb the cost of providing the free samples.
• You’ll have to be aware of hygiene and allergy issues.
• Your booth will need to be cleaned up more frequently, and you’ll need to be prepared for spills.
• Your open jars might attract insects at an outdoor show (I’ve never seen that myself, but I assume it’s a possibility).

There are, however, plenty of good reasons to provide customers with easy access to samples, and they all ultimately come down to more sales for you.

• If your recipes are truly top notch and unique, you’ll be well on your way to making a sale once customers sample your food.
• While customers don’t expect to sample new products that they buy in a grocery store, it’s not a part of the experience and big companies have brand recognition and big marketing behind them, customers buying homemade jams, sauces, etc. at craft shows have been trained to expect samples as a part of the experience.
• Your company is probably unknown to customers, so providing a sample allows you to build trust and demonstrate that your recipes are superior.
• Although some people will sample products without making a purchase, all of the people hanging around your booth trying samples will draw more customers to your booth. Having plenty of interested customers at your booth effectively brings more customers into your booth.
• Making customers ask for samples is, in a lot of ways, equivalent to not pricing your items clearly. People don’t want to have to ask. They are concerned that it will be awkward if they ask you for a sample and then decide not to buy, and many will simply not ask to avoid any possible awkwardness.

For customers, attending a craft show is about the enjoyment and entertainment of the experience as much as it is about discovering and buying unique treasures. People like to experience items at craft shows with all of their senses, and providing samples of your homemade jams, jellies, sauces and dips will allow your potential customers to do that and improve your sales.