How to Measure Lead Quality and Sales ROI at Anuga

Anuga is held every two years in Cologne, with the next edition from 9 to 13 October 2027. That rhythm creates an awkward measurement problem. By the time you must decide whether to book the following edition, many of the buyers you met have not yet placed a first order, because food buyers test samples, run listings, wait for a crop or a tender, and then start with a trial. Judge Anuga too early and it looks like a loss. Judge it on the number of cards collected and it looks like a triumph. Neither tells you much.

This article gives you two tools: a lead quality rubric you can run in a spreadsheet the week after the show, and a set of Anuga-specific measures and checkpoints for judging what the fair actually produced. The arithmetic of a general trade show ROI calculation (full cost list, funnel, payback) is covered in how to measure trade show ROI and buyer conversion. Here the focus is quality, and what is specific to a large, biennial food fair.

Why lead count misleads at a food fair

A busy stand at Anuga collects contacts from many kinds of visitor. The fair is open to trade visitors only, but trade visitors include packaging suppliers, freight forwarders, consultants, competitors and people gathering catalogues for a head office. A team that counts every card as a lead will report a large number and then wonder why so few turn into orders.

Count also hides the most important difference in food: fit. A buyer may be genuine and still impossible to serve, because they need a certificate your plant does not hold, a retail pack you do not make, or volumes far below your minimum order. A lead quality measure has to capture fit as well as interest.

Finally, count rewards the wrong behaviour on the stand. If the team is measured on contacts, they scan badges and hand out brochures. If they are measured on qualified leads with a clear next step, they ask better questions.

A lead quality rubric you can run in a spreadsheet

Score each lead on six criteria, 0 to 2 points each, for a maximum of 12. Keep the definitions written down and shared, so different people score consistently. The rubric only works if the information was captured at the stand, which is why it pairs with a capture standard like the one in the Anuga 2027 lead management guide.

Then convert scores into grades:

Two rules keep the rubric honest. First, a 0 on buyer type makes the lead an X whatever the other scores; a packaging salesperson who was very keen is not a sales lead. Second, score from what is in the notes, not from memory a week later. If the notes are blank on a criterion, it scores 0. That shows you, quite quickly, which questions the stand team is not asking.

Scoring each criterion consistently

Written definitions are not enough on their own. Add a line of guidance for the cases that cause arguments, so two people scoring the same note reach the same number.

• Buyer type. A trader who buys and resells without a fixed market scores 1, not 2, unless you already sell profitably to traders. A buying agent for a named retailer scores as the retailer would, but note who the agent represents.
• Product fit. Score the product they described, not the one you hope to sell them. “Interested in nuts” with no product named is a 1 at best.
• Compliance fit. A certificate that expires before their likely first shipment counts as “working towards it”, so 1. If they did not mention certificates at all, score 1 and add the question to your first follow up, rather than assuming 2.
• Volume. A trial pallet or a mixed container is a 1 even from a large company, because the volume you can count on is the trial. Move it to 2 when they talk about a regular programme.
• Timing. In food, timing may be tied to a crop year, a listing review or a tender. A buyer who said “we review suppliers every spring” gets a 2 if that falls within three months of the fair, otherwise a 1, with the month in the notes.
• Next step. “Send your catalogue” is a 1. “Send 2 kg of each grade to our quality lab and a CIF Gdansk price for one 20ft” is a 2.

Some exporters add a weight, for example doubling compliance fit for a plant that cannot change its certification quickly. That is fine, but decide it before the fair and keep it the same for the next edition, or the grades will not be comparable.

A worked example with three hypothetical leads

Say a hypothetical spice exporter met these three visitors on day two of Anuga:

The trader may still become a customer. The rubric does not say otherwise. It says where to spend the first week.

Three harder cases from the same stand

The same hypothetical exporter also met three visitors whose scores needed more thought:

The first lead looks like an A on enthusiasm and volume, but a 0 on compliance holds it at B. That is the rubric doing its job: the next step is not a price, it is an honest answer about the certificate and a decision on whether getting it is worth it. The second lead reaches A despite the packing gap, because the next step is specific and dated; the note should say plainly that retail jars would need a co-packer or new equipment. The third is a C today, but the colleague behind the visit may be an A. The right follow up is a short message asking to be introduced, not a full sequence.

Calibrate before you trust the grades

Before scoring the whole list, take ten leads at random and have two people score them separately from the notes alone. Where they differ by more than two points, read the note together and agree which definition was unclear, then fix the wording. This takes half an hour and is the difference between grades you can compare across shows and grades that mostly reflect who did the scoring.

Re-score at 30 and 90 days

The score you give at the stand is a forecast. Buyer behaviour after the show is evidence. Add two columns to the sheet and re-score each A and B lead after 30 days and again after 90 days, using what has actually happened:

• Did they reply to your follow up?
• Did they accept or request samples, and did they give feedback?
• Did they ask for a formal quotation on specific terms?
• Did they share their own specification, label requirements or supplier approval forms?
• Did they introduce a colleague from quality or purchasing?

Each of these is a stronger quality signal than anything said at the stand, because it costs the buyer time. A lead that scored 11 at the stand and has not replied to four messages is not an A any more. A lead that scored 6 and sent you their supplier questionnaire probably is.

Comparing stand scores with 90-day scores is also how you improve the stand. If most of your stand A grades drop to C by day 90, the team is scoring enthusiasm, not fit. If many C grades rise, they are asking too few questions.

Costs and attribution, in brief

The full method for counting costs and turning them into an ROI figure is in how to measure trade show ROI and buyer conversion, and it applies to Anuga unchanged. Three points are worth adding for a food fair in Cologne. Count shipping of display product to and from the fair, including product that cannot come back. Count refrigerated or freezer display if you use it. And keep the samples line open for months, because sample requests from an Anuga list can keep arriving long after the stand is packed.

For attribution, tag every contact Anuga 2027 when it is entered, never later, and separate buyers the fair sourced (new to you, first contact at the fair or at a meeting booked for it) from buyers it influenced (existing buyers or open leads the meeting moved forward). Search your buyer list by email, phone and company before calling anyone new. Measure on gross margin rather than revenue. The ROI article covers the reasoning and a worked example.

Measuring what is specific to Anuga

A generic ROI method assumes you exhibit every year and compare like with like. Anuga needs a few adjustments.

The two-year gap. Because the fair is biennial, the 2025 contact list is your baseline for 2027. Before the show, grade the 2025 contacts that are still in your database with the same rubric, as far as your old notes allow. After 2027, you can compare grade distributions edition to edition, which is more useful than comparing card counts.

Trade visitors only, but not all buyers. The fair admits trade visitors only, which removes consumers but not suppliers, service providers or competitors. Report the X share separately. If it is high, the stand may be attracting the wrong visitors, which is a stand design or invitation question, not a follow up one.

Grade by product line, not just by lead. At a large food fair one stand may show several categories. Add a product line column and report grades per line. A line that draws many C grades and few A grades may not deserve the stand space at the next edition.

Compliance gaps as a result in their own right. List every certificate or approval buyers asked for that you could not offer, with the number of A and B leads that asked. That list can be the most actionable output of the whole measurement, because it tells you what to fix before 2029.

Pre-booked versus walk-up. Tag leads from meetings booked before the fair separately from walk-up visitors and compare their grades at day 90. It tells you whether pre-show outreach is worth more time next edition.

A measurement window that fits food sales cycles

Food buying cycles are long and irregular. A retailer may only add a product at a listing review; a manufacturer must approve a new supplier through its quality team; an importer may wait for the next crop. A single measurement point will miss most of what Anuga produces. Use several:

The decision on whether to book the next Anuga will probably have to be made well before month 24. Make it on the evidence available, and say clearly in the decision note which checkpoints are still open. A simple way to do this is to report three numbers at month 6 or 12: gross margin already earned from sourced buyers, the value of quotations still open, and the number of A and B buyers still in active conversation.

A hypothetical illustration of the reporting, not a benchmark: an exporter who met 180 visitors, graded 22 as A and 41 as B, sent 30 sample parcels and quoted 18 buyers by day 90 would report exactly those figures, then add first orders and margin at month 6. The value is in tracking the same numbers at every edition, so 2027 can be compared with 2025 and 2029.

Questions to answer before booking the next edition

Use the measurements to answer practical questions, not just to produce a ratio:

• Which buyer types produced A grades? Should the stand, products or invitations target them more?
• Which products drew the best leads? Were they the ones you gave most stand space to?
• Which certificates did buyers ask for that you did not have? Is it worth getting them before the next edition?
• How fast did A and B leads get their first message? Did speed differ by owner or region?
• How many sample parcels led to a quotation, and how many to nothing?
• What share of attributed margin came from sourced buyers versus influenced ones?
• Would pre-booked meetings, a different stand position or a shorter team rotation have changed the numbers?

How to do this in Double Export

Double Export has no lead scoring, so keep the rubric itself in a spreadsheet and store the result as tags: Grade A, Grade B, Grade C, Not a buyer, alongside Anuga 2027 and an attribution tag such as Sourced: Anuga 2027 or Influenced: Anuga 2027. Filter the buyer list by tag and country in the export CRM whenever you re-score, and search by email, phone or company before marking anyone as new; duplicate emails and phone numbers are also caught when you import a list. The trade show lead management page shows how event tags, the stand QR code and follow up connect.

For behaviour after the show, WhatsApp campaign results show sent, delivered, read, failed and replied for each step, and after which step a buyer replied. Email results show waiting, sent, bounced, stopped and finished; there is no open or click tracking, and Double Export does not read replies, so log replies in the buyer’s notes. A Product Sheet shows its view count and last viewed time for the sheet as a whole, so it reflects one buyer only when the sheet was made for that buyer and linked to their record. For A leads, a linked sheet each makes this a useful extra signal when you re-score.

Quotations and orders give you the revenue side. Build an export order from the buyer record and move it through Draft, Quoted, Confirmed and Completed (or Lost). Each buyer record shows export order history, open orders, spend and last order date, so at month 6 or 12 you can filter by Sourced: Anuga 2027 and read off who has ordered. See export order management for quotations, invoices and packing lists, and use the 30-day trade show follow up plan for the first month. Plans and limits are on the pricing page.