Booth staffing is critical to your trade show success, from exhibit traffic to lead generation to overall ROI.
• You can determine what type of booth staffing is best for your company: internal personnel, external brand ambassadors, or a mix of both.
• Every single person working in your trade show exhibit must be expertly trained on your company culture, key products and services, and effective trade show sales strategies.
• Learn which tips to follow and pitfalls to avoid in setting your booth staff up for a successful trade show.
A successful trade show requires multiple elements to work in harmony. You need a fantastic booth design that highlights your products, enticing giveaways to attract prospective customers, and an effective on-site team to work your booth. Although some exhibitors are able to check the first two items off their lists, booth staffing remains an enigma for many companies who want to increase their trade show ROI.
Fortunately, you can crack the code of successful booth staffing by choosing the right people and providing them with the training and tools they need to excel, and it starts with determining whether to use internal or external personnel.
Some companies have convention-savvy team members on their staff who love traveling to different trade show cities and working inside trade show exhibits. In fact, some salespeople, production experts, and C-suite executives truly look forward to these conferences. However, other organizations might not have the staff—or the bandwidth—to send their own employees out of the office, so they opt to partner with a third-party booth staffing company. Yet other organizations blend internal and external team members, and the decision is unique to each exhibitor.
In some ways, there’s nothing better than sending your own personnel to work your trade show exhibits. Here are a few reasons many companies choose to keep their booth staffing internal:
• No one knows your products better than the people who work with them every single day, so sometimes it’s ideal for internal team members to discuss your products and services with show floor prospects.
• Sending your own employees to a convention gives attendees a glimpse into who you really are as a company. Even if your trade show display signs brag about your company culture, your on-site personnel can really drive home the message.
• Personal touch. Prospective customers often value putting a face to a name. Since your on-site team might end up working on show attendees’ accounts when they become clients, meeting your personnel face-to-face might help land that sales lead.
Additionally, many employees consider professional travel a huge perk. They get to see new cities, hang out with their colleagues in a setting outside of the office, and are presented with the opportunity for personal and professional development by attending workshops and panel discussions during the conventions. Plus, if your booth display is showcasing a new product or service that your on-site team members worked on, they get to show off something they’re proud of, which can deepen their personal investment in the company.
Despite these advantages, it’s just not feasible for every exhibitor to staff their booth with their own employees. In those cases, a third-party company is a great option.
The other side of the booth staffing coin is hiring representatives from a third-party company to work your exhibit booth. Some exhibitors choose to bring in these external brand ambassadors for all sorts of reasons, and the first is their comfort and savviness in working trade show exhibits.
Not all salespeople excel on the show floor since it requires a completely different sales style than some professional salespeople are used to or comfortable with. A big part of your trade show success is turning cold leads into warm ones, and the fast-paced, in-person dynamic during a trade show can be challenging (and even intimidating). If your sales team is better suited for cold calls and face-to-face meetings with warm leads, hiring external booth staffers who are expert at show floor lead generation might increase your trade show ROI.
Another major reason to bring in external booth staffing help is, simply, timing. Third-party brand ambassadors allow you to keep your personnel working their normal office schedules instead of losing valuable time on travel days and show days. While your employees go about their daily business of serving your existing customers and generating new leads outside of the convention center, your external trade show staff can find new leads on the show floor and pass them on to your salespeople, who can convert them into customers after the show.
However, you’re not tied to choosing between internal or external personnel. Some exhibitors find their booth staffing sweet spot by blending these two options.
Choosing either your internal team or external experts to staff your exhibit display stands isn’t your only option. You can get the best of both worlds by blending the two! This is particularly helpful if you have a large exhibition booth design and not enough in-house employees to staff it.
For example, your external booth staffers can be stationed around the exterior of the booth space or at your custom reception area. As show attendees (in other words, prospective customers) approach, these brand ambassadors can take down some basic information and pass the prospect on to an on-site member of your internal team for additional assistance. In other words, you can have your cake and eat it too by filling up your booth space with helpful external professionals and your own internal experts.
Regardless of whether you choose to send your own employees to a show, partner with a booth staffing agency, or mix internal and external on-site staff, every single person working your exhibit booth needs appropriate training. Remember: this is a completely different type of sales than your team might be used to, so unless you have some seasoned trade show veterans on your sales team, be sure to spend time on this training.
Here are a few tips to effectively providing appropriate training for your on-site booth staff:
• Make sure they know the products. Everyone working inside your exhibit should be able to answer at least basic questions about your company’s products and services.
• Teach them good show floor habits. Make eye contact, convey happiness and excitement, and don’t be too pushy or aggressive. And for goodness’ sake, wear the company uniform shirts! Set your on-site team up for success by engraining in them the best trade show habits.
• Familiarize them with the booth design. Before they even board the plane for their trade show travel, your booth staff should know what the exhibit looks like and what amenities it has, such as a conference room, a locking closet, and custom product displays.
• Show them how to use the lead retrieval. Show site apps and lead retrieval machines are the bane of many trade show managers’ existences. If your on-site team doesn’t know how to collect prospects’ information, your trade show ROI could plummet.
Don’t forget to make it fun! While some people look forward to conventions, others dread the thought of being on the show floor. This training is your opportunity to really hype up the perks, including the awesome hotel you’ve booked and any events they’ll get to attend while they’re on site. With the right training and a positive attitude, everyone can have a fun and productive experience that brings home lots of warm sales leads.
In selecting and training your booth staffing team and designing your overall on-site convention strategy, there are some dos and don’ts to keep in mind. Regardless of who will work your booth display, you can follow a few tips and avoid some pitfalls to set yourself up for success.
Tips for a Successful Trade Show
A successful trade show doesn’t happen overnight. It takes months of planning, lots of hard work by the exhibiting and trade show booth design companies, and a multifaceted marketing strategy. However, poor on-site execution can turn a successful tradeshow into an all-out failure.
To help ensure your success, here are a few tips for you and your booth staffers:
• Have a clear message that your on-site team thoroughly understands and can easily communicate to attendees.
• Advertise your booth number and location on social media and with personal mailers before the show.
• Set yourself up with some great trade show giveaways to hand out to show floor prospects.
• Create—and stick to—a post-show follow-up strategy so warm leads don’t go cold.
Keep in mind that the right trade show strategy will be different for each exhibitor and each convention, so consider your company’s goals and tailor your efforts accordingly.
There are also some common show floor mistakes that can decrease your booth traffic and cause the entire show to fall flat for your company. First and foremost, a messy booth space is an automatic turnoff to many attendees. Make sure that a big part of your booth staffing instructions is keeping your space clean and tidy, even if it means paying for extra trash pickups or vacuum service throughout the show. Even a few overflowing wastebaskets or a carpet stain can wreck your entire booth design.
Second, make sure your on-site salespeople—be it your own personnel or third-party booth staffers—aren’t too aggressive or pushy. Talk to them about the sales style and strategy your company wants them to follow. Show floor communication is a direct reflection of your company, and your on-site team must act accordingly.
Finally, don’t fall into a scheduling pitfall. Although working a trade show can be fun and exhilarating, it can also be exhausting. If you have a lot of internal staff going to the convention, break up your team’s show floor hours with a rotating schedule instead of making the same few people work constantly. Give them an occasional bio break and a full lunch hour so they can sit a bit and rest their sore feet. A well-rested exhibit booth team is a happy and successful one, so prioritizing their on-site needs is a crucial building block of any successful trade show.
The best trade show booth design companies understand that your exhibit display stands need to be eye-catching and memorable, as well as accommodate the team that’ll work within it at every show. And we pride ourselves on topping that list! Our talented team is the experts in everything about trade show exhibits, including designing, fabricating, and installing an amazing display that’ll help your on-site team excel.
Contact us today to learn how we can create a booth for exhibition that’ll make your entire trade show calendar a roaring success!
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