One of the most important steps to take in order to have a truly successful exhibiting experience is the training of your booth staff. Your staff accounts for 90% of the "positive feelings" that show attendees have about the show and your company, making the people you send to represent your investment extremely important. Trade show attendees usually go to shows to get detailed information about products and services they need, so they expect your booth staff to be very knowledgeable.
Checklists

It's really not enough to just send your top sales reps and hope for the best. Engaging a trade show attendee takes a different approach than a typical sales call. For instance, you have to engage the attendee very quickly and in a way that pulls them into a conversation. Simply saying "Hi. How are you today?" opens up the opportunity for the show attendee to say "fine" and keep on walking.

The First Cut
As we mentioned previously, you want to send your most "people-oriented" representatives, as well as those who know the most about your company (and if you're lucky, they'll be one and the same). You should also look for enthusiastic, high-energy representatives who have a naturally positive attitude and an air of confidence about them. Because a large part of any type of sales presentation includes an element of consulting, your selected representatives must also be good listeners.

Sending the Message
As we discussed earlier, part of your show planning process is setting the objectives for the show. Do you want to take orders on the spot, build your brand awareness, introduce a new product and gather leads, etc.? Whatever your goal for the show may be, make sure your booth staff understands exactly what the goal is. You should arm them with the message you want to send, along with specific details to back that message up. They should also be armed with information about your competition and the competitive advantage your product/service has. Examples and stories they use to illustrate should be about people (whether fictional or not) rather than abstract ideas. Finally, make sure they can emphasize the benefits of your product or service instead of simply regurgitating the product "features" list from your brochure.

So you've selected the most promising candidates, detailed what the show goals are, and explained in detail how the company should be presented. Now you need to put your candidates through some simple training exercises to show them how to engage show attendees so that they actually get to use the information you've armed them with. There are four phases in trade show selling:
Engagement
Qualification
Presentation
Closing
Engagement
First, as we mentioned above, engaging the show attendee is not as simple as you might think. Assuming you don't have a magic show, a live animal promo, or other crowd magnet, the burden of getting people to stop at your booth is on your booth staff. The first rule of engagement is: Don't ask a question that will allow the attendee to simply give you a one word answer and keep on walking. Ask them what product they are looking for at the show, whether this show has been as helpful for them as another show, if they are familiar with your company, etc. Be creative -- this is a critical step, and the goal is to get them to stop and talk to you.

Qualification
Phase two is the qualifying phase. You certainly don't want to waste your time on someone who isn't really interested in your product, so it pays to ask some qualifying questions right off the bat. There's nothing worse than seeing six good prospects walk by while you're politely listening to someone who you suspect doesn't even need your product. (Yes, this can happen, especially if you have cool giveaways at your booth.)

So to qualify your prospect, take one to two minutes to ask some specific questions like, "Tell me about what you're looking for at the show." "Tell me about how your company does ______." Essentially, just ask them whatever you need to ask to identify whether or not they need your product or service.

Presentation
Phase three is show time! Time to do your tap dance and dazzle the prospect with the many benefits of using your product as opposed to the other guys'. Remember to limit your presentation to about five minutes or less and make your message as memorable as possible. If you've done a good job identifying your show goals, product message and competitive advantages, then this phase should be a cake walk. It's typically the easiest phase for your staff because, if they're sales reps, it's basically a condensed version of what they do every day.

Closing
The final phase is probably the most important of all, and the key to a successful closing is making sure you and your prospects are in common agreement about the next step. Ask them how they would like for you to follow up. That puts the ball in their court and forces them to say, "Yes, send me a package of information" or "Yes, call me on Tuesday about a quote." And yes, you do want to get specific with call back times. The more specific you can get, the more likely they will remember who you are when you call.

So those are the basic steps involved in trade show presentations. Go through the process with your booth staff and rehearse with each other. Pull in office mates to play the role of the trade show attendees and assign them personality types to make it more fun and challenging for your booth staffers. Having prepared booth staffers can make the difference between a very successful show and a not-so-successful show.

Now that everyone is trained and ready, you need to get them organized. First you need to assign a Show Captain to be in charge and manage the other staff members. Even if you are attending a small show and are only sending two staffers, it still makes sense to do this so they know who is responsible for what.
Part of the Captain's job will include organizing booth rotations and breaks. There are always other activities during the show such as vendor meetings, client luncheons, training sessions, etc., that warrant sending a booth staffer to attend. The Captain should review the show schedule and set up an appropriate schedule for the booth staff based on the exhibit hours and competing events. Once everyone arrives, the captain will also lead a pre-show meeting to go over the show objectives, strategies, special booth presentations, etc., and to answer any last minute staff questions. It's also a good idea to meet each morning prior to the show to talk about experiences and problems from the previous day.

You'll also need to assign someone the job of managing the show leads. This person will ensure that follow-up letters are written, information packets are prepared for mailing, and lead forms are filled out correctly and completely (including assigning a priority code based on your own pre-determined system). You'll find that a lead management system will work much better and you'll have a much higher percentage of closures if you assign one person the responsibility of managing it.

Additional Tips
Here are few additional tips that your booth staff should keep in mind while at the show.

Don't eat in the booth.
Don't talk on the phone in the booth.
Watch your body language. (Don't stand with your arms folded across your chest -- it's not an "inviting" stance.)
Remember breath mints!
Take breaks -- about five minutes per hour.
Wear comfortable shoes.
Dress depending upon your industry and market.
Don't carry on conversations with other booth staff while prospects are walking by.
Don't sit down while attendees are in the exhibit hall.
Do venture out into the aisle to greet attendees.
Make sure you have a pen and a lead form handy at all times.
Okay, your staff is armed and ready. Now go make some money! Next, we'll help you set up a system to get the most out of your show leads. 


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