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Trade Show Staff

Tradeshows

Trade Show Staff

Written by Rayzelle Forrest Young for Gaebler Ventures

Gives advice about selecting and properly training your trade show staff. Stresses the importance of being professional and being prepared.

Staffing your trade show exhibit goes hand in hand with creating an effective trade show booth.

When selecting your trade show staff you want to make sure you choose individuals that can interact with booth visitors as well as present themselves in a professional manner. You could make use of your own staff, consult a temp agency to provide you with a staff or even use a mixture of both. Whatever route you decide to take in selecting your trade show staff there are some important steps you will need to take to make sure they are ready.

Train Before The Show

Train your trade show staff before the day of the show. This step in staffing your trade show should be done before every show, even if you are using staffers that you've used before. Make sure they are familiar with your product or service and knows exactly how it works. It would be wise to make use of greeters in order to direct the flow of traffic to your booth. Trade show visitors can very easily get lost in traffic and miss stopping by your booth altogether.

Remain Professional

Your trade show staff should remain professional at all times. Make sure they are dressed professionally and address visitors in a professional manner. Advise them not to congregate in groups so as not to look like they are socializing. They should never eat, drink or chew gum in the booth. This should be done at designated break times and never in the booth. Advise booth staffers not to wear strong fragrances and to be well groomed.

Give Undivided Attention

Booth staffers should always give their undivided attention to visitors. There should never be any talking or texting on cell phones. They should be focusing their attention at all times with conversing with trade show visitors. This includes answering questions and providing pertinent information about your product or service. Advise them not to overload attendees with information. Just give enough to peak the interest of visitors so they can ask questions about the product or service. Trade show attendees don't like to feel like they are being bombarded and pressured into buying what you have.

Be Prepared and Arrive Early

Instruct your trade show booth staff to arrive early. This gives them a chance to stock the booth with promotional materials and set up any other items such as any technical features that you want them to use. If the trade show is more than one day, they should continue to arrive early everyday in order to restock any materials that may have been used up the day before.

Reward Staff

Reward your staff for all their hard work once the trade show is over. This could be as simple as taking them out to dinner or lunch or even celebrating with a party back at the office. Make sure all staff members are recognized and no one is left out. If you see to it that you reward your staff after every show, they will feel appreciated and be more willing to work at trade shows again.

Rayzelle is an entrepreneur and writer. Based on her experiences as an owner of her own dance studio, she will share her personal tips on being a successful entrepreneur.