Your exhibition stand staffers are your company ambassadors – develop their skills
and train them and they will deliver
Communication with exhibition visitors starts 20 feet from your exhibition stand.
You have 3 – 5 seconds to grab attention. Your exhibition stand staff are crucial
to your exhibition success.
Having invested time and money in planning and promoting your exhibition participation,
the last thing you need is for your exhibition stand staff to mess it up. Choose
your people carefully and train them. Tell them why you are exhibiting, your exhibiting
objectives, what you expect of them and how you expect them to do it.
You might want to consider a specific exhibition stand staff training session. Include
selling techniques as working an exhibition stand is very different from the traditional
face-to-face selling environment.
A major reason for attending an exhibition is to source new ideas, products and
suppliers. Narrowing down their search for a preferred supplier is also another
major reason. A third of visitors use exhibitions to ultimately make their purchase
decision.
For these reasons your exhibition stand staff need to understand why they are exhibiting
and what is expected of them. The exhibition environment is a highly visible one
where eyes and ears are everywhere. Your stand staff need to understand that their
behaviour and conduct is as much on show as your products or services. Keep them
motivated, fresh and alert.
A pre-show briefing is a prerequisite to exhibiting success.
Conducting a pre-show briefing enables you to communicate your exhibiting strategy
to your stand staff. Your briefing session should include:
- Reasons for exhibiting
- Your target audience
- A review of exhibition visitor profiles
- The personal responsibilities and targets
- A review the products/services to be exhibited
- A run through demonstrations and presentations to be given
- An explanation of the design of the stand including the graphics
- An explanation of the enquiry handling procedures
- A presentation of the sales literature to be used
- An explanation of any competitions, giveaways or incentives to be used
- An explanation of the stand dress code
- A list of all the stand staff including a staff rota and scheduled breaks
- Show dates, times and venue
- Catering arrangements
- Accommodation and transport arrangements
- Details of off-stand activities
Your exhibition stand staff need to listen more than talk.
Choose your stand staff carefully – it is not always the case that sales people
make the best exhibition stand staff. It is a completely different environment to
the selling experience they are used to. Good sales people often talk too much and
in an exhibition environment, it is the visitor that needs to do the talking.
Train your exhibition stand staff to ask powerful questions that enable them to
engage, qualify, present and close within a pre-determined time
span. This process is important so that your stand staff don’t waste time with visitors
that are not serious prospects for your product or service.
Exhibition marketing is a specialist area for Marketingesp. We
can help you with all aspects of successful exhibiting – planning, stand design
and construction, promotion, stand staff training and measurement. For a free, no-obligation
meeting contact us on 05600 473060 or
email.
Read more about preparing your exhibition stand staff in our
Articles and Tips
section.
top
|
ESP Top Tip: Invest the time to train your stand staff - they are your ambassadors
FREE stuff – loads of really useful exhibiting
tips and marketing advice FREE
ESP Top Tip: Conduct pre-show briefings so that everyone involved understands the objectives and what is expected
free marketing newsletter
ESPinsight - free marketing tips and advice.
Sign up FREE
Portable display stands for exhibitions and events
Modular and custom built exhibition stands
|