An integral part of all presentations at trade show exhibits is the personnel who represent the company. These people will be the face of the company and will carry the marketing message and philosophy of a company. Potential customers who visit the trade show booth must feel comfortable talking to these personnel. Indifferent and arrogant staff will put off people and they will just walk off. So, here are tips to train staff who can manage a booth effectively.
Goals
Message
Image
Role play
Promotions
Staff meeting
Rewards.
First identify the right staff that can be trained to man trade show booths. They must then be educated about goals of your company for the trade show. Each type of strategy increasing visibility, launch of a new product, making sales, generating leads or establishing contacts all require different marketing strategies. Different trade shows can be used to promote different messages. Rather than try and sell all the goals of a company each time, focus on a couple of messages for each show.
Then train your staff on how to highlight these messages to clients. Explain to your staff the kind of image of the company you want them to put forth. Walk them through video presentations and tell them how to explain products on display and how to use brochures and other pamphlets to increase sales. Staff should take on the role of friendly, enthusiastic people who are respectful of their customers and willing to listen to them patiently. The trade show booth rental must be an inviting place where people enjoy spending a few minutes.
Use different types of promotions to attract people to your trade show booth rental. Give some free gifts, conduct small contests, quizzes or video presentations to engage customers. Just listening to long sales talk is certainly boring. Interactive demos can interest them to spend more time. After all your goal is to ensure people visit and spend time at a booth. The longer they spend, the greater are the chances of it being converted into a sale.
Whether you have your own booth or trade show booth exhibit rentals, make your staff familiar with the booth, exhibits and the exhibition hall itself. As soon as you decide to participate in a trade show, visit the venue, try, and book the most prominent location. The day before the show commences, have a meeting with all staff who will be manning the booth, talk them through the presentation, show them ways to use the exhibits and how to draw customers to your booth. Employees who are walked through a typical booth scenario will be able to perform better.
The booth must never be left unmanned during the entire time the trade show is open. Staff must take staggered breaks, so that someone is at the booth at all times. As CEO it is your duty to visit the trade show exhibit a few times and see how your staff are doing and plan new strategies if needed. At the end of each trade show, reward staff by entertaining them to an evening out. This gives time for everyone to strengthen the bond and for staff to feel appreciated.
As already mentioned, the way to attract customers to your exhibit rentals is by not just giving sales talks but having games with prizes and free gifts. Fun games with assured gifts will draw customers for human psychology is such that they enjoy getting free stuff however small. A quiz about the company's products is a good way to make sales. Have a banner with a few salient points mentioned and once people have read it, draw them over to a table to answer a quiz. Give gifts based on the number of questions answered.
Give a small gift to someone even if he has not answered any question. In this way, you will get people to read about your product. Free gifts like cookies, candies, notepads, pens and such with the company logo printed along with contact details is always a great attraction at trade shows. So, find new and innovative ways to attract clients and increase company sales.
Article by Mark Delacruz of PopAndExhibits, who is a specialist in exhibit displays. For more information on trade show display and trade show rentals, visit his site today.