A trade show is an excellent way to get your company in front of new clients, develop sales leads, and even sell products in some cases. Even when you choose the perfect trade show and have a flawless booth display, the key to a successful event often lies with your staff. Some larger companies may have a dedicated team of trade show attendees, but if you’re a small company without that team, it’s important to provide the right training to your staff to ensure they can put on a great show. Here are five things to train your booth staff on before the event.

1) Engagement

At an average trade show, you may have 10,000 or more attendees that pass by your booth. While not every attendee will be a prospective client, it is important for show staff to understand how to engage people as they walk past the booth.

Generally a booth with employees sitting behind a table has very few people who actually stop and talk to the staff, and even fewer who get useful information about the company. If you are going to spend the money to do a show, it’s important to reach out to enough people to make the cost worthwhile.

Asking questions is a very effective engagement method, as long as the person cannot give a one-word answer (“yes” or “no”) and continue walking. Ask questions that require them to stop and start a discussion, such as what products they are seeking, and try to be creative.

2) Qualifying Leads

Getting a lot of traffic through your booth and getting a lot of qualified traffic through your booth are two entirely different things. The goal of your booth is to drive business, so your staff should be trained to identify people who could become potential clients, and not spend excessive amounts of time with someone who will never buy your product or work with your company.

While you want to train your staff to be polite, you also want them to be able to ask specific questions in one or two minutes that will quickly help them identify qualified individuals. Questions about what they are looking for, how their company solves a specific problem, etc. can be very useful. If they are not qualified, train your staff to politely end the conversation so they can spend more time with good leads.

3) Putting on a Good Presentation

Whether you are doing a demo of your product, or simply describing your service to show attendees, it’s all in the presentation. If your booth staff is spending 30 minutes on a presentation that should be done in 5 minutes, prospective clients will get bored and leave, and you will lose out on the opportunity to talk to as many people as possible. Train your staff and practice the presentations so they can convey all the benefits of your product or service quickly, but in a memorable and impactful way.

4) Closing the Sale

If you are selling a product, the close is when you need to get a customer past the exploration phase to the purchase. If you’re just providing information about your company, products, or services, the close is the part where you get good information to follow up with leads after the show. Train your staff on how to reach an agreement with prospective clients on the next step (for example, “How would you like me to follow up with you next week?”). Staff should be as specific as possible about the follow-up schedule, and then be sure that information is clear so they or someone else can follow through.

5) Miscellaneous Tips

Here are a few more do’s and don’ts for booth staff so they are always displaying professional behavior and making a good impression.

• Avoid eating while in the booth. Try to staff enough people, especially during meal times, so that people can leave and eat their meals.
• Avoid talking on the phone, texting, or surfing the internet. This can be difficult if the show is slow, but it’s important to remain professional and engaged during show hours.
• Pay attention to body language. Avoid having your arms crossed or sending other uninviting messages, and always, always have a smile on your face.
• Keep fresh breath. Talking for hours can make your mouth dry, and your breath smell bad. Be sure to keep a stock of water and breath mints on hand. Avoid chewing gum.
• Wear appropriate attire. This includes comfortable shoes and clothing that fits with your industry. If you’re at a banking convention, jeans and a sweatshirt are probably inappropriate. In addition, wear layers in case it is cold or hot inside the convention hall.
• Don’t talk to other booth staff or sit down while prospects walk by. Engagement is key, so have your full attention directed at show attendees and be inviting.

Properly trained booth staff can make a show worth the time and money that you put into it, so it’s important to prepare them in advance for success.

Outdoor advertising is a great way to capitalize on earning additional revenue, and is something that big corporations and small business both take part in.  Convention participation is a marketing strategy that that many companies across the country employ to promote their business and bring prospective clients to the table.

Getting ready for a convention, however, takes a lot of planning and a dedicated staff of employees who are willing to travel and represent the company.  During the summer months it isn’t uncommon for the event venue to be held in the great outdoors, but if you plan on taking your business outside, there are a few things to consider first:

1.  What size of space will I be working from?

The area that you have to work from largely determines the kind of displays and equipment that you can reasonable use.  If you end up reserving a smaller space, don’t think that you can’t make an impressive statement.  Event tents, banner stands, and even executive chairs can be designed to fit your space beautifully and create an impression that won’t soon be forgotten.

2. What are my outdoor display options?

When an event takes place outdoors, the sky is the limit. If you can dream it, a display company can accommodate for it.  Of course there are lots of options when it comes to outdoor displays, some of the more popular choices that big corporations and small business make include:

• Event Tents.  These can be made to fit a variety of spaces.  Generally they are made in a canopy style fashion which makes them easy to assemble and comfortable to do business in.  Some display companies even make full and half sidewalls so you can divide you space in an attractive and functional way.

• Outdoor Banner Stands.  This is a light, yet extremely durable product that can be set up in seconds.  Mesh fabric is custom dyed according to the customer’s design needs and complete with impressive graphics and details.  To keep the system stable and in place, the base can be filled with water or sand.
  

3. How long will my displays last?

It may surprise you that displays are made to be used and reused over and over.  It’s not a one-time-use expense, but rather an investment that will last for a number of years.  Displays for both indoor and outdoor events are made from durable materials that are as beautiful as they are functional.

Getting ready for your next outdoor event is easy when you employ the services of a reputable display company.  Plan ahead to ensure the items you want can be made and ready for your next event.

Timeline For Planning An Outdoor Marketing Event

There are as many different reasons for renting a booth at an outdoor marketing event as there are different types of marketing events. It is a great way to attract new customers, introduce new products or services to existing customers and position your company as experts in the industry. Tradeshows and other outdoor marketing events also allow you to keep a close eye on what your competition is doing. It takes more than just a few weeks to successfully plan and execute an outdoor marketing event, however. Here is a general timeline to help you stay on task.

One Year Out

Establish a budget for both indoor and outdoor marketing events. Decide which industry events will be most beneficial to attend, allocate the necessary funds and mark your calendar.

Six Months Out

Determine what your objectives for attending the show will be. You can then rent the space necessary to meet those objectives and design your booth accordingly. If you are promoting a series of webinars, you may want to incorporate a large screen monitor that streams some of the highlights. Or, if you are peddling fitness apps at an outdoor retailer show, it may be more beneficial to create an interactive iPad station where customers can really get a feel for what you have to offer. Either way, you will want to make arrangements to rent or buy all of the necessary elements for your booth. These may include:

• Tents
• Digital signage
• Tables
• Chairs
• Counters
• Kiosks
• Electronic equipment
• Flagpoles
• Flooring

You will also want to decide on any pre-show promotion vehicles that you may want to use.

Five Months Out

At this time you should select targeted publications for pre-show publicity and promotions. Begin writing press releases, purchase advertising space in trade publications and select your lists for e-mail marketing.

Four Months Out

Incentives and promotional products are a huge part of tradeshow marketing. Now is the time to select and order such items. Be sure that they complement the overall theme of your booth display and brand your company.

It is also a good idea to secure hotel reservations for those who will be attending the outdoor marketing event if it is in another city. Hotels near the venue tend to fill up quickly.

Trade shows are a time for businesses to market themselves, gain new clients, reveal a new product and to just have a good time with like-minded individuals. Not everyone has the same objective in mind when they attend a trade show, but there are a few fundamental ideas that should be kept in mind in order to have a successful trade show no matter what your reasons are for attending.

READ MORE

Read our trade show article this month on All Displays section of our site. We give advice on hiring professionals to work at your trade shows, getting the correct size display, engaging attendees and other helpful trade show tips.

Ideas for trade show booths

Your booth display is one of your most powerful weapons at a trade show, so you’ll want to make sure that you wield that weapon wisely. A booth display draws the eye before a trade show attendee even sees the person at the booth. It’s not unusual for companies to spend thousands, even millions of dollars on a modular display, truss display or tension fabric display. Before you devote your entire budget to an expensive display, take a few minutes to think of other things you can do to make your booth display more effective at a trade show.

Use the Past as Your Prologue

Look at the types of booth displays that companies similar to yours have done in the past to get an idea of what’s effective and what’s ineffective. Don’t attempt to copy their ideas, but instead take note of what made the displays so effective and recreate a similar effect for your table display. Some of the most successful booths have used multimedia presentations, so think of incorporating those with your displays. Computers, televisions, music and projects have also been proven to be effective booth display tools.

Read the rest of the article here…