Sam Bowie.
You’ve probably never heard of him. Sam Bowie was the 2nd pick of the 1984 NBA draft. The next pick was one you may have heard of…Michael Jordan.
NBA team management and trade shows aren’t apples to apples. But both require planning, personnel strategy, and execution.
Here are some key things to consider as you plan the strategy and personnel for your next trade show.
Identify the Mission
All organizations are out promoting their goods or services at trade shows. However, the specific purpose is more. Are you out to build brand awareness (startups, rebrands, etc.)? Is networking a primary goal? Is it simply to generate leads? Or are you out to educate your audience through physical demonstrations or demos?
Each of these would demand a different set of strengths from your booth staff.
Be sure you, and executive leadership are all on the same page regarding the primary
goal of your trade shows. If you don’t have a clear target, you’re in trouble.
Whom Shall I Send?
Like your exhibit, preshow marketing, and everything about your trade show, your people should represent the brand, values, mission, and tone. I’m a big fan of uniforms or coordinated pallet of swag apparel; it provides control, makes identifying staff for attendees easy, and creates consistency.
Key behaviors and traits that are critical to success at shows include:
Outgoing and Approachable – staff should always have their attention on the attendees, focus on smiling, and welcoming people into the booth.
Energy – shows are exhausting physically and mentally. There are few environments where you spend as much time on your feet and have dozens or even hundreds of face-to-face interactions. The ideal staffer is an energizer bunny, maintaining positivity and energy despite the challenges.
Team Mentality – the exhibit and brand experience is a shared responsibility. Keeping it clean, welcoming, fully staffed is not just your job, but that of the team. The ideal staff will never eat in the booth, will engage in good booth staff behavior, police others, and never leave the exhibit unattended.
How Many to Send
A staff congested booth staff can be intimidating and overwhelming for an attendee. Not to mention a drain of valuable resources. Conversely a sparsely staffed exhibit can result in attendees leaving due to impatience, a poor reflection on your brand and company, and missed leads and opportunities.
To assess your staffing needs, consider the following:
Analyze Existing Data: If you have been exhibiting, collect data. How many staff have you been sending? Are there times you’re missing traffic due to limited staff? Be sure to record how many you send to each show moving forward and
observe and record traffic patterns.
Use Prevailing Exhibitor Logic such as 2 staffers per 100sf as a baseline.
Create a Matrix that Dictates the Number of Staff
For example, when I was an exhibitor, we sent 1 staff per 1,000 people,
and that worked perfectly for our product, our exhibit spaces, and our
show schedule, our booth space and our company. We followed that 95%
of the time. Find what works for your company.
If you know your mission, put meaningful and precise thought into personnel selection,
and send the right number of people; you will be sure to have a more successful event.
Never stop measuring your booth staff performance.
“That which is measured improves” – Karl Pearson.
