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Proper training and scheduling of personnel for your trade show booth is critically important to a successful trade show event. How many times have we all visited a booth only to be greeted by someone with zero knowledge of the products or services being offered – or worse yet – not greeted at all! Or how about the booth with nobody working it – we’ve all seen that one and probably walked away with a less than positive impression.
Time is your enemy when it comes to training and scheduling of booth personnel. You’ll need plenty of time to:
- Develop your “dream team” booth staff wish list
- Approach potential team members and their managers to sign them up
- Schedule training sessions
- Work with internal experts to create training materials
- Hold pre-show training sessions
- Hold on-site pre-show kickoff meeting the night prior to the start of the show
In your training sessions you’ll need to cover not only booth procedures like greetings, lead capture and procession, but also product and service training from your internal product experts (generally product managers and sales managers and/or trainers). The focus should be on the “elevator pitch” for your products and services as well as “what’s new” for more knowledgeable customers. You will only have a minute to two to grab a potential customer’s attention so staff personnel need to be sharp and concise. The trade show environment is unique since it provides a volume of qualified buyers, but these buyers have very little time to spend with any individual exhibitors due to the extensive conference schedules and large number of exhibitors in the exhibit hall.
Given that lead capture may be the #1 goal for your trade show be sure to carefully train and test all booth personnel on the specific system you’ll be using for lead capture. Most shows offer lead capture systems and they’ll probably be slightly different from show to show. Don’t assume that anyone knows how to use the lead capture system and even if it seems simple be sure to provide detailed training on the system from how to turn it on, to how to scan a badge, to how to make sure the badge was correctly read. Remember – your job is on the line if you come back from the show with missing or incomplete leads!
All good education requires testing. Testing forces students to carefully think through what you’ve tried to teach them and also points out any areas that need re-training. So don’t be afraid to have a written test or “pop quiz” during or after each training session.