Topic

Staffing

Choose, train and coach a booth team that starts conversations and qualifies leads.

Your booth staff is the part of your trade show investment that visitors actually talk to. A good exhibit gets people to slow down, but the person standing in the booth decides whether that visitor leaves as a qualified lead or as one more badge scan. I've trained booth staff to start better conversations and qualify leads, and the same few things matter at every show.

Rehearse before the doors open

Nobody works a trade show every day, so practice it like a play rehearsal. Run through how you'll start conversations and what you'll ask, then practice your answers to the objections you hear most. My first show taught me this the hard way, and I wrote about it in one of my biggest trade show mistakes.

Agree on what a qualified lead is

If your team doesn't share a definition, your lead count won't mean much after the show. Write down the two or three qualifying questions every staffer should ask, and put them on a one-page cheat sheet with your key products. Then measure against that definition, not against the number of badges you scanned.

Start with the visitor's work, not your pitch

A question about what the visitor does gets a better conversation going than a product speech. Ask first and listen, then explain what you do in a sentence or two. It also helps to walk in with meetings already on the calendar, and my pre-show email templates are built for that.

Bringing in local help

If you need extra hands, local staffing agencies can supply booth hosts, lead-capture help and product demonstrators. Book early for big shows and brief them before the doors open. Register them through the show, too, so they have exhibitor badges. Temporary staff aren't your full-time employees, so in buildings where only full-time employees can set up without union labor, they can't help build the booth. My convention center guides cover the labor rules city by city.

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