15 Tips to Help Your Booth Staff Have a Successful Show

1. Set clear goals and explain them to your booth personnel. The objectives should be measurable, quantifiable, achievable, and clearly explained.
2. If you are a new company, introducing a new product, or participating in the Exhibitor Product Demonstration, be sure to highlight your participation at the show with pre-show promotions such as mailings, flyers, or VIP passes.
3. Forecast sales volume by product, market segment and geographic area.
4. Educate yourself on your customers, market potential, and buying habits of potential customers.
5. Practice your sales approach. Know your products and the sales approach to use with each.
6. Know the strength and weaknesses of your competitors at the show.
7. Choose a sales strategy that compliments your booth design.
   1. Static – Meeting, greeting, qualifying and communicating are all done by booth staffers.
   2. Giveaways – Using non-selective, crowd-attracting approaches means you need more staff to engage and qualify the large number of prospects drawn into the booth.
   3. Audio/Visual – Keeping prospects busy by showing an audio/visual presentation allows you to read their badges and step in to offer specific details and benefits.
   4. Exhibitor Product Demonstrations – Whether in your booth or at the booth on the show floor designated for demonstrations, these require careful planning and pre-show promotions.
8. Learn to "read" the different types of attendees and modify your sales approach to appeal to each individual. Different personalities require a different approach.
9. Use the lead retrieval system to quickly gather lead information.
10. Do not use slow traffic periods on the floor as a time to sit, look bored, or show frustration. Instead, straighten up your booth, restock magazines or flyers, or make notes on sales leads.
11. Do not overwhelm potential customers with too much information at one time.
12. Know when to get rid of distracters, pests and competitors. You want to use the limited selling hours to your best advantage.
13. Check out other exhibits and staffers to learn what to do and what not to do. Adapt any procedures that seem effective and appealing to you.
14. Meet with your booth personnel for 10-15 minutes after each day of the show to review the events of that day.
15. Reward high achievers in the booth. Return on investments is the key to a successful trade show.