3 Tips for Success with your Trade Show Booths
After a company invests countless hours into planning and designing the perfect trade show booths, the actual event itself should be a cinch, right? The products or services are complemented by a variety of marketing materials which are cleverly placed on the trade show display, the message is prominent and the booth graphics are eye-catching. It’s now time to throw a few employees into the exhibit, tell them to smile and start gathering leads, isn’t it?
Unfortunately, the majority of trade show booths that fail miserably owe the experience to improperly trained and unprepared staff. The staff’s product knowledge and their ability to greet, engage and qualify visitors will be the deciding factor in any trade show booth’s success. Utilizing a few tricks and incentives to drive traffic towards an exhibit stand can improve traffic, increase interest in your wares and increase the amount of leads passed to the sales team. Below are three best practices when prepping your staff for trade show success.
Prep Staff Members for Flawless Demonstrations
Having products to demo is not only effective once attendees arrive at your trade show booths; it is also useful in getting them to the booth. Your exhibit staff should be trained to setup, load and troubleshoot product demos as needed to ensure visitors have a smooth experience. For instance, if a video is being demonstrated, the video should be cued and ready to play without glitches or issues. Giving potential customers a sneak-peak at trade show booths can ruin your company’s reputation if you haven’t first taken the time to sort out any problems with your demo items or trade show booth technology.
Teach “Visitor Etiquette” to the Staff
Team members should be properly trained to draw attendees to the trade show booth. If your exhibition displays are staffed by individuals who aren’t trained to engage visitors, a bleak outcome can be expected. Attendees are more prone to warm up to the staff if there is a high likeability factor present.
When a prospect approaches your trade show booths, talking is not as effective as asking and listening. Instead of talking about the laundry list of benefits provided by your product or services, ask open-ended questions. “What do you think about the show” is a better question to begin dialogue than “here is our product—it does this, that and the other.” After building quick rapport, people are usually more receptive to learning about your offerings.
For maximum effectiveness with trade show booths, create a quick introductory speech that highlights the benefits of the products and services. This script is created with the notion that show attendees will not come to your exhibition display without a good reason. Once the team members learn the script, they can open up dialogue with passing guests, describe the products and services more consistently and win over more prospects. 
Use the Power of Incentives to Lure More Prospects
Trade show booths always attract more visitors when they offer incentives. In exchange for a possible customer’s contact information, a free gift is a worthy investment. An expensive looking pen or highly valued digital device is guaranteed to increase the incoming leads to your exhibition displays. The chances of winning a paid vacation or new flat screen TV—on your company’s dime—just might entice the most skeptical prospects into filling out lead cards! (TIP – instead of renting a flat screen monitor for the show, buy one in town and raffle it off to qualified prospects!)
Regardless of the economy or how much cash a company has to invest in a show, the tactics above are very effective in preparing the staff for a succesful event. By giving flawless demonstrations, using valuable incentives and training staff members to engage the audience, your trade show booths will be the best investment that money can buy.
For more, read our article on how to attract visitors with your booth or check out how to get “that guy” to leave your booth.