Choosing the right people to man your booth at an exhibition.

A few recent CEIR (Centre for Exhibition Industry Research) reports have focussed on an issue that I have been dealing with for the thirty years I have been in the event marketing business – Exhibit training.

The first finding in these reports unveils a difference between attendees’ preference of the booth staff they would like to meet against the strong exhibitors’ reliance on staffing their booth with primarily salespeople. When questioned, 8% of attendees believed that they had received a very good service whilst 78% of exhibitors claimed to provide a very good service. What a discrepancy!

What was once regarded as the “norm” to man a booth with salespeople needs to be re-examined in the light of these CEIR reports which have shown how the changing demographics and objectives of those who attend will affect the type of information they want. We know through research that the two main objectives of exhibitors are building brand awareness and sales lead generation, but today’s attendees are not interested in being sold. They would rather be educated in new upcoming trends or engage in finding solutions to the problems they face. Yet, exhibitors continue to staff their booths with salespeople. For a successful Trade Show, the objectives of both exhibitors and attendees should match to have a mutually beneficial interaction.

The second finding of these reports looks at the issue of booth-staff training. 52% of exhibitors seldom provide booth-staff training while 18% only provide training for major shows.

Why is booth-staff training not considered seriously? The 2 main reasons are: -    a mistaken belief that salespeople are best able to handle exhibit traffic -    avoiding the extra costs associated with specialised training. 

The majority of companies who participate in exhibitions have never taken the time to consider the benefits that specialised training could bring to them. As an example, most exhibitors don’t understand the advantages of hiring hostesses who have no knowledge of the company nor products. Nevertheless, these hostesses are professionals and as such they know how to attract attendees, qualify them very quickly, send them towards the right member on the booth, give them brochures when required, take their details, make adequate appointments and much more. They save you so much time and energy. They are also well versed in standing on their feet all day long for several days. Most companies put lots of resources into the appeal and purpose of their exhibit but neglect selecting the right staff and making sure that they all understand their role in the exhibit. Companies who produce great results are usually the first to select the right team (managers, technical, sales, marketing…) and take advantage of training. The rest look at it as an unjustified expense.

So, whose responsibility is it to train the booth-staff? Each of the stakeholders (exhibitors, exhibitions organisers and service suppliers) could and should offer the training of companies who participate in trade exhibitions.

Exhibitions organisers and suppliers not only have a huge advantage over exhibitors, but it is also in their interest to have return satisfied exhibitors. They deal with exhibitors and exhibitions on a regular basis and have inside knowledge about specific events. They can foresee crucial mistakes which if left unchanged could result in a poor show for the exhibitors. The result of their inaction is an unhappy company that ultimately will not return or will reduce its investment dramatically because its results didn’t match its expectations and, in most cases, achieved a poor ROI.

After thirty years and tons of research, I believe it is so important to ensure that trade exhibitions are understood and used to leverage long terms client’s relations and ultimately business growth.

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