Why Trade Show Booth Staffing Matters
Trade show booth staffing should be easy. Tell the sales team to go to the show. Then invite someone from marketing or perhaps a go-getter from customer service. Ignore accounting, engineering, operations, and senior management. Easy peasy. And yet…
Consider this. Trade shows are expensive, chaotic, overwhelming, and confusing. They’re also an excellent venue for introducing products and services, meeting new clients, and generating business. Getting it right requires setting goals, creating a strategy, completing a list of tasks, and bringing the right team. The team matters.
Unfortunately, most trade show booth staffers don’t have a clue why they’re spending 5-6 hours a day for three days in their company’s exhibition booth. Fortunately, it isn’t hard to create an All-Star Booth Staff. It simply takes planning, communication, and discipline.
Key Takeaways
- Don’t be afraid to think outside the box when choosing your booth staff
- Booth size, expected traffic, and your objectives will dictate your booth staff size
- Staffing is about more than who’s in the booth. It’s who’s valuable at the trade show
- Training. Training. Training. The best teams understand their roles and don’t go rogue once the show starts
- You’ll make mistakes. That’s OK. But addressing them quickly matters
Key Considerations for Trade Show Staffing
Trade shows are a battlefield with winners and losers. On that battlefield, strategy and implementation outperforms brute strength every time. What are the goals? Is everyone clear about them? At a minimum, there should be a strategy and planning “booth camp” meeting before the show. Then, there should be alignment meetings every day before the show opens. Some companies even have meetings after the show hall closes to review leads, answer questions, and prepare for the next day.
When it comes to your trade show staff, you get what you tolerate. When you expect more, your team will rise to the challenge. Set clear expectations, communicate your goals, plan your strategy, and manage the environment, the days, and your post-show communication. It’s not easy, but your team (and your boss) will sing your praises when it’s “Go Time!”
Factors That Determine How Many Booth Staff You Need
Determining the right headcount comes down to balancing floor space, attendee traffic, and your level of attendee engagement. Staffing is a Goldilocks problem: overstaffing makes your booth look crowded and off-putting, while understaffing causes missed leads and stressed booth staffing.
Booth Size and Layout
Larger booths require more staff. That’s obvious. But not all 20 x 20 islands, for example, are identical. Consider your layout. Is it open on all four side with clear sightlines? Or does the configuration funnel attendees to a main reception desk? Two common mistakes are pinch points and huddling:
- Pinch Points: If you place a popular interactive screen or demo station right next to a high-traffic entry point, staff and visitors will cluster there, blocking the entrance for everyone else.
- Staff Huddling: Large, open, empty centers without clear focal points lead to staff congregating together in the middle to talk to each other instead of engaging attendees.
Expected Booth Traffic
Booth traffic can be difficult to predict. Yes, you’ll likely have more foot traffic on Day 1 than on Day 3, but the number of visitors to you booth can ebb and flow based on your location in the show hall, classes and presentations concurrent to the show hall hours, and your own pre-show marketing. Don’t be shy about asking the show organizer for advice. They know their show’s history and the day-to-day agenda. And, frankly, not all shows are the same. Many are all about the show hall and exhibitors. Others are a mix of speakers, education, and social events with the exhibition hall as one element of the total experience.
All too often, exhibitors rely on the show organizers for the bulk of their booth traffic. That’s a mistake. Savvy exhibitors know that their success depends on driving current and prospective clients to their booth well before the show opens. They treat a trade show like a private event. They create compelling messaging, target their audience, and invite them to their booth. In other words, these exhibitors already know who will be in their booth. Random traffic is a bonus.
Event Objectives
Yes, every exhibitor wants to increase their sales but how to achieve that objective varies. Some exhibitors want a crowded booth with hundreds if not thousands of attendees over the three days of the show. They’ll have giveaways, games, and contests. Done well, they’ll leave the show with healthy list of qualified prospects for the Sales Team.
Others may only be on the hunt for 3-4 new clients. Their pre-show marketing will be very targeted, and while their booth may not have massive crowds, they may meet their objectives and be overjoyed by their success.
In the end, your objectives will dictate your booth size, your budget, your staffing choices, and your marketing. Your team should understand those objectives and how everyone contributes to meeting those objectives.
|
Booth Size |
Recommended Staff |
Typical Use Case |
|
10′ x 10′ |
2–3 |
Basic lead generation |
|
10′ x 20′ |
3–5 |
Product displays and demos |
|
20′ x 20′ |
5–8 |
Multiple engagement areas |
|
Island Exhibit |
8–12+ |
High-traffic national events |
8 Key Responsibilities for Any Trade Show Booth Staff
- Generate Leads
- Collect Data
- Build Relationships
- Promote Your Brand
- Increase Sales
- Improve Customer Service
- Create a Positive Reputation
- Learn about Customers, Competitors, and the Industry
Trade Show Booth Staffing Rules
Staffing is only as complicated as you make it. Let your trade show objectives guide you when making decisions on who to bring and how to achieve those objectives.
Rule #1: Knowledge
Not every booth staffer needs to know everything. Collectively, however, the team needs to know everything and know who’s the expert about every subject. The expert should be able to answer questions about that topic, as well as explain the features and benefits of your products or services.
Rule #2: Goals
Set clear goals for your booth staff. What do you hope to achieve by participating in the trade show? Then provide your staff with training on your products or services. This should include a thorough overview of your offerings, as well as any recent updates or changes.
Rule #3: It’s Not Over Until It’s Over
Provide your staff with feedback throughout the training process. This will help them to identify areas where they need improvement and make sure that they are on track to achieve their goals. Pre- and post-show staff meetings keep the team focused on the goals and address any concerns.
Rule #4: Explore
It’s not just about what’s happening in the booth. Give them time to explore the show floor, check out competitors, discover new suppliers, and meet with attendees at social events.
Rule #5: Have Fun!
Attending a trade show should be fun, and trade show booth staff training should be a positive experience for everyone involved. Make sure to create a relaxed atmosphere where your staff can learn and grow.
What to Look for in Your Trade Show Booth Staff
Who should be there? That’s easy. Bring employees who know the products or services, who have charismatic people skills, who are personally invested in results, and who participate in pre-show planning or post-show implementation. Two out of four doesn’t cut it. A trade show isn’t a vacation. It’s a strategic investment. Your sales team may check all those boxes, but don’t be afraid to look for superstars in other departments who want to be at the show, understand the products and services, and will WOW! attendees.
In any pack, there are always the stragglers, the injured, and the just plain stupid. You can ignore them and allow them to be food for your competitors, or you can deal with the problem. The staffer who arrives late sweating tequila and lime, reeking of three cups of espresso, better have a good reason, like entertaining your key client until 4 am. Same with Susie Smartphone or Standing-on-the-Sidelines Sam. This isn’t a soccer tournament for 8-year-olds where everyone gets participation ribbons. It’s a competition where sales, money, and jobs are on the line. Everyone has to pull their share. At tough love companies, the Susies and the Sams get sent home via Greyhound with loose change for vending machine sandwiches.
In general, consider these four catagories when selecting your booth staff:
- Sales Representatives
- Product Specialists
- Marketing, Customer Service, and Other Department Superstars
- Leadership
Trade Show Event Staffing: How to Prep Your Team for Success
What they know is important. What they do with that knowledge is critical. You want the information dream team in your booth. Whatever the question, there’s someone there who has an answer, can get an answer, and lives to share that information.
Just knowing stuff isn’t enough. Each staffer must capture every sweet, savory nugget of information the attendee shares. Everyone thinks they’ll remember that game-changing conversation from Day 1. By Day 3, they couldn’t tell you their own spouse’s middle name even if you gave them the first three letters.
Trade shows are exhausting physically and mentally. There is zero chance you’ll remember the details even if you have an eidetic memory. Honestly, the lead retrieval system doesn’t matter. What matters is having a system your group understands and follows. You can’t be a namby-pamby about this. There should be consequences for not adhering to the information capture process.
Common Booth Staffing Mistakes to Avoid
You came to the trade show to increase sales. You have clear objectives and have identified the perfect team. And then once the show starts, it all falls apart. Why? Suddenly your master plan is ignored in the chaos of a trade show. It happens and you may have to adapt, which is OK. But even with the chaos you can (and should) manage your team by reminding them of their roles and the overall objectives. Here are four keys to maintaining control:
- Too Few or Too Many: The ideal number of staffers in the booth will vary. Don’t be shy about suggesting team members walk the show floor if you have too many staffers in the booth. And just like at a grocery store when the lines get too long, get your wandering staff back in the booth when you need them.
- Clustering: Not one wants to be the Mama Bear in the booth. However, booth staff has a tendency to cluster together. It’s natural. However, clustering sends a “do not enter” message to attendees. Or worse, your staff is so engaged in their conversations, they ignore prospects.
- Schedule: Trade show hours can be long and brutal. It’s important to create a break schedule so everyone is at their best during the show. It also ensures there are always enough staffers in the booth.
- Training and Lead Qualification: Let’s assume you’ve trained your team on their roles and communicated the company’s trade show goals. That messaging can’t stop once the show starts. Every day before the show starts review them. At the end of the show each day, gather everyone and discuss results, issues, and solutions. Leads, in particular, are useless if there aren’t enough details.
Your Trade Show Staffing Strategy & Classic Exhibits
Booth staff training is an important competitive advantage. Yet, most companies ignore it or simply go through the motions. It’s not automatic. The same energy that went into designing the exhibit, creating the graphics, completing the forms, and arranging the travel and lodging should go into training. It doesn’t happen on its own and well-prepared exhibitors will always own the show floor over their lazy competitors.
Classic Exhibits has been designing and building solutions since 1993. We’ve been honored as an Exhibitor Magazine Find-It Top 40 Exhibit Producers and an Event Marketer Fab 50 Exhibit Builders multiple times. Along with numerous Portable Modular Awards. With over 200 Distributor Partners throughout North America, there’s a Classic representative close by to assist with any project. Contact us today whether you need an inline rental display, a double-deck island exhibit, or a contemporary kiosk rental. At Classic, we’re not just different. We’re better.
FAQs
Should every booth staff member be involved in lead qualification?
In short, yes. If a prospect speaks with multiple team members, they will ask different questions and hear different answers. Incomplete information is the single biggest complaint that the Sales Department has about leads from a trade show. Modern lead management software makes gather information easy. Most have a talk to text feature so recording key information about the prospect is both fast and easy. And immediate.
How far in advance should trade show staff training begin?
Training has several phases. For example, having a voice in establishing the objectives makes the next steps that much easier. It’s also important to keep the team up-to-date on the booth design, messaging, and marketing. Beyond that, your training should begin about a month before the show. It would include everyone’s roles, show goals, schedule, and practice sessions with typical questions. The training should contine before the show opens on the first day and then before and after the show each day.
Is it better to hire temporary booth staff or use internal employees?
Professional presenters are a great option. They know how to draw crowds and are skilled at delivering an entertaining and informative message. However, no one knows your products and services better than your team. They don’t have to the booth MC, but they should be the company experts.
How should staffing change for multi-day trade shows?
Traffic at trade shows comes in ebbs and flows, but the first day is almost always the busiest day. Be sure to maximize you booth presence on that day. The last day is often slower. That’s typically a good day to reduce your headcount in the booth, whether that’s sending people home or allowing them to gather information on the show floor.
What technology can help booth staff manage leads more efficiently?
Lead retrieval software has come a long way from the paper spewing badge scanners. If you participate in multiple trade shows each year, consider using dedicated lead management software which can be used at everyone show. That way, all your data is centralized and you don’t have to reload your forms, literature, or post-show automation tools each time. While there are many solutions, Captello is a user-friendly, widely used option.for lead management.