It’s the staff that make a successful exhibition stand. Sure, a fantastic looking stand helps, but a great looking stand with poor staff won’t deliver results. Similarly, you can have an average looking exhibition stand but with great staff, you can make it a success.
Here are our top 6 tips for successful exhibition staff.
- Avoid the stand huddle. You know the thing. The staff all congregate towards the back of the stand, form a tight huddle and chat amongst themselves. Sometimes for 5 mins, sometimes for close to an hour. They chat away and they make sure that under no circumstances they make eye contact with any of those exhibition visitors, also known as potential clients! I’m sure you’ve seen this at an exhibition but make sure that your team don’t do it at your next show.
- Your stand is not a restaurant. It’s amazing how often staff feel it’s appropriate to eat lunch on their exhibition stand. You’d never sit in a client meeting in your board room and crack open a chicken salad sandwich and bag of crisps so why is it acceptable on an exhibition stand? It’s not. A cup of tea/coffee or a glass of water is accepted in the work environment but when your staff need lunch or a snack, they need to do it off the stand.
- Want to be there. Body language is a big thing at an exhibition. In the same way that visitors will make a quick decision about your company based on your stand messaging, they will also be influenced by your staff and how welcoming they are.
It’s not just the huddles and eating lunch that will turn people off. You will often see staff on a stand who look more like door-staff at a fancy nightclub. They stand on the edge of the stand, legs shoulder width apart and arms folded. They don’t mean to look like heavy duty security staff who won’t let you onto the stand but unfortunately, they do. Try and adopt a relaxed pose, hands by your side to signal open body language. Make eye contact, smile and engage with a simple ice breaker statement.
- Qualify your visitors. Unfortunately, your ideal lead doesn’t walk around an exhibition with a sign above their head pointing themselves out to you. You need to identify the hot leads as quickly and easily as possible and spend your time with them. Conversely, don’t waste time on visitors who might be very chatty and friendly, but are never going to offer any business potential. It sounds harsh but that’s the way it is. Ask a quick, closed question that confirms if they have any need for your product or service. If they do, great, find out their requirements and match your services with their needs. If they don’t have use for your products or services, then politely and professionally hope that they have a great show.
- Look after your staff. An exhibition is hard work, so it’s important that your staff have adequate breaks to ensure that they’re fresh when they’re staffing the stand. We always advise that however many staff you need on your stand at any one time, take at least 33% more. It’s also worth setting up a staff rota so everyone knows when they’re due to be on the stand. If you need three people on the stand at any one time, take four people and give everyone a 15 minute break every hour and a 30 minute break for lunch. That means that every has regular breaks to check their emails, have a snack, catch up with old colleagues at the show and when they’re on the stand, they’re refreshed and ready to work the stand hard.
As with everything in life, you get out what you put in so if you and your team agree to some basic stand rules and do it right, the results will follow. Good luck!
