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Articles, Descriptions and Product Information for Trade Show Displays and Exhibitions
Is it important to have the right people man your trade show stand.
Who will you have working at your next trade show booth? The question seems simple enough, but the wrong people can have disastrous results on your convention success. This question can create interesting problems and challenges, including a number of hotly debated discussions about who is best suited for this intense and sometimes chaotic sales environment. The success or failure of a trade show can often rest on the shoulders of the people who worked the exhibit. Therefore, the individuals that make your booth team should be a crack team of quality sales and marketing gurus with top expertise.
How do you start selecting the right people and what will determine the “right” person? Which types of personalities work best in the trade show booth and who from your company is best suited for this position? Who from your corporation will be responsible for selecting the members and training them? There are a number of different personality types and options to choose from. Keep in mind that these individuals will also have to work well with each other for maximum success.
Here is a casual look at some of the different personality types that can be observed at a trade show:
The Know-It-All – This person has worked at least one trade show in the past and now believes that he or she is fully immersed in all of its complexities. From exhibit design to sales strategies and the type of attendees, this person spends most of their time lecturing others. Giving these individuals direction is virtually impossible and often a waste of your breath.
The Tech Guru – This person has superior technical knowledge and you should be honored to be in their presence. Your technical experience is nothing compared to what he or she knows and they will tell you at every opportunity how advanced their skills might be. Standard practice for communication involves arguments over very technical ideas and anyone who disagrees with this tech genius will feel the wrath. Talking down to the clientele is the name of the game for this individual and anyone trying to calm him or her down will just be dismissed.
Introverted – Why was this person brought to the trade show? Oftentimes, these individuals hang in the back of the booth, too nervous or intimidated to talk with customers face-to-face. Although they might be friendly and hold invaluable knowledge about the product, their initial shyness limits them.
Game Talkers – These individuals love to tell you what to do, even if they don’t follow their own advice. Words are this person’s favorite tool and they can use them well; however, these game talkers often leave the booth and are unreliable at best when it comes time to working their shifts. They like to set their own rules and can make up excuses for anything.
Smiley – Overflowing with happiness and charm, these individuals simply do not stop smiling. They are willing to deal with anyone who has wandered near their booth and will usually talk a lot more than listen. However, their over exuberance will often drive the prospect to the competition out of sheer frustration and annoyance.
The Inventor – This person is the one who often developed the product and was dragged to the trade show for this fact. In reality, they just want to be left alone and put back in their happy place of being at home, in the lab or in their own office environment.
The Boss – Hey, this guy or gal is the boss and everybody will know it right away! You can usually spot this individual spouting off and being the uber-executive who is too important to do the menial tasks of booth duty like talking to the customers for a long period of time, setting up the exhibit and especially taking the booth down.
The Jokester – These individuals will be chatting it up, telling loud jokes and stories, while making side comments about any unusual person that might walk by. Where they here to work? No way. They’re “building relationships” with other competitors and potential customers, but actually never step in the booth to work very long.
Hangover Central – These individuals let loose a little too much the night before and now their time in the booth has come a little too quickly. Reeling from a hangover and some “crazy time” the night before, these individuals are a burden at the booth and a huge disappointment.
Party Time – The Hangover Central individual the night before, these participants love to have a few drinks and a huge meal while staying up all night in the convention town. They party hard, but when it comes time to really sell the next day, they fall short. These individuals will do little to support a growing list of goals and objectives, especially in a highly observed environment like the trade show.
Don Juan – The wedding ring has been conveniently misplace and the cologne has been drenched on. This individual is ready to pretend they don’t have a spouse and family back home and their unacceptable behavior is a poor representation of the company to the rest of the industry.
Keeping these personalities in mind, the top 5 characteristics of booth participants are:
- A willingness and excitement to be there to meet new people and build the business
- An appreciation for the importance of the trade show for the future of the business
- Great listening and questioning skills to get to the heart of the specific issue for the prospect
- The ability to listen more than talk to really hear what the customer has to say (tough for seasoned sales people)
- A quickness and versatility during presentation to help cater to the visitor’s requests
By avoiding some of the offending personalities and concentrating on the top characteristics needed to run a successful booth, you can ensure that your exhibit presentation meets its goals and rewards itself by reaching its objectives.
Custom designed trade show displays. Are they worth the money?
No matter which company you work for, you always have to bring a strong and successful trade show presentation to the largest annual convention your industry has each year. Pretend that you have reserved a booth space of 20’ x 30’ and now have less than six months to get a custom exhibit designed in time to use during the show. You want a custom design that will draw leads and create more customers for your product. You have your general construction budget for the exhibit estimated and now you need to go out and find someone who can create your dream exhibit. It’s time to start the process of negotiating your new custom content exhibit. Make your company’s products the most important release of the year at the biggest trade show event of your industry.
The Typical Strategy for Custom Design
- Typically, you will want to contact a number of local builders for your exhibit. Each one will need to meet with you to understand your individual company presentation needs. You need to immediately show off your company policy, project samples and any specific case history papers they have that show why one strategy worked well for past clients with their own unique objectives. Can these past successful strategies work for your business as well?
- Get a list of references from each builder before they leave. Call and ask specific questions to these references. Ask if they would do business with this exhibit builder again in the future. If you know certain goals that you want to accomplish, see if these references can help you determine if the builder can help you achieve these goals.
The Usual Tactics with Custom Builders
- After you have contacted all of the references and gotten their opinions, one or two builders should stand out to your business now as good candidates for your trade show design. Your management should agree that these candidates would do a great job.
- Start a creative session that will outline what your company needs to display in the booth. What to you want to show? What do you need to show to pre-qualify trade show attendees walking by? What do your prospective leads expect to see from your booth when they encounter it? Once you have started this design process, you will want to put the experienced design builders in the room to let them say what is included, what is possible and good ideas that have worked in the past.
- Exhibit builders should come back after a few weeks after the creativity session and give you rough estimates. In addition, there will be a general construction schedule until you can expect to see your custom booth design. Now you need to chose your builder based on these estimates and officially start the process. Ask your purchasing department to issue a purchase order for all necessary details and items that will be required in the booth.
- When you review your production schedule, make sure that there is still plenty of time for revisions and for transportation to the actual convention. You will need a lot of time to pack and transport a custom design, especially a new one that no one is yet familiar with handling.
The Cost Analysis Strategy
- How much will the exhibit design and construction cost your business?
- Look into shipping cases. If your exhibit is being shipped, you will most likely want your own cases. Also, use a company that can guarantee specific delivery dates and tracking throughout the transportation process.
- How much time will you need to assemble the custom booth design? Your team will be inexperienced with this new booth. Consider how much time and labor will be required to receive the exhibit and deliver it to your booth. How much time will it take to unpack and install your exhibit? Plan accordingly.
- How much time and men will it take to dissemble your exhibit booth? Will you repack it into your own custom shipping case or load it in the back of your van to deliver back to your office storage area? Get a clear plan for disassembly to plan when everyone should be out of the convention. Many trade shows have clear rules about when and for how long you can take down your booth.
The Unusual Booth Strategy
Make sure that your design is fully created with all details on a sketch pad before any construction is done. You will want to go back and forth with the designer before any actions are done that are irreversible. Building a trade show booth can be just like designing a house and you will want to see the full details and design for the construction before any real work is done on the booth.
Once the design is completed and approved, you will own a custom piece of product presentation that can be used to sell your items or services.
Cost Analysis for the Design
Save on shipping by getting the design booth created in the same town as your large convention. For example, if your biggest convention is in Chicago each year, have a design firm in Chicago handle the design of your custom booth and deliver directly to the trade show. Using a local firm can help you save a great deal of time and money.
