Imagine how you would feel…… You pay good money for an eye catching exhibition stand, designed to your exacting specifications to attract clients, promote the business and provide opportunities to sell. However, your stand design is only the start. How will you ensure that your staff entice and attract potential new leads and encourage them to engage with your brand?
The staff you employ and the ways in which they conduct themselves can have a major impact on the way your stand is perceived by potential clients and therefore the likelihood of securing sales.
There are 5 key rules your staff should follow to make sure they represent your brand and ensure a successful trade show:
- Don’t use their phones/tablet in plain sight of potential clients.
It doesn’t look great when the staff aren’t engaged in their job and appear bored in their role. The aim is to entice clients in, not put them off by appearing disinterested.
The staff you employ are there to do the best job they can for you, so unless they are using the phone/tablet to demonstrate a product to a client they shouldn’t be accessing any electronic devices whilst working at your stand.
- Don’t talk with each other whilst on the stand.
Happy and smiling staff is a draw for clients. But what you don’t want are staff too engrossed in conversations to notice potential clients. It can quickly make clients feel ignored and prompt them to move onto something else.
- Don’t pounce on potential clients with a hard-sell.
It’s important for staff to understand the nature of the product you are promoting and how best to engage clients. Some products like foods lend themselves to staff offering free samples to draw clients in. Other products are more visual and require clients to be enticed by the stand and what it offers before approaching them to secure a sale. And not everyone that walks past your stand will want to buy. It’s about knowing the needs of the client.
- Don’t eat and drink in plain sight of potential clients
You’re not expecting your staff to go hungry or thirsty all day but eating and drinking in plain sight of potential customers is likely to put them off. No one wants to watch someone else eat!
- Keep personal belongings and rubbish out of sight
Your beautifully designed stand has had many hours spent on it to ensure that it meets your every objective, covering it with hand bags and empty cups will just detract from its original purpose. If you have a table which is covered with a cloth then store personal items under the table out of sight.
How can you avoid these behaviours?
Choose enthusiastic staff.
Avoid using staff that are best friends…. they could use this time as a social catch up rather than have a clear focus on their role. However equally you want to avoid using staff whom don’t get along as this could produce an awkward atmosphere.
Brief the staff before the event so that they know what your aims and objectives are and also what is expected from them. You could even do some role play to practice how interaction with potential clients should happen, but more importantly how not to do it!
Incentivising is often a great way of guaranteeing staff remain focused and engaged on the task in hand.
Reflect
The next day (or as soon as possible) meet with your staff and ask for feedback to find out how they feel it went. Did they have any particular challenges or positive experiences? What might they do differently next time?
