Do not fill your booth with only salespeople! This would seem to go against common business practice, but exhibitions are very different selling environments. Obviously, you need to have some salespeople on the booth but is the star of the office, the star on the show floor?

85% of an exhibitor's success lies in the performance of the staff

Yes, it’s true and whilst this may not come as a surprise, it’s probably the area that companies consider the least ahead of the show.

It seems logical that the best salespeople should work the booth, but successful exhibitors tend to give more thought to who can deliver the most value to their clients. Considering the below points may help.

1. ENVIRONMENT

The best seller in your organisation may absolutely kill it on the phone selling all year round, but may crumble face to face. Being good or great at selling on the phone is not the same as being F2F. In fact, they are vastly different skill sets. You can potentially risk your telephone sales team’s confidence by dropping them in the Lions Den of an Exhibition Hall.

2. ENERGY

Many salespeople have great energy but day to day energy and tradeshow energy are very different. Some salespeople are great at their day job but will lack patience for dealing with lots of people at once or indeed handle the unavoidable tyre kickers at exhibitions.

3. CLOSERS

One of the best traits of great salespeople is their ability to close sales. However, exhibition selling is far more about patience and closers can get frustrated at the lack of ‘quick wins’.

4. OVERKILL

There is a rule of thumb at exhibitions that you should have 1 person on the booth per 6sqm of space. This may limit the amount of people you can bring to the exhibition. There may be other people who need to be there, so you need to factor this into your staffing plan.

5. EXPERTISE

If you sell a technical product or one that needs a lot of demonstrating or explaining, the audience/visitors may be better served by having experts on the booth. The best salesperson is not necessarily this person. By having technical experts instead of salespeople, you are focusing more on visitors requirements.

6. AUTHENTICTY

Some salespeople get a bad rap for not being authentic and the key point at exhibitions is to build relationships. Someone who has a natural ability to do this can be far more valuable as the first point of contact.

Exhibitions are about the visitor experience and building credibility around your brand and company.

The best salespeople may excel at this in the field but don’t necessarily have the temperament to do the same for an exhibition.

The trick for tradeshow staffing is to pick the right people. A recent magazine article summed up trade show staffing with the acronym A.P.P.L.E.

A > Attitude

The people who work your booth should have a great attitude.

P > Personality

You need the personality to be able to engage with lots of different types of people and buyers.

P > Product Knowledge

Knowing your product is critical as you only get 1 chance to make a first impression and product knowledge is key when you have so many competitors in the same hall at the same time.

L > Location

People who are local to where most of the buyers come from are probably more likely to be able to engage with those buyers. People like familiarity.

E > Experience

It goes without saying that you should have the experience to back up what you are saying as this builds credibility, rapport and trust.

SUMMARY

They say that 75%+ of sales success comes from having passion and passion is not exclusive to the best salespeople in the world!