5 Good Habits For Your Trade Show
- Be on time and on point: Staff should always be on time for when they are scheduled to man the booth. What’s more, staff should be ready to go and excited. A high level of experience and skill are needed to be successful as a trade show booth staff member. Staff should be ready and on point, so they can concentrate on talking to attendees.
- Leave the coffee at the counter: Asking for your booth to be free of coffee and food is good on two points. First, having these things outside the booth helps your staff focus on engaging with attendees with both hands free. Second, anything that stains can be spilled somewhere else, keeping your trade show booth spot free.
- When in the booth, focus on the conversation in front of you: Nothing is more distracting than trade show staff who are more interested in their phones than in the attendees coming into the booth. There is a time and place for phone usage, but the trade show is the place for face-to-face engagement, and should be the focus there.
- Chat before scanning: While there may be a push to scan everyone that comes into the booth, a better use of time and lead gen on the show floor would be to chat with attendees first. By talking with attendees, staff can ascertain if the attendee is a true lead or not. This will help staff at the office to better prioritize further engagement.
- Follow up early and often: Be sure to follow up with leads from the show as quickly as you can. Companies should have a system set up to send marketing material or thank you email, ideally within 24 hours of the attendee coming to the booth. A second communication should be sent that specifically addresses what action items were discussed on the show floor, and sent within the week of a show closing. Do not let several weeks go by before a follow up is sent. Your attendees will have moved on and may not remember your company, let alone the conversation you had.