Staff Briefing and Training

Once you've selected your stand manning team, you must allow time for a full briefing well before the exhibition. It should be compulsory - after all , this exhibition will inevitably be a substantial investment, and is a very public place to risk looking unprofessional. It is foolish to assume that anyone naturally "knows" how to work an exhibition stand and why the company has taken the decision to attend a show. These points must be communicated to all those attending to ensure that objectives are met.

There are a number of ways of running a session, but you may want to think about:

• Explaining the company's objectives - and remember to make them SMART -Specific, Measurable, Agreed, Realistic and Time Bound
• Consider telling them what the total cost of being there is, and how that breaks down per person, per hour - it can help focus the mind wonderfully!
• Use role-play to practice approaching and dealing with the different kinds of visitor
• Emphasise the importance of using open ended questions (see below).
• Outline all the plans you have for other related sales and marketing activities
• Communicate the team/individual targets for the event
• Distribute a stand manning guide with a summary of the above points and confirmation of show opening times/ break rotas accommodation, dress code and any other points which staff will need to know before the event.

APPENDIX - Techniques for opening conversions:

To engage potential candidates in conversion, it is essential that you use open ended questions. Please see some examples below:

• What type of product are you looking for?
• Where products do you currently use?
• When are you hoping to change your product?