6 Tips on Managing and Motivating Your Trade Show & Fair Staff

We all appreciate everything technology brings us while conducting business. In the recent years especially, we have been relying on the products that have been in our lives for only a couple of years. We now know the power of internet and we do our best to make the most out of it. We know we have to adapt ourselves and our business to the things that have been changing if we want to stay in the game, if we want to be successful at what we are doing and if want to expand our prosperity in our business life.

But,

There is still one thing that has lost nothing from its value and stays as the most important piece of a successful business life.

That is the human experience and expertise.

No matter how our business lives may be seem taken over by smart phones, tablets and computers, there is nothing that can replace an employee filled with the ambition to become successful and who has the right qualifications to become so.

This is the same when it comes to fairs and trade shows. There are a bunch of ways to integrate technology to these conventional ways of promoting your business or service. All these are great and they promise a great come back. They are efficient, economical and practical. However, if your presence at a trade show or a fair lacks a qualified staff, all your preparations may go in vain.

This is why knowing how to manage and motivate your staff is vital if you are expecting to get great result from your fair and trade show.

And here are some perfect tips to make sure your staff helps you to get those results.

Choose the right people

Your staff at a trade show or a fair is going to represent your business; therefore the most crucial step is to send the right people there. Some business experts believe sticking with the employees who have got experience on trade shows and fairs is crucial at this point since you have got only one shot to impress a visitor and it cannot be missed. However, it is not always about the experience. The will to be a part of something and make it prosper, when combined with the practical knowledge may be equal to years of experience. In addition, you should also check the availability of your employee. If the personnel you want to include in the staff will be more of help in the office or is exhausted because he/she has already been at another meeting abroad, you might as well consider other options.

Choose the right people who know what they will be doing

Not all the fairs and trade shows are the same in nature. In addition, not all your goals may resemble to the previous years’. For example if your company is going to launch a new product or service and will be invaded by the questions from the press in the trade show or fair you are about to attend, you have to make sure there is an employee who can deal with that kind of tricky business. If there will be a workshop in your booth, then you must include someone who has got the best presentation skills, for example. The best is to analyze the needs of your presence during the trade show, and then decide the people who will represent your company there for meeting those very needs.

Know the word that has the magical power on your staff: Incentives

The employees that are in your golden team already know how important this event is for you or for your service. Therefore, they will be eager to do their best to meet the expected goals. Do you know what would make them feel even more eager to do so? Incentives. This will also work on employees who don’t seem to be enthusiastic about going to a trade show and working off the limits for more than a couple of days.

When the word incentive is mentioned, the first thing comes to mind is usually money. However, this doesn’t have to be so. You have been working with these people and you know them; you know what they like, what they may enjoy or find useful. So, an employee may be really glad to get a recommendation letter from you and other may make use of a yearly subscription of his/her favorite magazine. The options are limitless; the good thing about these however, they always work when it comes to spark your staff’s motivation to the best.

Let your staff know what you expect

You can do your best to create the perfect staff to make the most out of your trade show or fair however all your effort won't mean a thing if you don’t communicate with them. They know what they will be doing; knowing why they are doing it will make things work even better.

Tell them the company goals in a clear way. If your staff knows why they are participating in that event, then they will see themselves as a part of the success that is tried to be gained. In addition, they can focus on the results. If you want the staff to be focused on the new product launch for example, they wouldn’t waste time on convincing the visitors to buy your old products. Remember, they can be ready to answer the questions of the visitors only when they don’t have questions on their minds.

Training is crucial to make it perfect

There will be a lot of documents for distributing information on your trade show booth. Brochures, information cards, presentations, giveaways and a lot more will be included in your trade show pack. Your staff must be familiar with all of the content of your trade show or fair booth. You have to make sure that your staff has gone over all of these in prior to the event and they know which one to use when, the information included on them and they must be ready to answer any sort of question that may come from the visitors. 

The last but not the least: The essentials

The things on the essentials list are almost always taken for granted and as a result, they are the first things to be neglectful about. Therefore going over them once more with your staff prior to the show won’t do any harm.

You have to draw an outline for your team to bear in mind all the time. Making clear statements on the working hours, reminding them about the dress code (this is really important because of the first impression on the visitors and a bunch of other things), the budget limitations and other details as well with what they is necessary in order to accomplish a team success.

Bearing all these in mind and applying these as much as possible guarantee a perfect staff that is going to represent your company and service the best; which eventually help you on turning your goals into real outcomes. Remember; putting time and energy in managing and motivating your staff is an investment that is going to pay you a lot more than you imagine.