While a great display will grab attendees’ into your exhibit, it’s your staff that reels them in and holds them there, getting the important leads. In order for them to be successful, they have to be invested in what they’re doing. A staffer that is giving it their all will be much more effective that the lackluster salesperson who does not want to be there in the first place.

But finding this kind of gung ho staffer is harder than it might seem, which you know if you and your sales force have been in the game for a while. It’s hard to get people excited about 6-8 hour days on their feet, 6-8 hours of constant smiling and cheer, 6-8 hours of cleaning other’s messes. It’s a hard job, but as they say, someone has to do it—and do it well.

Dan Lumpkin of Exhibitor Magazine has a solution. Instead of trying to come up with ways to please your staffers—bring them into the problem solving process. Just because you think something would be a great incentive to work the show floor doesn’t mean your staffers agree. Set up some brainstorming meetings with them starting at least 3 months before the show. Ask them these two questions to start off:

- What do they feel they gain when they staff a booth?
- What do they feel they lose when they staff a booth?

After they’ve hashed out these questions, ask them what they think would help in compensating for the losses. What would be appropriate compensation for getting behind in their daily work? What would reward them for the long hours of hard work?

In booth staffing, as in life, people are more inclined to do a job if they’ve had a hand in the decisions that crafted it.

Of course you want your booth to attract a crowd - that’s the whole reason you’re at the trade show right? But what happens if you don’t have enough booth staff to handle this rush of people? Say you only have two staffers in your smaller booth. How are they supposed to handle a rush?

First things first, you need to acknowledge all visitors that come into the booth, even if you are already engaged with a prospect. A simple head nod or wave while making eye contact should do it. An ignored prospect will be a gone prospect in about 30 seconds. Another good way to snag those prospects is to bring in newcomers into the conversation. If you’re demonstrating a product, include the new people as they come in.

Some other things to keep in mind:

- Keep your one-on-one conversations limited to 3-5 min.
- Keep your booth open to allow more people to step inside. Forget about chairs or big displays. Just bring the bare minimum of product and use graphics, brochures and swatches to show other options.
- Using AV is a great way to keep your prospects involved while you are with another person. Video can attract and educate visitors.

Remember to make every visitor feel important - that way you still get big leads from a small staff.

Before you go to a tradeshow, you need to make sure that your staff is prepared. I don’t mean dressed to the nines, brushed hair, clean finger nails, and a glowing smile (as important as those are). What I mean is what Candy Adams talked about in this month’s Exhibitor Magazine - Your staff needs to be informed of the corporate perspective before they staff your booth. Before your next show, make sure that everyone in your company is on the same page and try to hit on these topics:

You need to let your booth staff know that what they are doing is important to the company’s success. Try to have someone from the management team express their support of the trade show program and of that specific show.

Let your staff know how much it cost to exhibit last year. People tend to take their jobs more seriously if they see how much the company has invested in them and what they do.

And, most importantly, identify the corporate goals you plan on achieving at the show. Don’t give these to your staff in general terms like “We need more leads this year.” Give them concrete numbers and objectives. Figure out the number of leads you want and split it up between the staff - you could even divide it up by leads per staff, per hour. Your employees will be much more productive when they know exactly what is expected of them.

Keep those lines of communication open in your company. Remember - Communication is KEY.