Exhibition participation is increasingly becoming a major brand marketing
a strategy which many Zimbabwean companies, both SMEs and large corporates,
are using to reach out to their target markets. While many entrepreneurs and
brand marketers seem to be conversant with the benefits of participating in
exhibitions a good number appear not to be familiar with the crucial role which
their exhibition stand staff members play in helping them to meet their
marketing objectives and targets. You can have the most attractive stand and
excellent exhibits but without well-chosen, trained and motivated staff your
exhibition participation can come to nought.
Members of your exhibition staff determine whether visitors can walk into your
stand or not. If visitors walk through, whether they will stay for long enough to
enable your enterprise to establish whether they can do business with you
during or after the exhibition depends on how your staff treats them and how
good, they are at assessing them to determine if they are a hot lead or not.
Exhibition staff members are the ones who answer your visitors’ question about
your brand or business and their knowledgeability or lack thereof determines
whether or not visitors can develop an interest in your brand. The question
which most exhibition participants, especially first-time ones, ask is whether
there is a scientific formula for selecting an exhibition team. Well, there isn’t
but putting the following issues into consideration may help you to come up
with a great team which can help you to put your brand and business’ best foot
forward at your next exhibition.
Brand advocates
Staff members who enjoy working for your company and brand are some of the
first-choice team members. This is because it is already in their bloodstream to
explain your enterprise and its brands to customers. These are people who have
the correct attitude towards your business. They enjoy dealing with people
which is a very important trait for the success of your participation effort.
Exhibition participation is not just about making sales. It is also about building
relationships with visitors and leads which can then be used to form the basis of
future sales. Team members who enjoy dealing with people can easily take into
their stride rude and demanding visitors. They do their work wholeheartedly as
opposed to those who carry out their duties because they need to earn their
salaries. Choose on the basis of attitude rather than aptitude. Brand advocates
interact and connect with visitors better than other team members.
Knowledgeable
Knowledgeable people are very key to the success of your exhibition. Most staff
members are knowledgeable about their own company and brands. Very few
have a thorough knowledge of their industry and competitors. A thoroughly
knowledgeable team member is an asset in that he or she can answer questions
on any aspect of your company, brand, industry and even your competitors.
Visitors tend to compare exhibited brands with those of competitors and a
knowledgeable staff member can easily explain the benefits of your brand
compared to those of your competitors. He can even suggest other solutions
from your repertoire of other brands.
Skills mix
While exhibition participation is a marketing event you will require people of
varied skills to ensure that your team satisfactorily attends to the various types
of visitors who pass through your stand. Have technical people who can explain
the technical aspects of your exhibits. Throw in marketing and public relations
people who can deal with the media and other kinds of visitors such as
journalists or politicians. Depending on the size of your company or the event
you are participating in, you may need people with an administration
background to run the administration side of things while others attend to
visitors.
Languages
In the past exhibitions were the preserves of large corporations while most
SMEs were cooped in Home Industry Halls at major shows. Things have
changed. Today even SMEs are participating in exhibitions in the region. Some
of the regional countries use other international languages like Portuguese or
French as languages of business. Staff members who can speak the language of
an exhibition host country can be very useful in such exhibitions as they can
help in cutting costs for some exhibition expenditure items such as translation.
Exhibition team leader
An exhibition team requires a team leader in order to function well. A team
leader should be someone who can lead, has the confidence to make decisions
and to organise his or her team. He or she should be a problem solver and
someone who can think on his or her feet. The leader should be a good
organiser who can devise stand staff shifts and ensure that they are adhered to.
In large companies, this position is filled by an exhibition manager or supervisor
and in SMEs, the entrepreneur is usually the team leader. The team leader should
be able to translate your exhibition plan into a great experience for your visitors
thereby realising your marketing goals.
Staff training and motivation
The foregoing factors may be meaningless if your stand team is not trained. The
tendency by many is to assign sales staff to man exhibition stands but
exhibitions are a totally different kettle of fish from daily sales work. Exhibition
manning training should include how to approach and serve visitors, screening
and qualifying visitors. It should also include stand etiquette and cleanliness.
Dealing with security or emergency situations is another area which your staff
should master. While emergencies do not happen at every exhibition, things that
are taken for granted such as operating a fire extinguisher should also be taught
to exhibition staff members.
Most important of all, your staff should be motivated. This means very basic
things like thanking a team member who has been commended by a visitor for
serving him well. An exhibition team leader should ensure that his or her staff is
motivated. Being on one’s feet for six to eight hours a day serving visitors is not
easy. Giving team members an off day or an afternoon off during the exhibition
as a way of appreciating their efforts goes a long way in motivating the staff
member. After the exhibition, the staff members who emerged as a service star
can be rewarded by sending them on holiday or paying for their television
subscription. The team leader should praise achievers in front of everyone to
motivate the team member and his or her colleagues. Erring team members
should be reprimanded in private to avoid embarrassing them.
Getting your exhibition staffing issues correct is crucial but it is not an
overnight task. For the first time exhibitors, it is a learning process which gets
perfect with each participation effort. The important thing is to note the lessons
learnt from each event and use them in planning the next one. Staff feedback is
also very important in getting your exhibition staffing issues right as a tactic to
get the most of your participation.
