Trade Show Booth Staff Training Expert, Susan Friedmann, CSP, The Tradeshow Coach

In my tradeshow training programs, I’ve always encouraged my clients’ exhibiting team to be 100% scripted and 100% flexible when it comes to interacting with booth visitors. What I mean by this is, you need to know what questions to ask to get the end result. For example, if your goal for the show is to find out more about how the economy is affecting various projects your prospects or existing customers are working on, you need prepare the right questions to ask, to collect that information. However, I have always advocated that despite how prepared you are, you also extreme flexibility, because the trade show floor is very unpredictable. You can never foresee 100% what’s going to happen, as no two shows are identical.

This weekend I attended a very special program conducted by Eric Lofholm, sales trainer and script writing guru.  Eric advocates the opposite philosophy. He believes that, with thought and pre-planning, you can anticipate almost all the situations and questions surrounding your prospects and customers.  Eric teaches that script writing is the key to help get you through any good, bad, or ugly situation.

Until this weekend, scripts, for me, conjured up visions of those telemarketers, who love to call during dinner time, and robotically spew out their script, which, in your mind, you can see them reading.  In other words, it was a totally negative exercise, which I’ve resisted like the plague.  How wrong could I be? The Eric Lofholm system prescribes script preparation for every possible scenario. Then, when written, internalizing your words to the point where they become a totally natural part of your conversation.  When you listen to the master exercising his skill, it’s totally mesmerizing and utterly believable. On the flight home from San Diego, my pen was flying across pages in my exercise book working on the numerous scripts I need.

Now, I realize that for many sales professionals, this concept isn’t new.  They use scripts in their field selling all the time.  However, does your exhibit team prepare scripts for the time on the show floor, or do they wing it? Because visitor interaction time is extremely limited, often 3-5 minutes, according to tradeshow research, sales reps need different scripts from the ones they use day-to-day.  The question is, do they have them? If not, I highly recommend they do, especially if you want to maximize prospect time in the booth.

Oh, I forgot to mention that once your scripts are written, they’re done for life. Editing and adding to your script book (another of Eric’s recommendations), is always allowable.

Back in a couple of days.  In the meantime, I’m busy writing my scripts.

In the fraught atmosphere of a trade show, your booth staff may not always remember to thank service people or complaining customers. According to a recent study through the American Marketing Assn., it states that customer gratitude enhances trust in business relationships which leads to ongoing positive results. When you start a cycle of thanks, you can even transform those difficult business relationships.

Train your booth staff to offer sincere thanks – and offer them yourself – to these five kinds of people, and your trade shows will run more smoothly.

1. The trade show organizers, maintenance workers, and staff.

Even when you arrive and find half your arrangements awry, thank them for their effort and for the half that was done correctly. They will remember your courtesy and do their best for you.

2. Your returning customers.

Existing customers are your company’s most important asset. Show your gratitude with smiles, gifts of useful information, and, don’t forget to give them some VIP treatment.

3. Complaining customers.

It can be hard to thank someone who has just pointed out your company’s flaws, but the complaining customer has just given you the priceless gift of honest feedback so that you can improve in the future.

4. Booth co-workers.

In the tight space and pressure-cooker atmosphere of a trade show booth, tensions can flare. A habit of gratitude instead of growling makes work more pleasant and strengthens working relationships.

5. The sales department.

When you hand over the precious trade show leads, thank Sales for following up. Show them you appreciate their hard work, and they are more likely to care about your hard work.

At the holiday season, we tend to express gratitude more freely than at other times of year. But, why wait, at any time of the year, sincere thanks acts as a powerful  relationship marketing tool.

Thanks to all of you who read this newsletter!

Send me your physical address and I’ll send you a personal thank you card!

In the meantime, if you would like to send someone a card, here’s a complimentary way for you to do that.

Tradeshow exhibitors have something in common with the rest of humanity: We’ll do what is easy, but avoid what those things we find to be or perceive as difficult. It doesn’t really matter what sphere we’re talking about: human nature dictates that more often than not, we seek out the smoother path, the gentler grade, the easier climb.

So in order to appeal to human nature and improve your tradeshow performance, I offer you this: Eight Effortless Exercises you can do with your team. Nothing here is particularly difficult, yet all are devastatingly effective. If your team can implement what they learn during these exercises on the tradeshow floor, I can guarantee that you’ll be very pleased with the result.

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