Ultimate Exhibition Guide 6 – Training your staff

Preparing Exhibition Staff

Running an exhibition stand is a lot of work, and you could add to that work if you don’t plan how you’re going to manage your stand and train your staff to make the most of the exhibition.

Here’s how you get everything together to ensure your stand is always fully staffed, and your staff know exactly what to say to your visitors:

Set up a rota

Make a rota so you know you always have enough staff to deal with your stand visitors. Your staff will benefit because they’ll always know where to be, and when, and It’ll help you plan breaks and time for meals, too.

Prepare your staff

Every staff member on your stand is representing your company, so you need to train them thoroughly with up to date knowledge about your company and its aims, your products and services, your competitors and the latest business trends. They need to be able to inform visitors and be fully prepared to answer any questions that might come up, or at least direct visitors to a specialist on your stand, if the question is a technical one.

An exhibition can be a great place to gain visitor feedback on products and services, and to find out what your customers really want, so you’ll need to have something in place for how your staff are going to collect that information.

It’s not just about their knowledge, though. Staff need to have a great attitude, enthusiasm and the ability to network, engage and interact with visitors.

Your staff will also need to multi-task as they’ll need to take visitor information, gather feedback, collect leads, distribute giveaway items, encourage people to take part in your competition if you have one, and visit your competitors to gain new ideas and inspiration, as well as being aware of how you competitors are doing.

Get to know the stand

Some stands are simple squares, where the people are the only means of interaction. However, they can also be quite complex, with floors and rooms for different purposes, items on demonstration, private spaces and storage included. Every member of staff who is working on the event must know where everything is, and where to take guests to fulfil their inquiries and requests.

Set objectives

You’ll need company objectives for the exhibition, and objectives for your exhibition stand staff. You’ll do far better if everyone knows what they are aiming for.

Set up a meeting before the exhibition to go through objectives and let your staff discuss ways of achieving them. You’ll come out with far more ideas than if you try to do that by yourself.

Staff appearance & Behaviour

Obviously, everyone on your stand should be smart and presentable. They should also reflect your brand, perhaps in a branded t-shirt or with a highly visible badge, though do make sure that they don’t blend into your stand so much that visitors can’t easily see who they need to speak to.

Note also that the way they behave is equally important to your company’s image. Ensure that staff know how your company would like to present itself on the range between highly formal and relaxed or chatty. Good representatives will be able to judge the mood of each guest who approaches them and act accordingly, but it’s still good to have some ground rules in place to help guide their behaviour.

LEARN ABOUT THE VENUE 

The venue itself might be quite complex in layout, so try to familiarise yourself and your staff as much as possible with what they can expect. From practical things like knowing where the toilets and eating areas are, to knowing about emergency exits, it’s all helpful. Not only will it help your own staff make better use of their time at the event, but it will also let them answer such questions from guests, which all adds up to your company looking more credible.

MAKE SURE VENUE AND EXHIBITION RULES ARE UNDERSTOOD

All exhibitions have rules and agreements in place that all exhibitors must follow. They will cover everything from remaining within your allotted footprint and observing certain levels of noise, to rules about conduct, which may include dress, language and treatment of others. As you’ll be contractually obliged to follow these rules, it’s vital that every member of staff who is part of the exhibition is aware of them and obeys them.

BALANCE AUTONOMY WITH A CHAIN OF COMMAND

It’s pretty rare for disturbances and arguments to occur in events, but they do happen, so make sure you have a plan in place to deal with them. If your business is perhaps considered controversial (and that can cover quite a wide spread of sectors these days), have some stock answers ready to respond to tough questions from guests. The knowledge of the company and its policies listed above certainly helps here, and can help staff to defuse situations on their own. However, if the situation does escalate, staff should know who to pass it on to, be that a manager or a particular colleague or, in some cases, to security.

Daily debriefs

If your exhibition runs over several days, then it’s a great idea to have a team meeting every night to find out what went well and what you can improve for the following day.

It’s a good idea to have someone monitoring the stand right from the start, watching how the team operates rather than meeting visitors themselves. That distance can help them to see things the actual event staff miss. Discuss issues in an air of openness and free of blame, and use your experience to discuss techniques that will influence future events. The design and layout of the stand itself should not be immune to criticism, either – sometimes guests don’t interact with a stand as would be expected, so it might need tweaking.