Section 4 - Exhibition staff behaviour
Chose your exhibition staff carefully; people need to know the event because they will be asked questions about the overall programme and not just about your agency. They need to have some personality and a natural way of approaching and sharing with people. Those manning a stall need to be seen to enjoy each others’ company and to be getting on well. This will say more about the organisation than any words they speak.
How should staff approach and converse with potential customers?
Consider the following:
- People manning the stand need to be aware of the objectives and benefits which they are to communicate
- Sound knowledgeable and authoritative, but don’t give the impression you know everything
- Key selling sequence: sell yourself, sell the organisation, sell the product/service
- How would you change this for a large exhibition?
- Focus less on selling yourself as there will be so many other people there and 5 minutes isn’t usually enough to sell yourself
- Could also omit selling the company and even the product
- Just sell the benefits
- Work together as a team. Pass enquirers to other colleagues
- Knowing who you’re talking to and what they want is also an important part of this
- An exhibition is very much a frog-kissing exercise – they all look the same and you don’t know which ones are princes
- CROAK – Five stage process:
- Contact – eye, smile, greeting + opening line. This is very important to discuss opening lines and open-ended questions such as: “Why have you come to the event?” Closed questions can help you to find out who you’re talking to. Avoid “Can I help you?” as people usually respond with “No thanks, I’m just looking.” It’s important to ring the changes occasionally to keep things fresh. Some people may be able to get away with more than others
- Reveal – who are you talking to?
- Offer – when you know they’re interested
- Action – You want to collect helpful and appropriate details. Beware of brochure collectors, who take loads of paper that ends up in a waste bin. Decide what essentials details you need and from whom
- Kiss goodbye – handshake to end conversations. Develop a sign between staff so that they can help each other when they want to end a conversation
