Sometimes trade shows feel like a giant guessing game.
- Are you at the right show?
- Do you have the right message?
- Do you have the right size booth?
There are a lot of questions you have to ask yourself. However, you might not think about one. Do you have the right staff scheduled to go to maximize your trade show R.O.I.?
This issue is different from, do you have the right number of employees for your trade show booth? By the way, we have a tool to help you get to the right number of staffers for your booth.
No, who goes is a more fundamental trade show strategy question. Primarily this breaks down to roles.
Trade Show Roles:
Marketing: Your marketing team needs to lead the way. The show leadership needs to come from marketing so everyone else can focus on what they do be it sales, product management or support.
Sales: Sales always wants to go to trade shows. They know that shows are hard work, but worth it because of the connections, they make on the show floor.
You need someone from sales for their familiarity with your solutions and ability to move deals down the funnel.
Product Management/Engineering/Tech: Unfortunately I think this one of the more underrated trade show staffers. However, they are essential to answer technical questions and provide knowledge support for the rest of the team.
General Support: If you have a large booth and a lot of staffers you probably need someone for general support. Maybe this is a junior associate in marketing or sales who can learn while at the booth.
Company Leadership: No offense to CEO and senior leadership, but if you have to sacrifice any position to maximize my trade show R.O.I., this is where I would look.
I would rather have an additional technical person. Unless there is a particular need, I tend to limit the number of company leadership attendees.
One Leader: You always need one show leader. It doesn’t matter the different scenarios and different shows and different sizes this never changes.
You need one person who calls the shots. The leader is the one person that makes all the calls and can answer all the questions about the show.
This is not necessarily the most senior or the most highly ranked person. However, your show leader does need the backing of company leadership, so everyone else knows that they are in charge.
Don’t be penny wise and pound foolish
The way to save money on a trade show is not to go. Trade shows are all about R.O.I. Don’t try to run a skeleton trade show crew in an ill-fated attempt to save money. It never works out well.
You need a competent team with good coverage. You also need a team that is alert and on the top of their game.
Have a schedule:
Make sure that you have a schedule and stick to it. Your schedule should be in the hands of every one of your staffers before the show starts.
It is best to always have one of each role on the booth at all times.
Remember that you must stay flexible. There may be obligations staffers have to fulfill that occur on the show floor, so your leader needs to be able to fill gaps.
Want more information about how to make sure you have the right number of trade show staffers?
Download our Trade Show Marketing Guide.
Want more in-depth information about your specific trade show? Contact us about our trade show consulting.