Trade Show Marketing

So...  Who Taught You?
Trade Show Training...  Do It Right!

About 30 years ago, I attended my first major trade show as an employee of a major housewares manufacturing firm. I felt honored that I had been selected to be part of the exhibit staff. It was my first trip to New York City. I was excited and eager to learn the ins and outs of working a show exhibit.

I was told by my new boss to meet him in his hotel room once I had arrived in New York. He said we would go over the program for the week.

Once at the room, I found myself in the midst of 16 other guys watching the NFL regional game, snacking on goodies and partaking from a fully stocked bar. Wow... this is great! This is big business at its finest - and I'm part of it, I thought to myself.

Somewhere between the end of the game and 2 or 3 o'clock the following morning, we had dinner, more drinks, went to all the hot spots favored by my new-found friends and finally managed to crawl into bed. The last thing the boss said was we'd all have breakfast at 7 to discuss the day's agenda.

Breakfast was nothing more than a rehash of war stories from the previous night on the town. At the conclusion of breakfast, the boss took me aside and told me all I needed to do was watch him in the booth and "follow his lead". This was the extent of my pre-show exhibit staff training.

I did just what the boss ordered... three days of smoking, joking, looking and once in a while talking to a visitor if I couldn't find something better to do.

I'm certainly not proud of my accomplishments at that first show. However, I did come away with the belief that trade shows are the most efficient, cost-effective method of doing business.. if done correctly. If done poorly, they are a huge waste of valuable resources.

Unfortunately, far too many companies train their exhibit staff like I had been trained. Just watch the senior person who has been doing this for umpteen years and you will know how it's done.

Here's the $64 million question... who taught them? It seems to me that if the trainer is unqualified, then the trainees will also be unqualified. The result is an exhibit staff that doesn't have the faintest idea of what trade show selling is all about, what their role should be or why they are there in the first place.

If I had a dollar from all the people who have told me they knew everything about trade shows because they've "done 'em for years", I'd be a wealthy person. Who taught them?

Companies hire trainers, or persons they consider to be experts in various fields, to train employees for everything from dressing properly, learning foreign languages, computer skills, sales techniques and even how to drive in some cases. Why then do we spend billions of dollars on trade shows and neglect the most important aspect... training the staff?

If you are one of those folks that has been doing trade shows for many years, I hope that as you prepare for your next show, you will look in a mirror and ask the person looking back at you... who taught you? Proper staff training can make the difference between a poor showing and a profitable one.