It’s a fact: positive energy attracts more attendees, negative energy keeps them away.
Just imagine you’re at a restaurant and your waiter acts like he doesn’t want to be there. It completely ruins the dining experience. Worse still, this bad memory will stick in your brain, telling you to bypass that restaurant at all costs in the future.
To avoid creating a similar brand experience at your next trade show, you need to ensure your booth team is oozing good vibes.
In this blog, we offer helpful advice on injecting positivity into your people so they can attract attendees, hold their attention and leave a lasting impression.
1. Select the right team
This is where a lot of businesses get it wrong resulting in a poor trade show performance. When it comes to hiring, the two main mistakes are:
- Picking staff from sales or marketing who have no exhibiting experience
- Hiring individuals who have contrasting personalities
The first pitfall is easily avoidable. You need to hire staff who feel comfortable in a trade show environment because it demands unique face-to-face engagement skills. They should be able to approach attendees, spark conversations and qualify leads confidently.
For more info: 7 Ways to Avoid Bad Trade Show Etiquette
Secondly, selecting individuals for your team with complementing personalities helps you create a great dynamic where everyone is bouncing off each other. In the process, your booth team will be much more approachable, boosting lead generation and your brand impression.
2. Brief your team on company and personal objectives
Setting goals is linked with self-confidence, motivation, and autonomy (Locke & Lathan, 2006). It makes sense: with clear goals in mind, you can measure your efforts and see how you’re contributing to the company’s overall success.
This is why you need to brief your team on your company objectives. So they can align their efforts with your wider goals, giving them more focus during the trade show and helping you achieve your targets.
On a similar note, they also need personal goals to concentrate on. They get a clear plan on what they need to do on the day, and this clarity motivates them to stay on track and put their best foot forward.
3. Make sure they know who the target audience is
Your target audience should shape your entire trade show strategy, from your engagement tactics to your product or service demonstrations.
Communicating this information to your team is vital. It helps them choose the right tone and ask the right questions while engaging with attendees. If you don’t have audience personas already, you need them. Ask customers to complete surveys, gather data from Google Analytics and listen to conversations on social media to learn more about your target market.
The result is more meaningful conversations that leave your prospects and trade show team buzzing with positive energy.
4. Create a fun and enjoyable attendee experience
If your attendees are enjoying the experience they get at your booth, your staff will feel invigorated. They get to see first-hand the positive impact they are having not only on your prospects but on your business’ bottom line: the better the attendee experience, the more likely you are to secure their interest.
Interactivity is instrumental in creating fun booth experiences. Think about implementing games and activities related to your products or services. While technology like virtual and artificial reality can help you take your attendee experiences to exhilarating heights.
5. Rehearse the attendee journey
You want your trade show team to feel as confident as possible about the journey they need to take attendees on. It ensures a cohesive and five-star experience that seamlessly leads prospects to the next stage – conversion.
On top of briefing your team on the strategy, you should take them through the customer journey step-by-step. Think of it like rehearsing for a play, your staff need to know their lines and the right time to deliver them to create on-point attendee experiences.
6. Make outside contractors feel part of the team
The perfect trade show team is completely synchronised; the attendee journey flows seamlessly, resulting in clean and fast conversions.
It only takes one person to disrupt the flow. This is what happens when you hire contractors and they haven’t been integrated into the team properly.
To ensure a great team dynamic, include any agency hires or contractors in your briefings. Also, by giving them personal objectives, you put them on the same level as your permanent staff, empowering them to give their best performance.
7. Set fun team incentives
Good Incentives motivate good behaviour. If you want to get your team energised and focused, give them something worth pushing themselves for. Here are some points to consider when creating incentives:
Link incentives to specific targets – with clear objectives, your staff can work more effectively towards their targets
Keep your competitions friendly – to maintain that community feel, give people personal targets rather than pitting them against their colleagues
Make rewards highly visible – include them in your brief
Offer a range of incentives – personalisation can make your rewards more enticing
Incentivise the right behaviours – consider how specific behaviours can help you achieve your wider business goals.
8. Display positive body language.
If your team displays good body language, they will be much more approachable resulting in increased traffic for your booth. Maintain the following behavior across your team and you’ll also make conversations with attendees more enjoyable, improving engagement:
Maintain eye contact with visitors – this indicates that you’re focused and paying attention
Smile and be enthusiastic – smiling triggers positive emotions for your staff and the people they talk to
Have open body language at the booth – no crossed arms or crossed legs
Be a good listener – don’t interrupt; show interest in what the visitor has to say and ask questions
Create Unstoppable Momentum
Use these tips when managing your booth team and ensure your people stay positive throughout the trade show. Your reward will be happy and confident staff which leads to more effective face-to-face engagement, boosting your trade show performance.
To recap, our 8 top tips for creating positive energy in your team are:
- Select the right team
- Brief your team on company and personal goals
- Make sure they know who the target audience is
- Create fun and enjoyable attendee experiences
- Rehearse the attendee journey
- Make outside contracts feel part of the team
- Set fun team incentives
- Display positive body language
If you need extra support in making your trade show team unstoppable, you can talk to us on 0161 834 9478 (UK) or +1 702 608 8362 (USA). We also have lots of advice surrounding team engagement and improving your trade show ROI on our blog.