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You have heard it repeated that your exhibit staff accounts for roughly
80% of your success as an exhibitor. But what are the actual accomplishments
that result from a well trained staff? These outcomes provide not only a
measurement set but also a serve as planning guide for your staff training.
Well-conceived staff orientation and training lead directly to increased
quality and effectiveness of the following goals:
1. High Value Contact Engagement
o More
engagements with the correct targeted participants
o More
agreement for follow-up activities
·
Applicable measures: number of leads,
number of contacts added to marketing database, improvements in relationship
maturity, etc.
o More sales
ready prospects delivered into the sales pipeline or funnel
·
Applicable measures: number of
qualified leads (that are acceptable to sales), number of goal conversions,
etc.
o More
meetings with better focus on business accomplishments
o Significant
cost savings/expense avoidance
·
Applicable measures: total future
travel and facilities cost avoidance through meetings
2. Marketing Communication
o A
well-trained exhibit staff provides a consistent “story,” told in its intended
context
o Messaging,
branding and marketing themes are more clearly and consistently communicated
·
Applicable measures: changes or
accomplishments in awareness, message or information recall, shifts in
preferences such as brand and purchase intent related to measurement
3. Presentations, Demonstrations and Product Showcasing
Presentations and interactive demos are large expenses upfront, but
significant effectiveness and cost savings may results. As you have probably
already concluded, how well the staff learns to utilize these tools will
determine the payback on the investment! Interactive demonstration and
presentation technology present huge opportunities to improve results.
o Increased
number and effectiveness of demonstrations and presentations
· Applicable measures: number of demos and presentations, the
number of participants in same, participant ratings of presentations and
demonstrations value, changes in awareness, recall, preferences and intent
o Decrease in
number and cost of future field sales calls
· Applicable measures: Number of targeted visitors who receive
a sales call equivalent, number of appointments or follow-up actions
·
Applicable measures: ratings of “sales
readiness”
4. Customer Relationship Management
o Increased
Customer Retention
·
Applicable measures: number of current customers seen at
event, amount of current revenue addressable at event, documented “saves” as a
result of event interaction
o Cross-Sell
and Up-sell Opportunities
·
Applicable measures: Number and type of
up-sell, cross-sell transactions as a result of or at event
5. Additional Staff Related Accomplishments
Exhibit staff can be trained on other practices and procedures such as:
o Protecting
competitive intelligence
o Gathering
competitive intelligence
o Other
business improvement and recruitment interactions with valuable contacts such
as suppliers, channels, press and others
These accomplishments and their measures represent just a few of the
many ways you can substantiate the time and cost of training your staff to be
effective at every event.
A common concern echoed among many exhibit managers is, “Our sales
people are so experienced and expert they will not accept or participate in
exhibit staff training.” In practice, well conceived training is most often
praised by top level sales people and sales executives. They recognize that
working from an exhibit is not the same as making a personal visit or even a
phone call where participants and facts are known beforehand.
When asked to comment about pre-show staff training impact, a senior business development executive of a major international company recently responded, “{Staff} training added significant value to trade show participation and resulted in real opportunity identification and follow-up. The training and approaches for better use of the available displays result in even the most experienced business development professional learning something new about customer interaction and setting the stage for winning profitable new business.”
Use
this guide not only to plan your staff training, but also to justify the
expense in qualitative and quantitative terms. An effectively trained exhibit
staff obtains results that you can prove and allows
you, the event manager, to be seen as a manager of the company’s business!
If you
need assistance with your event marketing measurement program, please call us
at +1.770.391.0015 or email me at edjones@constellationcc.com
Ed
Jones
President,
Constellation Communication Corp.
