A Motivated Staff Guarantees Fantastic Trade Show Results

Staffing your company’s display at a show is hard work and staying motivated can often be a real challenge.

The key ingredient for anyone to be motivated to work a show is simple: they need to want to be there. All too often employees are told by management to "just show up" to work a particular show.However,given a choice, they would often prefer not to.

Sales people frequently feel that working a display stand interferes with their normal selling routine. When employees have a negative attitude about being at a show, their body language lets everyone around know they feel "this is a futile and unimportant exercise."

Remember that everyone representing your company is an ambassador. By being helpful, courteous and having a professional demeanor, they can strengthen the company’s image and gain new customers. Choose your team carefully based on its excellent knowledge of the company’s products and services and the many customers and prospects whom you expect to visit the Trade Show Display.

Each staff member should have at least one personal goal they want to achieve. This increases accountability, changes unproductive habits, increases productivity and also builds motivation. At pre-show meetings staff should be encouraged to share their goals with other staff members.Encourage contests for quality leads collected. At post-show or debriefing meetings they should report on their achievements.

When top management are supportive of the company’s trade show activities and demonstrate their feelings by attending the show, helping in the stand, taking part in training sessions and pre-and post-show activities, their enthusiasm is contagious.

A critical element of motivational success is letting the team know what is expected of them at the show and then providing any training necessary for them to do their job effectively. Successful people aren’t born…they’re trained.

It is management’s responsibility to create a positive, fun and reinforcing environment and to realize that it takes more than an incentive to succeed. Rewards and personal recognition provide an effective way of encouraging higher levels of performance.

Managers need to know their individual staff members and what motivates them. Studies show that more people are motivated by personal recognition than by money. The power of recognition and appreciation can create a more positive, productive and enjoyable environment while working a show.

Everyone should be working together as a team, helping each other out whenever and wherever necessary. If there is a large number of staffers, split them up into teams with technical people working alongside sales people. As a team they need to have time prior to the show to get acquainted, develop a level of trust and get to know and understand each other’s strengths.

Each day, conduct debriefing sessions to review performance. Team members should be encouraged to give and receive feedback from colleagues to look for ways to improve performance each day. Managers need to remember that individual achievements are worth group recognition.