Skyline Exhibits

Your staff's ability to attract, qualify and gather data for follow-up sales will have a big impact on your return on investment at a trade show.

You should begin with the premise that most trade show attendees won't walk into your booth. So your staffers' ability to reach passers-by with their eye contact and their open-ended questions will be very important to your success.

Tips to keep them engaged and to gather data:

• Ask open-ended questions that illicit more than a simple "yes" or "no" response. (Example: What are you looking for?)
• Arm your staff with answers to common objections in order to keep the dialogue going.
• Find out what attendees are looking for by asking qualifying questions that narrow down their needs.
• Staffers must know products well enough to be able to relate them to the key needs of attendees.
• Staffers must choose wisely what they will present and be able to advocate benefits that are most relevant to the needs of attendees.
• Staffers must hear (and infer) a lot in a brief interaction and be able to record the interest level and qualifying information that will be invaluable in follow-up sales.