Christine DiDomenico square for Social Media

Even the best custom trade show exhibit designs fail when the exhibit staff isn't up to par. This is a story about how one exhibit professional elevated her staff's perception of exhibit staff participation from chore to honor—and in the process brought her entire program to a whole new level.

During Christine DiDomenico's tenure as director of exhibit marketing at a major pharmaceutical company, she completely reinvented the way her company looked at staffing its exhibit. Not only did her team come to look at exhibit participation as an honor—it became an honor the sales reps competed for.

Christine's objective of building a skilled, enthusiastic, committed trade show booth staff was accomplished through a long-game process where she moved the needle one small increment at a time. Her entire process from start to finish took her about four years to achieve.

Christine says an important part of her process was to convince the head of sales of the benefits of hand choosing who was allowed to work in the booth. "When you make booth staff membership selective, you play to people's natural competitiveness. Suddenly everyone wants in—and everyone improves their game," says Christine.

8 Steps to Elevate Exhibit Staff Membership from Chore to Honor:

 

  1. Get management onboard. Christine started small—with casual conversation. At shows, she would stand with the head of sales and watch the exhibit team interact with physicians. As the staff worked, Christine called the head of sales' attention to what was being done well—and who was doing it well—so he'd understand what ideal behavior looked like and see for himself that good booth staff interaction resulted in better engagement with physicians.

Key to Christine's success was that she focused on positive behaviors and not negative. "I went in gingerly so he wouldn't feel like I was attacking his people," says Christine.

Next, Christine commissioned a third party exhibit audit—but even without the audit the groundwork had been laid because the head of sales had seen the difference that great booth staff performance made.

  1. Recognize good behavior. Christine continued to watch the team at shows. When she witnessed a staffer doing something right—such as engaging prospects from the aisle with open-ended questions, she complimented the staffer and praised the behavior to the other staffers. "You could see the team members beam with pride as their skills improved and we praised them for their efforts," says Christine.
  1. Propose the solution as a benefit. Once sales understood the benefits of having a strong exhibit staff and understood what exceptional exhibit staff behavior looked like, Christine segued into an aspirational conversation—"I asked, 'What if we replicate this model for every staffer at every show?'" says Christine. She had sales management's attention.
  1. Formally propose to create a "convention team" of top performers. Christine went back to sales management and formally pitched the idea of selecting the best talent to create a Convention Ambassador Program. Her proposal hinged on establishing participant eligibility criteria and only sending the best—and recognizing them for their efforts so membership on the team would be viewed as an honor.
  1. Select the A team. Christine's next step was to stand and observe the exhibit staffs at various shows with the high-level stakeholders one more time.  "We watched and then selected the staffers we wanted for the convention team together," says Christine.
  1. Design exhibit specific training — "We knew the key to achieving a high performing, high energy exhibit team was to train the staff and provide them with tools and techniques that are unique to the exhibit sales environment," says Christine. Partnering with her internal Sales Training group, Christine created a formal exhibit staff training curriculum that included: a series of live training workshops and distance learning modules, pre-show training instruction, on-site team briefing meetings and role playing exercises, and a third-party partner to conduct exhibit staff training.
  1. Recognize the team. Christine treated the members of her Convention Ambassador team as though they had been inducted into a prestigious society. The head of sales welcomed them to the club with "Congratulations, you've been selected" letters. Articles in the quarterly internal sales department magazine featured photos of the convention exhibit team in action—and attributed the success of the shows to their efforts. And no opportunity for praise was overlooked. "We even sent thank you for a job well done letters and copied their managers," says Christine.
  1. Reap the benefits. "After that everyone wanted to be on the team—and we had our pick of the best talent," says Christine. After four years, Christine had turned around her company's perception of what it meant to work an exhibit. No one would ever call it booth "duty" again.

What tactics and tools have you used to convince management to approve a major change in the way you manage, staff or run your exhibit program? We'd loveto hear. Email me atlsinicki@3DExhibits.com. If we use your story, we'll send you a 3D Exhibits t-shirtas a thank you gift.