The Show Team - Staffing for Success

As you're planning for BACE, one of the most important things to consider, is who will be attending from your team. Your "Show Team" is probably more important than your booth, location, etc. This is the team representing your brand, building relationships with customers, and securing new business. You want to make sure you are staffed to hit your goals.

With new business being a top priority, many companies will decide to send their sales team as the core group at tradeshows. While this is a logical approach, some things to consider:

If your whole sales team is attending, expect a drop in activities before and during the show. While trade shows can obviously create new opportunities in your pipeline, a reduction in typical day-to-day sales activities can hurt your month or quarter. Consider a rotation of sales reps during a show or even every other show to minimize the impact.

Customer Success & Customer Service Reps can be the most effective team members at shows. These are the reps that typically have the best relationships with current customers and have the strongest knowledge of the current products and services that you are offering. They can be tapped in for just about any conversation at the show.

At most tradeshows, you typically don't see developers or engineers working the booth, but these can be some of the best additions to your show team. Getting facetime with customers, prospects, and partners can be a massive benefit for the people who are actually building your products.

While your key initiatives at tradeshows are strengthening existing business and building new business, one of the most important aspects of these events is team building. This is an opportunity to bond with team members and give them direct exposure to everything going on in the industry. It's usually an awesome time, a great learning experience, and a break from the day-to-day grind at the office.