How should manufacturers decide how many representatives and resources to bring … and avoid wasting money?
The appropriate number of representatives is entirely predicated on the size of the booth and projected number of booth visitors per day. Avoid a crowded booth, which is always perceived as an invitation to “try again later.” These prospects very rarely come back. The exhibitor should schedule booth hours for each respective staffer and insist that they not visit the booth unless they are scheduled to be there. Long hours of staffing a booth can lead to fatigue, loss of enthusiasm and poor performance. If possible, I recommend bringing additional booth staffers for booth-duty rotation so that no one staffer has more than four consecutive hours of booth duty. This is more cost-effective than fewer booth staffers that yield lower levels of performance. For exhibitors who are distributing brochures from literature carousels at the show’s front entrance, I recommend a supply of 500. For the booth itself, bring no more than 500 brochures, order forms, spec sheets, etc. When you consider the
