OUTSOURCED STAFFING
 With my budget stretched tighter than Kirstie Alley's Spanx, I have to slash my program's travel budget, which means decreasing the number of staffers I bring to shows and events throughout the year. But since our booth size hasn't changed, I still need talented people to perform a variety of tasks. How can I maintain my program's effectiveness with only half the staff?
 While the Great Recession is supposedly over, almost every exhibitor is still pinching pennies left and right. And given the rising costs of travel, sending hoards of staffers to a trade show probably isn't an option anymore. Plus, with fewer employees back at the office, many companies are less likely to want key employees away from their desks for a moment, much less a week-long trip to a trade show.
Clearly, then, staffing a booth at a trade show has never been more challenging than it is today. But with the proper training, outsourced personnel can effectively perform many functions, such as greeting attendees, staffing the info desk, distributing giveaways, gathering crowds, etc. What's more, hired help may even outperform your own internal staff - all for considerably less money than it would cost you to send your employees to the show.
But before you sign on with a staffing firm, widen your understanding of the words "outsourced personnel," as they're not restricted to hired talent. Indeed, staffing firms are a viable and often cost-effective solution for your situation (more on that later). But outsourcing involves several options, including staffing firms as well as personnel within your company's partner or dealer network.
Most companies with business ties to yours, such as dealers and distributors,
will be willing to lend you some locally
based staffers, especially since they'll likely invest only a few hours each
day of the show - as opposed to having to fly across the country for a
week-long trip. If local dealers and distributors are not willing to assist you, ask upper management to add this responsibility to all new dealer/distributor relationships. By committing
to your company, dealers and distributors should also be committed to your exhibit-marketing efforts.
Also enlist the help of your technology or business partners and create a win-win situation for both of you. For example, if your product uses an Intel Corp. chip, ask your Intel contacts to send some people to the show to staff the exhibit in exchange for some kind of Intel-related promotion in your booth. In this situation, Intel employees
might be ideal candidates to staff product demonstrations. After a bit of training, they should be able to tout the benefits of your products and talk at length about the power of the Intel chips inside them.
You can also arrange this kind of win-win situation with value-added resellers, i.e., companies that add some kind of additional component or service to your product and resell it at a higher cost. Often, these typically
smaller, lesser-known companies can't afford their own booth space, so they're usually most appreciative for any opportunity to show their wares on the coattails of your brand.
Furthermore, if your company has an outside public-relations firm on retainer, ask it to supply a free on-site liaison to handle questions from members of the media, press briefings,
and press-release distribution
that would have otherwise been accomplished by one of your staff. Some PR firms will do this as part of their retainer, while others will ask for additional fees. But when you're trying to cut costs, such an arrangement is well worth the time it takes to ask.
And just because you've brought staffers to the show doesn't mean they need to stay there for its duration. After all, booth traffic on day three is usually nowhere near as busy as traffic on day one. So always consider sending a portion of your staff home early as attendance diminishes over the course of the show. Whether you plan this exodus before the show or simply act on the fly and send people home as needed, saving a couple of hotel nights and staffers' daily per-diem
rates are small but meaningful budget cuts that can certainly make a big difference over time.
Along with these in-house options, staffing companies can provide well trained and highly capable staffers well suited to myriad tasks. Granted, effective booth staffers are anything but free. But compared to the cost of sending a typical employee to a show, including the price of airfare, hotel rooms, on-site transportation, and miscellaneous costs such as Wi-Fi fees, baggage-handling charges, etc., temporary staffers may save you as much as 50 percent.
Before you approach a staffing firm, figure out what exhibit-staff jobs you have that would best suit a temporary staffer. Clearly, you don't want a temporary staffer answering highly technical product questions from VIPs. In fact, you'll want to use all of your travel dollars to ensure that your key salespeople, technical experts, and executives are on hand in the booth. But many essential exhibit-staff functions can be filled by a properly trained temporary staffer.
Models, for instance, often function
well as information-desk staffers,
crowd gatherers, giveaway distributors, traffic managers, etc. They are also usually highly effective at greeting people, welcoming them to your space, and then directing them to the appropriate personnel or area of your booth that best suits their needs. Plus, they typically make a wonderful first impression with visitors.
Professional salespeople are also available for hire. While you'll need to carefully select these people and they'll need rigorous training in your product offerings, many professional salespeople have broad knowledge within a specific industry that enables them to hold intelligent conversations
with just about any current customer or prospect. Properly trained, they can argue in your product's favor, and they usually have the skills and knowledge necessary to qualify
attendees, process leads, and perhaps even move prospects further along in the sales cycle.
Presenters and demonstrators are another option. You'll need to invest hours of training and preparation in them, and they often cost considerably
more than, say, a model or crowd gatherer. But you might still be able to save on the costs of sending a typical employee to the show - and you'll gain a highly professional speaker or demonstrator in the process.
So what does all of this hired help cost you? With paid talent, as with everything in life, you get what you pay for. In Las Vegas, for example, you can expect to pay somewhere in the ballpark of $20 per hour for a giveaway distributor, $425 per day for a top-tier receptionist/hostess, $1,200 per day for a professional salesperson,
and $1,800 per day for a quality, ear-prompted presenter or demonstrator. Make sure to hire local staff, as you'll pay travel expenses on top of these charges for nonlocal talent.
The next time you find yourself short on both staffers and budget, don't assume that your face-to-face effectiveness must suffer. Whether you use borrowed personnel from your business partners or paid people from staffing firms, outsourcing can be a relatively painless way to slash costs and still maintain exhibit effectiveness.
- Mark Jacoby, president, Overflow
Marketing Communications LLC, Astoria, NY
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