Bob Milam, independent industry consultant, is a former EXHIBITOR Editorial Advisory Board member and a past All-Star Award winner, and a current EXHIBITOR Conference advisory board and faculty member. tradeshowbob @gmail.com

egendary football coach Vince Lombardi once said, "Coaches who can outline plays on a black board are a dime a dozen. The ones who win get inside their players and motivate." Sure, you probably have an impressive game plan for your company's next exhibit, but without motivated booth staffers, attendees are likely to see you trip up at the goal line and suffer a defeat. At least, that was how I felt after the 2003 Poultry Show.

On the surface, the show looked likely to be a relatively big success. Our 20-by-40-foot booth featured lots of space for one-on-one conversations. Since the company I was working for made the breading that goes on chicken nuggets, our very basic plan was to lure the masses with savory samples of chicken nuggets, then meet with potential and existing contacts that stopped by the exhibit. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, in terms of booth staffing, everything. We'd brought the right people, but we had them doing the wrong things. For example, our food scientists spent most of their time cooking chicken nuggets. We'd also brought a host of account managers. But while these folks were great at dealing with the two or three clients from their region when those clients walked into the booth, they didn't have a lot of motivation to deal with anyone else who might happen by.

As I started planning for the 2004 Poultry Show, I focused on not only making sure I had the right people, but also on whether they were all fulfilling roles that best matched their skill sets. It turns out that account managers (aka sales reps) tend to be motivated by money. They are very territorial, wanting to deal with their clients and no others. It's not that they are incapable of being congenial booth staffers; it's just that their congeniality tends to be saved for their specific clients. So I made a list of the clients we needed to see and schmooze at the show, and asked the appropriate account managers to come and handle those clients. That's all. Nothing else. Do what you're good at, and do it well.

I also realized that highly skilled food scientists are more effective when they are explaining technical details to attendees than when cooking chicken nuggets. So I scheduled them to give technical presentations and sit in on meetings with clients to answer any food-science questions.

Finally, it dawned on me that the best people to handle the general public and their questions were our customer-service reps. After all, these folks have a broad knowledge of our products, know who handles which accounts (allowing them to direct clients to the appropriate account manager), and have training and experience in dealing with everything from customer complaints to basic requests for information.

By matching the right people to the appropriate duties in the booth, we were able to work smarter and more efficiently, as opposed to the previous year when I had people working well outside their skill sets - and comfort zones. As a result, I was able to cut our staff number from 25 people to about 15, mostly selected from the previous year's group, saving a bit of money while making our marketing plan work better.

Granted, many exhibit managers don't have the luxury of handpicking their booth staff for the show. If you fall into that unenviable category, and have uninspired sales reps thrust upon your program, you can still work toward matching each person to the role that best fits his or her skill set. Plus, you can work to instill crystal clear objectives in them and motivate them in a manner best fitting their personalities.

So, if your fabulous booth and best laid schemes aren't getting you the results you'd expect, take a look at your booth staff and consider the following four questions:

1. Why are these people here? Every staffer should have a reason to be there. And "We needed a warm body to hand out pens" is not a reason. Each selection also must advance your company's marketing and sales goals. If you have the right people staffing your booth, you should be able to ask any one of them, "What's your primary objective at the show?" and he or she should have an answer that supports your overarching exhibit-marketing objectives.

2. What's their motivation? Find out what motivates your booth staff. Then use that information to tweak your approach. For example, if the majority of your staffers are team oriented, you might want to host a pre-show pep rally each morning to get them jazzed and ready to go. However, if they are motivated by personal goals, consider a more one-on-one approach.

3. Does the job match the skill set? So you've got a brilliant technical person - such as a product developer or engineer - in your booth. Do you really want that person greeting prospects at the edge of your carpet, asking them to come in and try your new product? No. That's a colossal waste of a well-educated person who, quite frankly, is probably much more comfortable discussing the details of the product than handing out stress balls. Rather, identify the strengths of your individual staffers and give them responsibilities that most closely match those demonstrated strengths.

For example, if one of your staffers is a "people person" who thrives on customer interaction, make him or her your crowd gatherer. If one is particularly skilled in closing the deal, have him or her meet with VIP attendees. Align your staffers with roles that match their strengths, and let them know you handpicked them because you think they're the right man (or woman) for the job. Not only are they more likely to thrive; they're more likely to take a little ownership.

4. Is the staff trained to meet its objectives? Once you have the right people in the right places, don't just expect magic to happen. Remind them of their objectives before, during, and even after the show. It will help them prepare and stay focused, while the post-show reminder will encourage them to take stock of what they accomplished. Also, make sure they know what other staffers' jobs are, so they can properly hand off attendees to the right staffers.

If you follow the aforementioned advice, you'll see a major difference in staffers' performance at your trade shows. And that difference will likely translate into increased efficiency, heightened ROI, and a better public face for your exhibit program - both externally and internally. Before you know it, each player on your team will perform like an all star. Talk about a winning game plan.e