Gathering information is at the heart of your booth staff’s success. Before they can begin a discussion with a visitor, it is imperative that they understand what the visitor is looking for. Your boothers need to understand that in the first few moments of the interaction, they should not tell visitors anything.

The principle to remember is this:

Your booth staff knows what they are selling,
now they need to know what the visitor is buying.

Gathering information is a matter of taking ACTION, an acronym for six bits of crucial information. The following six steps are generic. They are a broad approach to gathering information. As you proceed through this article, think about the information that is crucial to your situation. Sometimes the six steps work well as they are, and sometimes they need to be modified. Use the ACTION format as a template to create the questions your staff needs to ask.

A = Authority

One of the six bits of information that booth staff needs to know is the visitor’s level of authority. If boothers choose to make a presentation, then it is important to ensure that they use the right words. For a decision-maker, the conversation will focus on getting the decision made. For the decision influencer, the conversation will centre on the visitor’s ability to get the information to the right person.

C = Capability

Boothers need to determine whether the visitor or his or her organization can help them achieve their exhibiting objectives. The “capability” questions are often more general in nature. What these questions create is a thumbnail sketch of the visitors and their organisations. It gives the boother information to ascertain whether a visitor fits the definition of the target customer.

T = Time

Time at an exhibit is always limited and should be properly allocated in order to see hundreds of visitors. Boothers need to decide how much time to spend with each visitor. If visitors have the potential of using your product or service within your sales cycle, they should be given more time than the visitor who might be interested some day down the road.

I = Identity

Knowing the visitor’s name is an important part of the rapport process. Finding out a visitor’s name is easy—read the visitor’s show badge, exchange business cards, or simply say, “Hi, my name is Barry Siskind. I represent the ABC Company, and you are ... ?”

Taking notes is often left to chance, perhaps on the back of a business card, scraps of paper, or a notebook. What’s needed is a formal system to record information. This can be either manual or electronic.

O = Obstacles

A common trap for many boothers is spending lots of time with a visitor, only to find out later that there was an obstacle in doing business with the exhibiting company. There are always reasons why visitors cannot or will not do business with certain companies which include loyalties to a competitor, existing contractual arrangements, past history with your company, location outside your service area, vendor restrictions, or technical incompatibility. Every visitor can create his or her own special list of obstacles. The trick is to uncover these obstacles as quickly as possible. If the obstacle takes time to deal with or cannot be overcome, boothers may choose to deal with the visitor at a later date or simply move to the disengagement.

N = Need

The order of the first five ACTION questions is irrelevant—be flexible. The need question, which falls at the end of the ACTION acronym, is really the first question a boother should ask. The need question is a bridge from your approach to the information gathering process. You may have approached by asking, “Are you finding what you are looking for?”

The visitor may respond by saying, “No, not yet.”

The need question now is, “Tell me what you are looking for.”

The ACTION questions should take about 90 second to complete. Now your boothers are in an excellent position to decide how they should spend their time with the show visitor.