Sales people are the first choice when recruiting staff for a trade show. Yet, many sales people do not like participating trade shows. They are resentful if they have to spend time at a booth meeting visitors from territories outside their sales area. They are irritated when they have to spend days at a trade show away from their traditional bread and butter activity of selling. And they can be incensed when some marketing executive tells them that the sales skills they use everyday need to be honed to work in the show environment.

All and all it is not a happy picture. Having resentful, irritated and incensed people on the front line isn’t the best way to execute an exhibit program. The solution involves back and taking a broader look at the issues.  Sales people get paid to sell, not to generate leads or reinforce brand messages. When you take them away from activities they rely on to make their mortgage payments it’s a tenuous proposition. 

There has always been a blur in the marketplace between sales and marketing and yet the two are entirely separate disciplines. If you are going to cross the line its important that the goals of each are taken into account.  Here are some solutions that will help bridge the sales/marketing gap.

1.  When you are setting your objectives for the show keep both sales and marketing in mind. Objectives that will satisfy your marketing folks are such things as branding, image and product introduction. Sales people need good quality leads to work with.  The trick is to choose objectives that satisfy both groups.

2. Create a reward system that doesn’t penalize sales folks from spending time at a show.  For example, they should be rewarded for finding and recording lead information that leads to business from all areas of the organization. During their time at the show their sales quotas should be altered to reflect the reality of being away from in the field.

3. Provide extra support helping them take care of their territory. This could be in the form of customer service representatives or other personnel dealing with customer questions or other customer relationship issues that might come up.

4. Provide post-show follow up assistance. Set up a mail or telephone campaign, run by support staff whose objective is to turn warm leads obtained at the show into hot leads. One of the criteria of a hot lead relates to the customer’s constraints. Help your sales reps deal with the influx of leads and prioritize them according to urgency.

5. Establish a quick turn-around of information. Your support staff needs to be organized in such a fashion that information about leads obtained at the show is passed along in a quick and orderly fashion.  Sales reps should be constantly kept in the loop to minimize surprises and the risk of being overloaded.

6. Stay open for feedback. No two situations are alike. Keep all channels of communication open between sales and marketing. Listen to concerns and modify your approach in subsequent shows.

Balancing the needs between sales and marketing can sometimes be like walking a tightrope. But a successful exhibit program is greatly enhanced when you listen to both, react when it’s appropriate and don’t be hesitant to incorporate changes. You have made a significant investment and it will take some diplomatic wrangling to make it work.