Strategically Staffing Your Home Show Booth
Home show success demands smart exhibition booth staffing. Learn how to qualify attendees, engage prospects, and turn booth traffic into real leads.
KickStart: How is your team going to greet, sell and sign up the throngs of attendees to your home expo booth? You need a system to “high-grade” people…
WOW! When I did a rough outline for a “why and how” series on Home Expos for a residential services contractor I never dreamed it would drag on for 5 articles! You neither, huh?🙄
But hey, we’ve covered a lot! Everything from doing a Part 1 reality check (on yourself and then the home expo) to the essential Part 2 Pre-Home Show Preparation. Plus in Part 3 we did a deep dive on Drawing Attendees to Your Home Expo Booth.
NOTE: My next Part 5 will wrap things up with The Follow-Up: Where Most Contractors Fail.But first…
You’ve worked so hard to get ready for this home expo. And hopefully attendees will be fighting to be a part of the in-crowd hanging out at your booth! But wait!
You’ll need oriented, motivated, sharp people to engage with and sell the attendees mobbing your booth! After all, you’ve invested a lot- now let’s get you a great ROI!
Here’s my home show staffing formula: Recruit enough people to always have “aisle staff” working in front of your booth (more on this in a moment) while passing on prospects that have more immediate interest to a closer. For a typical 12x12 booth, plan on 3-5 people minimum. Now for…
Steve’s controversial rule: Ban all chairs from your booth! People, I’m dead serious. Employees sitting around listlessly surfing their phones sends the wrong message. Here’s why…
Prospects want to see energy and ACTION! Keep everyone standing UP and engaging with attendees. (And no texting!)
How can you make this work without burning everyone out? Schedule short shifts and then a break. Rotating two-hour shifts ‘on’ followed by a 30-minute break ‘off’ works well. And yes, pay for these breaks, you cheap skate! 🙄 Your people are giving up their weekend for you!
Don’t have enough employees? Recruit friends or family members. Brief them on your key talking points, dress them professionally, and put them to work. They don’t have to be experts—they just need to be enthusiastic and know when to bring qualified prospects to you which leads me to...
Strategically Qualifying Prospects: The System That Separates Home Expo Winners from Losers
ProTIP: Not every person walking by is worth your key sales staffs’ time. Home expo attendees come in three categories. You need to treat each differently:
Tire-Kickers
These folks are just browsing, killing time, and/or collecting free stuff. They’re not “bad people”- just not in your target demographic (wrong zip code, renters, whatever).
For Tire-Kickers: Aisle staff should be polite, hand them a brochure and give them a $50.00 gift check or card (see #2 below), wish them a good day, and let them move on. Don’t waste time trying to convert someone who isn’t a prospect.
ProTIP #1: Don’t know where they live? Ask them… strategically! One way is you go first as in, “I live over in the Crestview area. What part of town do you live in?” The Principle of Reciprocity means since you trusted them first, they must now trust you! 👌
ProTIP #2: Approach attendees as they walk by (but definitely NOT while they’re in someone else’s booth!), smile, rech out with a check and ask, “Can I write you a check for 50.00?”
Once they have stopped (and they w,ill!) initial the gift check that states “Good for 50.00 in goods and services” and as you hand it to them mention, “If you don’t need our services feel free to pass it on to a friend.”💖
HINT: Always run a drawing. When creating your (short) drawing entry form include a line for their “zip code”. A zip code is anonymous enough that almost every attendee will give it up.
ProTIP #3: In your entry form include a box to check if they want a free pre-inspection. (And don’t forget lots of small clipboards and pens to fill out the entry forms.)
Warm Prospects
These are homeowners in your service area who show genuine interest. They slow down, ask a question, or engage with your display. This is your bread and butter—the majority of your leads will come from this group.
For Warm Prospects: Hand them a clipboard with your contest entry form. While they fill it out (it should take 30 seconds), start a friendly conversation. Ask about their home, their neighborhood, their current service provider. Build rapport.
If they check the box for a free pre-inspection, circle their name so you remember to prioritize them in your follow-up. NOTE:Either way, give the prospect an approved 50.00 gift check, initialed by the booth worker.
Critical point: Train your staff in your ‘desired demographics.’ If you primarily serve homes valued over $400,000 in specific zip codes, make sure everyone knows this. Your aisle people need to do subtle qualifying before wasting everyone’s time.
Hot Prospects
These are the gold nuggets—people who are ready to buy now. They’re asking serious questions, mentioning specific problems, or expressing frustration with their current provider. Don’t let these people slip away!
For Hot Prospects: Once identified, your aisle staff should walk them over to you (or another senior person) at the back of your booth. Here’s how to do it…
ProTIP: One great way to make a smooth hand off? Simply reply, “That’s a great question. Let me introduce you to (gesture and start walking) our senior engineer Chris Gripp. Chris, (gesturing) this is…” (pause here and they’ll interject) “Hi Chris, my name is Steve…”
Have a genuine conversation. Ask questions. Understand their needs. Create a great Moment of Truth by asking them if you may take notes. If possible, schedule the appointment right there on the spot. If you can, GREAT! 🪇🎊🎉💐🎈
After all, you have your prospect face-to-face! But at other times, a home show just isn’t a good closing environment. Too noisy, your prospect is distracted and/or has to go pee, their kids are yelling, they don’t have all their data, etc.
So in our final, part 5 of our Home Expo series lets focus on “The Follow-Up: Where Most Contractors Fail”… so you won’t fall into this trap! 😎 Oh, and one final reminder: Bring lots of business cards to your Home Expo… and use them! We’ll talk soon…
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