Fall is tradeshow season. I just returned from a show in Las Vegas and decided to jot down the list of tradeshow blunders that I saw. Unfortunately many of them were violated by one company’s exhibit staff.

• Putting up barriers between you and the attendees – many of the booths were set up with a table blocking the entrance. People stood behind the table, keeping their visitors at bay. Open up the booth and allow people to walk in and talk with you.
• Sitting down in the booth – again, this is not inviting to those walking by. Some of the folks sitting were sitting behind the table they put up as a barrier. They really wanted to keep people away.
• Overstaffing or understaffing your booth – one booth had five people sitting around doing nothing. As a visitor I would hesitate to enter for fear of being attacked by all five at once. Others were empty. Ouch.
• Talking among yourselves – many of the booth personnel felt more comfortable talking with their colleagues than speaking with the attendees who may just want to buy your product.
• Inconsistent booth staff attire – either go with business attire or select nice shirt with your logo and the same color pants. Mix and match hurts your brand in the booth.
• Talking on your mobile phone – more often, folks were talking on the phone, ignoring visitors to the show floor. Take you calls outside and keep them short. The show exhibit times were not that long and you can always call someone back if it is not an emergency.
• Reading your email – I saw people reading email on their laptops and PDAs. This is just as rude as talking on the phone. Read your mail during breaks.
• Never making eye contact – I walked around the show floor and noticed many people never made eye contact with me to start the conversation. Be inviting and encourage people to talk with you. You never know who may be your next customer.
• Turning your back to your visitors – people standing in the booth should always face out towards the aisles so that you can greet people that walk by. Standing in the booth with your back to your prospect is not very inviting.

Staffing a tradeshow booth is tiring, but the point of being there is to collect leads for sales. If you are going through the motions without getting valuable prospect information from the attendees, I’d suggest you spend your marketing dollars elsewhere.