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canyonwalkerOne thing that's often frustrated me about working trade shows is how casually my colleagues take their duties. In my first sales job many years ago the company had a simple set of booth rules, simple and obvious things like "Be there" and "Pay attention to prospects, not your phone." My colleagues and I took these rules seriously. We understood that they were best practices to maximize the value of the company's investment in paying for the booth (often tens of thousands of dollars!) and paying for our travel and time. Unfortunately at the companies I've worked at since then, few people take these responsibilities seriously— including the people on the marketing event staff, who are the most accountable to show results from the show.
So, what to do when everyone else is kind of slacking? Well, getting frustrated about it doesn't help. And encouraging my colleagues to do better has barely worked. "If you can't beat them, join them." I decided to take the work as un-seriously as everyone else.
...Well, actually, that's not true. I did still take my work more seriously than everyone else. But that's partly on me, for going above and beyond the past two days, and partly on everyone else for achieving below the already not very high average.
How low was the achievement this time around? One guy didn't come at all. Another left after one day. Another arrived late the first day then left before the second day. Even the event organizer left before lunch today. She didn't want take a flight home that would get her home at 11pm. So she ditched more than half a day of the show to get home by 6pm in time for her beauty rest or whatever.
What did I do? Well, on the plus side, I worked the show the whole day today even though I was nominally scheduled just 11-3. Just like I worked the whole day yesterday. And I helped tear down the booth. On the slacking side, I felt no guilt about sitting on a chair 10' back from the front of the booth reading mail and news and chat on my phone, keeping at most half an eye cocked to see if anyone at the front of the booth needed me to talk to them. Aggressively scanning leads? Ha ha, no, not this time. Not when so many people weren't even there.
So, what to do when everyone else is kind of slacking? Well, getting frustrated about it doesn't help. And encouraging my colleagues to do better has barely worked. "If you can't beat them, join them." I decided to take the work as un-seriously as everyone else.
...Well, actually, that's not true. I did still take my work more seriously than everyone else. But that's partly on me, for going above and beyond the past two days, and partly on everyone else for achieving below the already not very high average.
How low was the achievement this time around? One guy didn't come at all. Another left after one day. Another arrived late the first day then left before the second day. Even the event organizer left before lunch today. She didn't want take a flight home that would get her home at 11pm. So she ditched more than half a day of the show to get home by 6pm in time for her beauty rest or whatever.
What did I do? Well, on the plus side, I worked the show the whole day today even though I was nominally scheduled just 11-3. Just like I worked the whole day yesterday. And I helped tear down the booth. On the slacking side, I felt no guilt about sitting on a chair 10' back from the front of the booth reading mail and news and chat on my phone, keeping at most half an eye cocked to see if anyone at the front of the booth needed me to talk to them. Aggressively scanning leads? Ha ha, no, not this time. Not when so many people weren't even there.
