Digg It - Business

Seasoned exhibitors know that one of the more important elements in making your trade show investment a success is proper training of the booth staff. In order to project a concise and consistent message at the show, everyone working the show needs to be able to "walk the talk". It's a good idea to have several

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

short sessions with your booth staff before, during and after the show.

Pre-show Training

No trade show exhibitor should hit the show floor without having done proper booth staff training. Improperly trained booth staff can reflect poorly on your company, and cut down dramatically on the leads you recei

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

e at a show. On the other hand, properly trained staff will draw people to your booth, give them information about your organization that is relevant to their needs, and leave the conversation with some type of follow-up or appointment.

Top 5 Areas of Pre-Show Booth Training

In addition to complete know

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

ledge of your products and services (that's a given), your booth training should include the top 5 areas that are imperative to cover prior to show opening:

1. Rules of Engagement – It is a good idea to come up with a list of do's and don'ts for the show and review those with your booth staff. Ite

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

s to include may be the minimum and maximum number of booth staff at one time (see Booth Staffing), rules about eating and drinking inside your booth, taking breaks, walking the show floor or moving outside of your booth for impromptu meetings, and so on.

2. Professional Appearance – Your staff sh

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

ould be dressed appropriately for the show (e.g. business or business casual attire) OR in some type of consistent show "uniform" that supports your brand, product, or show theme.

3. Don't Be Shy! – Timid booth staffers are not likely to obtain many leads at a trade show. Your staff should be trai

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

ing to greet booth visitors and passers by in a friendly and out-going manner. Your staff should not be too aggressive, but they should not be shy either. Have them engage anyone who seems at all interested in your booth in a conversation, or offer them a give-away item, piece of literature, or demo of your prod

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

uct.

4. Walk the Talk – Everyone working your booth should have your 30-second "elevator statement" memorized. The most common question from a booth visitor is inevitably, "So what do you do?" The inability to answer that question concisely will result in lost interest. In fact, depending on the t

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

pe of show and your company's products and services, sometimes the best answer to that question is, "We do a variety of things – what is it that you're looking for from this show?" Chances are, they'll reveal a need or "pain" that you can help them with.

5. Set an Action – Even if a booth visitor

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

doesn't have enough time to speak with you at length, have your staff ask for a follow-up meeting. Follow-ups can include sending e-mail info, literature, or speaking by phone or in person. Some professionals will even tell you to limit the amount of time you spend with booth visitors – engage them in a brief co

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

versation, but end that conversation by acknowledging that they are busy and have a lot of show floor to cover, and ask for a follow-up meeting to go into things in more detail.

During the Show Training

The organizer and leader of the show should conduct training during the show. This forces you to be o

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

bservant of the behavior of booth visitors and show staffers, and to adjust your show strategy if necessary during the show for better results. Some key items to have your eyes and ears open for include:

Attendance – is the show as well attended as show promoters promised? Are the attendees within yo

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

r target audience (e.g. decision makers)?

Common Questions/Needs – is there a commonly asked question when visitors come to your booth? Is there a common need that you're hearing from visitors that your company can address?

Good and Bad Booth Staff Behavior – make sure that your booth s

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

taff is following your "rules of engagement", that they are accurately answering questions, and that they are setting follow-up actions. Do real-time coaching for staff that is off the mark or breaking the rules.

Lead Generation– be sure that all of the leads that are being gathered at the show are

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

eing logged in some type of electronic format for use after the show. One of the biggest and most common mistakes that exhibitors make is taking business cards and writing on the back of them, then tucking them away in a probably never to be seen again pocket or box under the show table. Invest up front in an el

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

ectronic lead retrieval system – it is worth its weight in lead gold!

Post-Show Debrief

Another very common (and costly) mistake that exhibitors make is not holding a post-show debrief – at the show AND back at the office – to discuss how the show went, what the overall messages and take-aways were, and

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

the leads and lead follow-up. All too often the show ends, we return to our office (already behind because we've been out for several days), and we're right back in the grind all but forgetting the people we met and things we promised at the show.

At the Show - After the last day of exhibiting, when

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

ever possible, debrief the show with your staff together as a group. It can be at a post-show dinner or quickly as a group just prior to booth tear-down. This is the best time to get a feel for overall messages that came out of the show, evaluate how your company compared to others, and to set some follow-up goa

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

s for when you return to the office.

Back at the Office - Before you all get back into the grind – returning all of the calls and e-mails you missed while at the show – try and get your booth staff together for a meeting or a conference call to discuss post-show follow up. If you had a lead retrieva

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

l system, review which leads were assigned to whom, and what the company expects as far as follow up. Set another post-show meeting 2-4 weeks after this initial meeting to further review leads if necessary, and be sure to incorporate the leads that you obtained into your central database for future communication

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
<a href="http://www.diggit.org.ua/article/3021/diggit-Trade-Show-Booth-Staff-Training.html">Trade Show Booth Staff Training</a>

BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.diggit.org.ua/article/3021/diggit-Trade-Show-Booth-Staff-Training.html]Trade Show Booth Staff Training[/url]

Usually people consider textile fabrics as the common categorization such as woven, knitted, braided or tufted constructions. They commonly abandon nonwoven fabrics form the textile group. In the conventional fabric, the fibre is first made into yarns; on the other hand, nonwovens are manufactured sheets or webs directionally or randomly orientated fibres, bonded through resistance, solidity or sticking together into a fabric.

Several states have small business government grants. These are not offered by the federal government but a number of state-run development agencies provide free government grants.

One of the latest addition to the list of approved top-level domains is the .travel domain. It was in May of 2005 that the idea of a top-level domain for the travel industry came about when the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) approved the contract proposed by Tralliance to operate the administration of a top-level domain for the booming travel industry.

Tags

Links

Digg It - Trade Show Booth Staff Training

Related Articles: