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Road-Show Staffing
 Next year, my company will launch its first traveling road-show campaign. While we are outsourcing certain parts of the campaign (vehicle selection and design, setup and teardown, insurance and permit coordination, etc.) to a company that specializes in road-show logistics, we can’t outsource the task of “manning” the mobile environment and interacting with clientele on site because of the sophisticated nature of our products. For this, we need members of our own marketing and sales staff to take to the road. What are the best ways to prep and train internal staff, coordinate scheduling, cycle staff throughout the tour, and plan travel and on-the-road accommodations?
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Create regional teams
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for event staffing. Much depends on the duration of the road show, how often people travel as part of their regular jobs, how many breaks there are between stops, and other factors. I’ve found that it often makes sense to carve a full road show into smaller chunks based on geography (such as western, southern, and eastern events), and to staff these locally to avoid overburdening people with the full show. In addition, this gives you the opportunity to evaluate the show at given intervals and optimize its setup. If you do split up the staff, I would recommend having one experienced person from the first series of events carry on into the second series, or having some staff from the second event series attend the last of the first series. This will ensure continuity and carry-over of event expertise.
As far as staff scheduling is concerned, I try to be mindful of people’s families and never ask them to spend the weekend away from home. This policy precludes the scheduling of any Friday afternoon or Monday morning events (to allow for staff travel time). But given that these times are usually not conducive for catching clients at the office anyhow, it’s rarely an issue.
During downtime, it’s nice to schedule some common activities for your staff, especially at the beginning of a road show. Take them out to dinner or organize a shopping trip or a comedy-club outing — whatever fits with the personality of your team and organization. This gives everyone a chance to bond with one another in a less formal setting. But don’t crowd their schedule with common activities. The road show may take them to places they haven’t visited before, so allowing them some free time to sightsee and shop on their own will be appreciated.
While it may be tempting to ask team members to make their own travel arrangements, it’s usually not a task that anyone enjoys. And it can quickly lead to logistical headaches like inconsistent travel dates or too-early return flights. Instead, have a professional travel company make all of your reservations for travel and accommodations. They are the experts and can secure good corporate discounts. They can also offer 24-hour support, and sort through any on-the-road snafus or last-minute changes.
Finally, if possible, avoid asking people to share accommodations. While double-up room assignments can indeed save you a bundle, there
can be privacy concerns. It’s one of the most common complaints I’ve heard from event staff. And by avoiding roommate “snoring fatigue,” your staff will be refreshed and ready for action the next morning.
 Nicky Csellak-Claeys,
global senior marketing
communications director,
integrated marketing communications, domestic
appliances, Philips Electronics, Amsterdam
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look for the
trade show pros
Before you assume that members of your marketing and sales team know how to interact with guests at a mobile-marketing event, consider their current roles. Do they typically spend months cultivating relationships and educating prospects in order to close new sales? If so, they may not be right for a fast-paced mobile program. You need to find people who can speak knowledgeably and get to the point quickly because unlike your typical sales cycle, the demands of a mobile program require staff to gauge interest, qualify leads, and answer customer questions in a much more compressed timeframe.
Look for those who have successfully worked at trade shows for your company, for example.
In terms of scheduling, are your sales and marketing staff going to be responsible for their “regular” jobs while on the road? Will they be expected to continue following up with prospects already in the pipeline, making calls, scheduling meetings with existing customers, filing sales reports, and sending out literature? If so, minimize their time away from the home office. Otherwise, you run the risk of spreading staff too thin, and performance of their day-to-day duties and their road-show responsibilities will suffer, making your mobile program likely to skid off the road. A good compromise is to schedule personnel only in the territories/sales regions where they are already assigned, and where they already know your prospects and customers.
Cycling staff is a good idea. I recommend overlapping staff rotations to avoid entire team swap-outs at any one time. At a minimum, always leave a few seasoned staff behind after every team transition. They’ll be best equipped to educate the incoming team and make sure they hit the ground running.
Finally, if your mobile program will be traveling to customer sites, engage your customers in the planning. They will have good ideas regarding the best places to stay and will appreciate being asked. If staff will be in one city for several days, book a suite-type hotel with a separate living area and small kitchenette, and make sure the hotel has exercise and laundry facilities.
 Cheryl Kohs,
vice president,
PCGCampbell, Detroit
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Consider long-term
contractors
You might want to rethink your supposition that only internal employees should man your mobile campaign. It takes a unique personality to happily remain on the road for weeks or months at a time. In our case, we found that asking employees who are used to working in an office environment to leave the workplace and become fulltime road warriors for several months wasn’t the right solution.
Instead we hire independent contractors for our Olympus On-Site tour, which travels the country for approximately 40 weeks each year. We tour with high-end medical and diagnostic equipment that costs tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Thus, we invest heavily in finding the right people, following the exact same hiring and screening procedures as for a permanent employee. Our event company, emg3, looks for people who have previous mobile marketing experience, enjoy life on the road, and are reliable, trustworthy, and responsible. Candidates also need to have great personalities and be able to hold sophisticated, high-level conversations with both our sales team and our customers. Finally, they need to be comfortable with technology and capable of learning quickly. Once we find the right people for the job, we bring them in-house for several weeks to conduct comprehensive company and product training.
Each year, we hire four full-time staffers to man the Olympus On-Site campaign full time for five to eight months. Two handle logistics, and two are brand ambassadors.
Finally, whether you hire outside contractors or decide to staff your tour with your own employees, don’t forget what a tough job these people have, and take pains to show your appreciation for what they do and make them feel important. For example, we give tour staff Olympus digital cameras as thank-you gifts, and invite them when we can to our headquarters to meet with our staff.
David Willard,
director, marketing and community services,
Olympus America Inc.,
Center Valley, PA
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