I'm in charge of putting together a team to staff our booth for upcoming shows. We've traditionally relied on salespeople, but a colleague suggested that I consider outsourcing some of the roles. That sounds risky to me. What should I be aware of before I make that leap?

It's great that you're thinking about booth staffing well ahead of time because, in my experience, many exhibit managers don't think about who they want to staff an exhibit until the show sends them the badge registration list. A lot of their time and effort goes into making sure the exhibit itself is perfect, and they sometimes miss just how important staffers are to the success of the trade show program. An oft-quoted industry statistic says that about 85 percent of an exhibitor's success hinges on the quality and performance of their exhibit staff. I always like to tell people that great exhibit staffing cannot guarantee success, but poor staffing can guarantee failure. The key, then, is to get the right people to fill the right roles, and outsourcing – or augmenting, as I like to call it – some of your booth staffing can be a cost-effective way to maximize your potential for success.

Many exhibitors rely only on their salespeople by default when it comes to an exhibit staffing strategy, which isn't always the best strategy. Let's say a company spends thousands of dollars to send 10 people from sales to staff a booth for three days. There's a good chance that a few of them don't really want to be at the convention, especially if it's over a Saturday and they're missing their kid's basketball game. Others might be tempted to spend all their time trying to connect only with their own customers instead seeing the big picture, which is the overall corporate brand.

Plus, it often doesn't make financial sense to take a bunch of salespeople who are making $150,000 out of their territories and send them to fill a booth. Many companies think that they'll just send them to a trade show and let them do their thing. However, by doing so you're taking some of your top performers out of their everyday role and giving them a significantly different job. And now you're paying travel expenses to keep them away from their office where they could be doing what they are already very good at.

Staffing agencies don't have these challenges since their reputations and bottom lines are dependent on delivering top-notch brand ambassadors who know how to deliver results. But before you sign on with a staffing firm, there are some things to consider.

Understand your options. There are different tiers of brand ambassadors that come at different price points. If you are not using an agency, you can hire hostesses/host direct for as little as $25 to $40 per hour. These people are capable of handling simple tasks such as greeting attendees and distributing giveaways.

At the next level, you will rely on an agency to supply engagers and facilitators who may cost about $40 to $100 (depending on the skill level needed). These brand ambassadors are the sort of people who will pull strangers out of the aisle and qualify them before deciding whether to hand them off to your specialists who can focus on giving deeper dives into products or work on closing sales. This tier also involves ambassadors who can facilitate demonstrations or run activations. You'll need to spend more time training these staffers on exactly the types of prospects your firm is looking for and teaching them how to field some frequently asked questions about your company and offerings.

At the top level, you'll have your specialists, which run the gamut from professional presenters to yoga instructors to actors who can deliver spiels while working off ear prompters. Prices will vary greatly depending on what you need, but expect to pay $100 to $150 per hour for top-tier talent. More extensive prep work and training is required because these ambassadors will often be the face of your trade-show experience.

Find industry experience. Unless you are simply looking for some basic greeters to work at a reception desk or check in visitors with appointments, you want talent that has extensive experience in your specific industry. This becomes more important the more complex or technical your product lines are because it will reduce the amount of time and money it takes to train the staffers. Take, for instance, the medical industry, which is what my agency specializes in. Trusting an agency who understands the compliance and legal challenges that pharmaceutical companies face is very important. Medical companies can quickly find themselves in legal hot water if some rogue brand ambassador gets even the smallest details wrong. Be sure you find an agency that can meet your needs.

Think outside the box. Staffing agencies are not your only option for finding the talent and expertise you need. One of the greatest resources I've found is a company's own retirees. I'm talking about healthy, sharp, seasoned veterans who enjoyed working for that company. They would have a robust understanding of the company/industry and a familiarity with the products in that field, so they require less training about the company itself. It's mutually beneficial for both parties because you're taking top-tier talent and giving them an opportunity to make a little money, travel, and remain relevant – often at a price point below market value.

On top of that, the retiree model allows you to have more control over who is in your booth. Even when you work with the same agency for multiple shows, there's rarely a guarantee that you'll get the same staffers for each event. That means you'll end up spending more time and money retraining the new batch of temps. There are agencies like ours that can manage this model for you.

Bring your own experts. I always tell clients they are better off augmenting their booth staff with hired talent instead of outsourcing it entirely. It's likely that you're looking for prospects who will have questions that only your own product specialists can answer. Those company employees still need to be on hand so that when a hired staffer gets a question that they don't know an answer to, they can hand the attendee off to the subject-matter expert.

Find the right talent. With today's technology – email, internet, texting, etc. – many potential staffers simply don't have the skill set to be effective on a trade show floor. Lots of salespeople spend weeks and even months cultivating relationships and building a rapport with customers. They don't have that kind of time at a trade show. You want to find someone who is successful as a quick engager and can qualify an attendee in a brief amount of time. Those skills are remarkably different than what a typical salesperson does in their day-to-day duties. So it's imperative to spend plenty of time finding both the internal and external people to fit your staffing needs.

The bottom line is that, yes, outsourcing some of your booth staff can be an effective way to both save money and increase the chances that your exhibit-marketing program hits a homerun. However, just like building a new booth, it takes time, effort, and planning to ensure that you assemble the right roster of all-star talent.