Our company will be holding one it’s kick off meeting where we choose 12-13 vendors who products we are going to feature/push throughout the year (I work for an industrial supplier). Our outside sales reps, customer service and purchasing teams all attend the meeting.

The meeting format is featured presentations from 2-3 vendors in the morning, followed by a mini-trade show, lunch and individual planning sessions in the afternoon.

The trade show is meant to feature products and the planning session is where the vendor reps and outside sales person and their customer service person to set goals and figure out which customers would benefit from the product.

Now, here is the problem. During the trade show last year, the outside sales team took it very seriously and made good use of the time. A majority of the customer service team, however, did not. They rushed through the booths and spent the rest of the time gossiping.

I need to come up with some ways to get them interested, engaged and excited about the trade show (and whole day really). One thing I’ve come up with is to have each vendor submit a question and then make a “trade show quiz” which would force everyone to actually look at the booths/products for the answer. Then completed and correct quizzes will be submitted for a drawing for gift certificates, etc. The other idea I had is to request the vendors have more hands on demonstrations. Besides that, I’m tapped out. Any suggestions?

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Jay’s Answer: Remember the Groucho Marx show, “You Bet Your Life”? Each show featured a secret word, that when spoken by the guest, rewarded them with cash.

Before the trade show, have each vendor pick a word (or phrase) that’s their secret word. The vendor should pick a word that involves the benefit or problem that the vendor’s product solves. Now the game is that each team goes through the booths, and has to engage each vendor with an actual conversation to help figure out the secret word. If, after 5 minutes, the word doesn’t come up, they still get the prize ticket. The point is, they have to think smart about the product to discern the benefit/problem or they have to converse (and possibly not be able to visit all the booths).

The team that collects the most prize tickets wins a tangible prize: cash, iPods, dinner gift certificates, bottles of wine, etc.

A quiz tends to be too focused: I ask the vendor for their answer, and go to the next vendor.