This is the practical part that will go well if you've done your preparation thoroughly.

1. Sift the wheat from the chaff

You get a lot of time-wasters at exhibitions, so how do you stop them clogging up your stand, and worse, keeping you from talking to the serious customers?

This is another advantage of hiring an actor or entertainer. If your front guy is scripted to do their job properly, they will quickly sift the wheat from the chaff. They'll have a ten or 20- second routine to find out whether someone is just there to gawp or is genuinely interested in the product or service.

Why an outsider? Couldn't you or your own well-trained staff do a better job? The answer's an emphatic no, because front guys, especially entertainers, have no hang-ups about making fools of themselves. They can ask the direct question, 'Are you here to buy XYZ supersonic widgets?' without any embarrassment - it's all part of the scripted act.

2. Keep the momentum up

It's vital to keep the production line rolling on your stand. 'You need to keep a disciplined flow,' says Arnanda Fone. If you have a lot of traffic, it puts people off if they're kept waiting.

How long are people prepared to queue to talk to you? Probably only 30 seconds at an exhibition - there are all the other stands they can go to instead.'

Amanda suggests you could get round this problem by having another sentry on the stand, one whose job it is to move prospects on from one key stage to another.

3. Tactics on the stand

It's good to have several people from your company on the stand. It's grueling to man a stand on your own all day and keep smiling. Nothings more of a deterrent to visitors than one solitary, desperate, sales person pacing the floor. However, train staff to chat to each other always with an eye on the approaching customers. You don't want them to be so engaged in conversation that people don't dare interrupt them to come on the stand.

4. Grab the limelight

Here's how you can extract even more mileage out of a well-chosen 'hook'. 'We had a front man dressed as a skeleton on our trade show stand at Olympia last July,' says Paul Huttrer, sales and marketing director of Schuco, which sources and distributes medical equipment. 'He did a 30-second pitch to draw in the crowds, and then we moved people on to the sales staff. Before they left the stand, customers were treated to a parting Joke from the skeleton for that final feel-good factor.

'Later in the day we wheeled the skeleton around the show on a trolley, which helped to draw more people to our stand. We were one of the smaller companies there, and we were right next to Boots' huge stand, but whereas theirs was empty most of the time, ours was always full of people.'