Elen Steinberg is president of Toronto-based Show Promotions & Personnel, a national event marketing/direct sales agency that specializes in managing and staffing direct sales and intercept programs for trade and consumer shows, mall programs and special events.

Conducting direct sales at trade shows and other major events can deliver significant returns for a company. But when it comes to choosing an agency to staff and manage your event marketing sales program, you'd better be able to recognize the difference between a door-to-door canvasser, a food sampler and a high-tech whiz-kid, or the experience can prove both costly and traumatizing.

Recently, I spoke to a marketing manager at a major credit card company, who told me that after an unsuccessful six-month sales campaign at trade shows and events, they had decided not to undertake any more event marketing sales programs.

When I asked which events they had participated in and which agency they had used, the problem very quickly became clear: The company had hired a promotion agency with a great reputation for in-store consumer goods sampling - but which, unknown to the manager, had little experience in direct sales or trade show exhibiting.

Event marketing and promotion agencies are so varied in their specialties that it's easy for a company to choose the wrong partner. And when the initial event marketing sales initiative proves a failure, a company may end up abandoning the concept entirely, in favor of other direct response vehicles such as telemarketing and direct mail. In doing so, they may miss out on a highly effective acquisition opportunity. For when event marketing is working well, the sales returns can be astounding.

As when choosing an advertising agency, companies need to search carefully before settling upon an event marketing or direct sales firm. Not all are created equal - some specialize in door-to-door canvassing, others are food sample demonstrators, while others are basically modeling agencies dabbling in the promotion field. Given the vast diversity of choices out there, the best way to avoid costly mistakes is by doing research on any potential partner.

So what, exactly, should you be looking for in an event marketing/direct sales partner?

Obviously, the length of time an agency has been in business speaks volumes, as does its client list. A number of other important questions should be asked as well.

Does the agency specialize in a particular field or category? An organization experienced solely in the promotion of grocery products is unlikely to have personnel with the expertise necessary to staff a campaign for an Internet access provider.

Ask where the agency usually provides representation services. This will let you know what type of customer they are used to dealing with, and what type of logistical co-ordination experience they have. Answers will range from door-to-door sales to trade shows.

What kind of personnel does the agency hire? Some programs require nothing more than people with peppy attitudes, while others - the promotion of banking services, for example - require highly educated individuals with proven business sales backgrounds.

Some understaffed sales agencies will accept anyone who's willing to work on a commission-only basis, regardless of that person's suitability to represent the company or product. In a worst-case scenario, the result can be that a client actually ends up paying for bad publicity.

What about the agency's employee turnover? A high rate can be a sign of instability, or an indication of the type of personnel (students, most likely) that the company hires. Long-term personnel retention indicates a good relationship between agency and staff.

Ask about the agency's training practices. Are there dedicated trainers available? Does the agency conduct product and sales training on an ongoing basis, or do they expect the client hiring their services to provide all the training?

Finally, what kind of accountability based on sales and/or sales leads is there? If an agency is willing to have some of its compensation tied to sales performance, that signals confidence in its abilities to generate sales for clients.

Implementing a successful event marketing sales initiative can prove a complex undertaking - but finding the right partner will help make it a highly profitable one.

Also in this special report:

- Partnership's the name of the game: As sponsors crack down on budgets, event properties are coming to the table armed with research, evaluations and a new attitude that says "let's work together" p.B7

- They shoot, they score: Junior hockey enters the sponsorship big leagues p.B9